In a bid to ramp up the suspense and excitement of results night, DWTS introduced the first-ever dance duel between the two lowest scoring couples on the leader board. Gavin Degraw and Jaleel White faced off with cha-cha routines they had learned only hours earlier. Jaleel was the hands-down winner, capturing the votes of all three judges. Gavin graciously accepted defeat.
Of course this means that Gavin's professional partner, Karina Smirnoff, is also out of the competition. She was the Mirror Ball champion last season so getting cut this time at the halfway mark must be a real disappointment for the talented dancer. (As a side note, does Gavin always wear hats because he's going bald at 35? That's our guess. We found some pictures of him hatless in Seattle and he definitely has a receding hairline. And none of those pictures showed the back of his head. Hmmm. Our style tip: Shave your head, Gavin, and rock the bald look that's totally in with the ladies right now!)
Gavin's departure leaves 8 stars to continue competing. We're delighted that Gladys Knight is among them. As we noted yesterday, next week is Motown Week and it would have been a shame to have Gladys miss that. What's interesting is that critics all over the web, even those who are typically the snarkiest, have been giving Gladys kind reviews in spite of the fact that at 68 she isn't remotely capable of the pyrotechnics the younger contestants have been displaying. For example, Kate Mulgrone wrote on the MSN Reality TV blog post that "Gladys can't pull off the same fireworks we're seeing from the leaders of the pack, but her samba had its own special magic." Kelly Hanelt, a staff reporter at Annenberg Digital News, gushed "Gladys sparkled like a mermaid in her short, short skirt, looking genuinely ageless."
