Dancing With the Stars Finalists Face Tough Judging

And then there were three!

Three is the number of couples that are left as the finals of Dancing With the Stars starts tonight.  It's not much of a surprise that Ricki and Derek and J.R. and Karina have made it this far, but early on in the season, who would've predicted Rob and Cheryl would still be dancing?

Two dances tonight including the freestyle.  The show is only one-hour tonight so there won't be much wasted time.

Ricki and Derek are up first tonight after being perfect last week.  They get a cha cha and she wants to make it real sexy.  I think Ricki really turned it up a notch with this performance.  The only criticism was that it lacked a little fluidity.  Ricki gets a 27.

Rob Kardashian and Cheryl are next on.  Rob had a great week last week and he will need to do at least that good this time around.  Their first dance is the waltz.  A nice dance, but Bruno talked about his posture and footwork.   Rob scores a 27 as well.

J.R. and Karina are third.  Len gave J.R. some pointers heading into the finals and it appears his ankle is doing better.  Their routine was high energy, but I think he has done better.  Carrie Ann said he was a little off to the music and Len thought his timing was off.  J.R. earns a 24 out of 30.

The second dance tonight is the freestyle.  This might be the dance that determines the winner of the season.  

Derek and Ricki lead off the freestyles.  Derek looks like he is going to pull out all the stops here.  It was hot and energetic.  Lots of flips and lifts and the crowd loved it.  Derek made a tough dance look effortless and they scored another 27.

Here we go with Rob and Cheryl.  Cheryl wants to start out with a slow dance then pick up the pace at the end.  A tough dance and the judges loved it.  He gets a perfect 30.

J.R. is the last one on.  At this point in the competition J.R. and Karina are both tired.  This was a tough dance, lots of action.  Nonstop movement from the start of the music.  The judges loved it and they get a 30.

The two-hour finale is tomorrow.  Lady Antebellum performs.