After eight weeks of competition James Van Der Beek is still the man to beat in our “Dancing with the Stars” predictions for the Mirror Ball Trophy. He’s the overwhelming favorite with leading odds of 31/20, and he’s still the highest-scoring celebrity of the season based on the judges’ scores … but not by much. There are a couple of celebs within striking distance.
Van Der Beek has amassed 222 points from the judges thus far (not counting guest judges or the bonus points from the week eight dance-offs). That gives him an average of 24.7 per dance, or 8.23 per judge. And he’s topped the judges’ leaderboard four times out of eight nights of competition — fully half of the season.
However, Ally Brooke is close behind with 220 points over the course of the competition, which comes out to 24.4 per dance or 8.13 per judge. She’s sure giving the front-runner a run for his money on the dance floor, even beating Van Der Beek to the season’s first perfect score of 30 out of 30. To be fair, Van Der Beek got a perfect score for his contemporary routine a few minutes after Brooke got hers for her paso doble, but Brooke still got there first. Unfortunately, Brooke has landed at the bottom two twice so far after judges’ scores have been combined with viewer votes, so she’ll need fans to turn out in earnest to get her to a final Mirror Ball showdown.
Hannah Brown is right there with them, scoring 219 points this season to date, for an average of 24.3 per dance or 8.1 per judge. It’s a credit to her dance skill that she has stayed so close to the top of the judges’ season-long leaderboard despite a couple of difficult weeks fighting to come out of her shell, a setback she recovered from in a big way during “Dance-Off Week.”
Do you think those will be the final three at the end of the season? Who do you think will take home the Mirror Ball Trophy?
Be sure to make your predictions so that the contestants can see how they’re faring in our racetrack odds. You can keep changing your predictions until just before the next episode airs every Monday on ABC. You’ll compete to win a spot on our leaderboard and eternal bragging rights. See our contest rules and sound off with other fans in our reality TV forum. Read more Gold Derby entertainment news.
