"Dancing with the Stars" Recap: Season 10, Week 3 Elimination

We didn’t realize how much we loved Ms. Reba McEntire, the reigning queen of country, who was the guest musical artist on last night’s elimination episode! She looks pretty darn good for 55, doesn’t she? And the pro dancers seemed like they were having so much fun gettin’ their cowboy on during their showcase performances to Reba’s songs.

Much as we enjoy watching the stars strut their stuff, it was refreshing to see the grade-A ballroom dancers dominate the dance floor last night. Chelsie Hightower and Derek Hough’s steamy paso doble, in particular, was mind-blowingly hot. (We had flashbacks to Chelsie’s awesome Argentine tango with Joshua Allen on Season 4 of “SYTYCD”–choreographed by none other than Dmitry Chaplin, now also performing on “DWTS”! It’s a small dance world.) A bit of ballroom trivia: Did you know that injured pro Mark Ballas, who played the sick flamenco guitar music that accompanied the paso doble, and Derek, who strummed a few bars himself before hitting the dance floor, have a band together, Ballas Hough?? Talk about multitalented!

As for the stars: Buzz Aldrin and Ashly Costa, Jake Pavelka and Chelsie Hightower and Kate Gosselin and Tony Dovolani ended up in the bottom three. We were positive, at that point, that it was Kate’s week to go home. But then it was announced that Kate–KATE!–was safe. The crowd was shocked, and so were we. Seriously: WHO IS VOTING FOR THIS WOMAN?? We’re beginning to lose faith in America…or at least the “DWTS” voting process. (Do you agree with us? Let us know!)

Aaaaanyhoo, it turns out that it was actually Buzz’s week to hang up his dancing shoes. Sadface! We do love Buzz, though it’s undeniable that ballroom isn’t really his thing. But we loved his goodbye speech: “I did this show for the fighter pilots out there, the military people, and the geezers like me, who would just like to see an older person come back week after week. But I’m interested also in having the public be thankful for the great successes that we had from the Apollo program, and look forward to even greater successes in our future space programs.” Buzz, you are a true class act. And your final dance with Ashly was adorable–it was like a father-daughter dance at a wedding.

Up next week: The “double score showdown,” in which each dance gets both a technical and a performance score, and the judges will specify various moves they want to see. (Could the theme have been inspired by this week’s Nicole/Derek quickstep-with-no-quickstep fiasco? We’re thinking yes.)

Check back next Tuesday for the recap!