Fall TV Blog

Dancing’s final four contestants will hit the floor Monday night and, according to host Samantha Harris, viewers are in for a no-holds-barred semi-final week unlike any they have seen before.

“It’s anyone’s game,” Harris told PEOPLE Saturday at the Hallmark Celbri-Tree Holiday Open House benefiting Feeding America. “The competition has picked up so much momentum in the past two weeks and now it’s come down to the final four and the right final four.”

Season 9’s cream of the crop includes Donny Osmond, the last man standing, along with reality star Kelly Osbourne, singer Mya and model Joanna Krupa. The group arguably makes for the most even playing field in a semi-final round in the show’s history. And for the first time since season 1, there’s not an athlete left in the competition.

On Monday night’s performance show, each couple will dance an unprecedented three dances. The mere thought of that makes last season’s second runner-up, Melissa Rycroft, weak in the knees. (more…)

Staying on Target: Kelly Osbourne and her dance partner Louis van Amstel didn’t stay long after Tuesday’s results show because the pair had to catch a late-night flight to New York. “I’ve lived there for seven years and her parents are in New York, so we’re going to have a good time,” says van Amstel. Although Osbourne has a work obligation, which she committed before the start of the show, van Amstel says he plans to keep Osbourne focused and her distractions — such as her computer and phone — locked in a black box. But it doesn’t look like it will be too hard now that the couple has made it to the semi-finals. “I never thought we would get this far and it’s so close we can taste it,” says Osbourne. “I don’t care what it takes, I’m going to make it happen!”

Dance Fever: Singer Mya says she’s got her game face on now that she and her dance partner Dmitry Chaplin are entering the semi-finals. “I did not start training on Aug. 18 to get this far and say, ‘Hey, we’re safe.’ We are putting on our game faces,” she says. As she began explaining how they were going to start training like athletes train for the Olympics, her partner looked scared. “She brought in a [dry erase] board and she put the rules on there and started treating it as a sport,” he said, “like mandatory massage every week.” (more…)

Less than 24 hours after Susan Boyle performed on Dancing With the Stars, the soundstage was still buzzing with excitement over the 48-year-old Scottish singing sensation’s impeccable vocals on the Les Miserables classic “I Dreamed a Dream.” Boyle tells PEOPLE her Dancing experience was “very exciting.” Best of all, she giddily admits, “I’ve met my hero, Donny Osmond.”

Starstruck? You bet.

“It is quite something to be in Hollywood,” she explains. “This is a world I’ve never seen before and never dreamt that I would get to see.” (more…)

Aaron Carter had a breakthrough like few others have had on Dancing with the Stars: He arrived a teen idol but left a man.

“I grew up on the show,” he told PEOPLE after he was eliminated Tuesday night. “There were a lot of epiphany moments and I learned a lot from [pro partner Karina Smirnoff].”

He likened Smirnoff’s support to the way his father encouraged him.

“It was almost like my father a little bit because my dad … taught me so many different things, but the way he did it, he only had to do it once,” he says. “She did the same thing. When it came to learning something about me, she only had to say something one time.”

The couple bounced up and down the leaderboard, and their determination impressed the other dancers, as well as the judges, who praised his fox trot and samba Monday night. Even Len Goodman, who is considered to be the hardest to please, was moved to make some final words about Carter. (more…)

Dream Come True: As Britain’s Got Talent sensation Susan Boyle, whose first CD will be released Nov. 23, slowly made her entrance onto the Dancing with the Stars stage late Monday afternoon to pre-tape a performance, which will air on Tuesday’s results show, the crowd burst into applause. Boyle looked elegant in a black sequined gown, her hair coiffed to perfection. Despite battling a case of pre-show nerves, Boyle was completely in her element once the orchestra began playing the opening notes of her signature song, “I Dreamed a Dream” from the musical Les Miserables. Dancers Tony Dovolani and Chelsie Hightower performed an elegant routine to Boyle’s spot-on vocals. But because of a wardrobe malfunction — Dovolani’s bowtie came unfastened from his tuxedo shirt — they had to do a second take. Unbelievably, it was even better than the first.

Under Pressure: Mya and Aaron Carter have performed to huge audiences in their lives, but both admit that as season 9 winds down, the pressure has intensified. Mya, who finally broke through Len Goodman’s low-score barrier, says she’s not going to rest on Monday night’s achievement. “We got 10s, so we must have been really good. But now we have to work extra hard to maintain that,” Mya told PEOPLE. But first, she admitted, a celebration was in order: “My family is in town from Maryland, so we’re going to go out and eat and relax.” Meanwhile, Carter was so spent after his ’90s-style samba that “I was gagging,” he said, admitting that even though he looked calm and collected, “I didn’t get over the nerves tonight. They were there.” (more…)

For weeks, Mya has endured critique after frustrating critique from judge Len Goodman on Dancing with the Stars. If he wasn’t complaining about her routines lacking content, it was that they were too theatrical. But during Monday night’s quarterfinal competition, Len said his only disappointment with with her routine was, “I couldn’t find anything to criticize.” The singer and her partner Dmitry Chaplin opened the show with a bang, nailing the quickstep and earning 29 points.

