Did The Underdogs Hang On Again?

Since this week’s unlucky celebrity went out dancing to old time rock ‘n roll, perhaps a suitable tune to describe her Tuesday night would have been “Bristol Stomp.”

It’s been clear for a month that fan favorites Bristol Palin and Kirstie Alley are not in the same class as the other all-stars in this Dancing with the Stars season, but concerns that they would keep on keepin’ on as former champs fell by the wayside were eased on Tuesday, as Bristol and partner Mark Ballas were voted out. Eight dancers remain in the competition.

The oldest daughter of former Alaska governor Sarah Palin made it all the way to third place in Season 11, billed as a “teen activist” for her work in promoting abstinence. A couple of reality shows later, Bristol was called a “reality star” this time around. She showed improvement over her initial DWTS effort, but still suffered from overall shyness and inability to really cut loose.

But she and Mark were skillful at pushing buttons that might appeal to her fans (dancing one week to “Redneck Woman”), and she had so far avoided the bottom group. But even though she finished ahead of Kirstie in the judges’ votes on Monday, her luck finally ran out – possibly a delayed reaction to her strange temper tantrum in rehearsal a week ago. Kirstie and Apolo Ohno, the two other lowest scorers this week, made up the others who were “in jeopardy,” so this might be an indicator that Kirstie’s days are numbered.

The typical results night filler was blissfully shorter this time around, now that we’re down to one hour on Tuesdays. But one moment is sure to have people talking on Wednesday: the shockingly awful vocal performance of guest Susan Boyle, who performed a duet with Season 9 winner Donny Osmond and sounded like a cat with a stepped-on tail for three solid minutes. Bad singing is par for the course for the DWTS house band, but Boyle, who is still not very experienced in front of live audiences, may have set a new standard for making ears bleed on the set.

The stars also selected teams for next week’s group performances during “Guilty Pleasures” week (the choices, naturally enough, were “Call Me Maybe” and “Gangnam Style”). The highest scorer so far, Gilles Marini, oddly chose Kelly Monaco/Valentin Chmerkovskiy to begin with, followed by Kirstie/Maks and finally Emmitt Smith/Cheryl Burke (Cheryl taken last even though she has been through more of these than any of the woman pros). Shawn Johnson’s choices were Sabrina Bryan/Louis Van Amstel, Melissa Rycroft/Tony Dovolani, and Apolo/Karina Smirnoff.

Bristol, who wasn’t chosen, would have taken someone’s spot if they had been voted off instead of her, but that’s now moot. She had told Mark she was worried about the selection process because she didn’t want to be picked last. Mark, who is tactful around his partner but not a complete liar, offered the opinion “Well … it could happen.” Indeed.

Next week, the usual two-hour performance show is divided into one hour Monday and another Tuesday (there’s another presidential debate Monday night), with no results show.

Are you pleased Bristol is finally outta there, or had you developed a soft spot for the young mom?