Later in the show, the couple’s ’70s-style samba had all three judges gushing with praise. Carrie Ann Inaba called the performace “perfect.” “On fire!” Len exclaimed. “Your hips were hypnotic.” Bruno Tonioli did Len one better, bursting into song. All of the judges dusted off their number ten paddles, awarding the couple the season’s first perfect score.

But that’s not to say the other four couples slacked off. In what was arguably the season’s most exciting night of performances, as all five couples came out swinging.

(more…)

Maksim Chmerkovskiy and his partner Debi Mazar may have been voted off Dancing with the Stars weeks ago, but the pro has been keeping an eye on the competition and has a message for fan favorite Mya as the competition moves into the homestretch.

“Mya needs to step it up because she has been a frontrunner the whole time and now she’s kind of ‘pfft,’” he told PEOPLE Saturday at the 2009 Breeders’ Cup World Championships at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, Calif.

“It’s a marathon and not a race,” Chmerkovskiy says of the show. “We still have two more weeks to go and those are the ones that count.”

He suggests keeping an eye on the dancers who may not always be at the top of the leader board. “Someone like Donny [Osmond], who is staying under the radar will definitely step up,” he says. “Everyone needs to come back out there. Joanna [Krupa] was doing amazing so far, so I think Mya needs to get a second wind.”

Despite his take on Mya, Chmerkovskiy said he doesn’t have a favorite. In fact, “I don’t care who wins. I’m cool with anybody,” he said. “I just want the best representative for ballroom dancing to win.”

Chmerkovskiy’s reason, though, may not be what you think: “It’s important to me that whoever wins actually is the better dancer so that way I don’t have to fly around answering questions about how unfair the show is.” –Nina Tyler

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Dancing With the Stars pro Cheryl Burke may be headed to Broadway this winter, sources tell PEOPLE. Burke, 25, was spotted at the Ambassador Theater Tuesday night catching the musical Chicago.

A source tells PEOPLE that Burke is in talks to take on the role of Roxie Hart this winter in between Dancing’s current season and season 10.

“It’s always been a dream of Cheryl’s to perform on Broadway,” the source says. “She’s excited to show off her other talents besides being a good dancer. She’s been vocally trained and she has a great voice.”

Burke’s fellow DWTS pros Maksim Chmerkovskiy and Kym Johnson are definitely heading to the Great White Way this winter in Burn the Floor at the Longacre Theatre. Last summer DWTS host Samantha Harris performed the Roxie Hart role at the Ambassador.

A rep for Burke could not be reached for comment. –Monica Rizzo

Tell us: Would Cheryl make a good Roxie Hart?

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Pass the Luck: Before Aaron Carter performed the jive on Tuesday night’s dance-off, Kelly Osbourne ran onto the dance floor, gave him a hug and a good luck charm. “I said, ‘Wear my lucky bracelet.’ I wear my lucky bracelet every week,” she said, pointing to her beaded bracelet. “[My fiancé] Luke [Worrall] made it for me.”

Model Curse Broken? Playboy’s December covergirl Joanna Krupa is excited and thankful to be entering week 8 of the competition. “When I first got here, I hoped to get to week 3 because of the model curse,” she told PEOPLE after the show. It seems every model on the show has been eliminated on or before the third week. In season 1, Rachel Hunter left in week 3; Shanna Moakler was booted in week 2 on season 3; supermodel Paulina Porizkova left the first week in season 4; Albert Reed was eliminated in week 2 the following season; and Playboy model Holly Madison only made it to week 3 last season. Even Kathy Ireland was out early this season! If Krupa doesn’t leave with the mirror ball trophy, she’s at least proven that models can dance. (more…)

It was the second double-elimination in a row as former NFL star Michael Irvin and Iron Chef America host Mark Dacascos were eliminated Tuesday night on Dancing with the Stars.

Irvin, who improved his dance scores each week, says the voters kept him and his partner Anna Demidova in the game for seven weeks.

“We have great love out here,” Irvin told PEOPLE after the show. “The voters kept us in. We were scoring 13s and 14s. That makes you feel great!”

Unfortunately, he scored the lowest among the seven couples Monday night and didn’t have a chance to compete in the dance-off, which featured Dacascos and pop star Aaron Carter. The judges raved about both performances, but in the end, the judges preferred Carter’s jive to Dacascos’s cha cha.

“Would I trade the experience? Heck, no!” says Dacascos. “It was one of the best professional experiences I’ve had in my life!” (more…)