Dancing With the Stars Week 7 Recap: Which Two Couples Went Home?

After Monday’s episode of Dancing With the Stars, I now have a moral obligation to work Good Morning America into my daily routine.

Ginger Zee might not consistently be the strongest performer in every Season 22 outing, and she might not be the one disappearing in a sea of confetti as she raises the Mirrorball trophy a few weeks from now.

But Dancing viewers everywhere owe the GMA meteorologist a debt of gratitude, after she and partner Val Chmerkovskiy salvaged an Icons Night that, up until their sublime Viennese waltz, was thoroughly mediocre.

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In fact, Ginger and Val’s routine — danced to a cover of Whitney Houston’s “I Have Nothing” — seemed to set an entirely new tone for Monday’s installment, thus making way for the first perfect scores of Season 22. Let’s recap the evening’s strongest and weakest efforts:

BEST OF THE NIGHT
Paige VanZant and pro Mark Ballas (Jive) — About halfway through Paige and Mark’s performance, I spied Carrie Ann Inaba leaning over the judges’ table, practically salivating at the number unfolding before her. And while I’m not typically a fan of Carrie Ann’s frantic babbling, her excitement was more than warranted, as Paige and Mark became a blur of red, black and fringe on the dance floor. Even though Paige wasn’t the only novice to score a perfect 30 on Monday, she is the only one who can master tricky choreography while committing to the new character she needs to play each week in the ballroom. Judges’ Score: 30/30

BEST OF THE NIGHT (RUNNER-UP)
Ginger Zee and pro Val Chmerkovskiy (Viennese Waltz) — Now that we’ve reached the seventh week of competition, it’s become very clear that Ginger’s strengths lie in those routines that are more elegant than badass — less Janet Jackson, and more Beauty and the Beast‘s Belle, if you will. Suffice to say, Monday’s Viennese waltz found Ginger effortlessly gliding across the ballroom, without even a hint of the nerves that her pre-performance video package suggested might distract her. Judges’ Score: 30/30

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MOST OVERPRAISED
Von Miller and pro Witney Carson (Salsa) — When it comes to this season’s trifecta of NFL pros, Von has undoubtedly been the most enthusiastic and/or most willing to humiliate himself for the sake of the number. (Exhibit A: Those Elvis sideburns.) But the Super Bowl MVP got his salsa off to a positively cringe-inducing start, as he half-heartedly gyrated in the center of the ballroom, before joining Witney for a fast-paced routine that turned out mighty clunky. Witney was right when she said her partner has “super-strong muscles,” but the performance’s complicated lifts — which Len strangely called “spectacular” — seemed to push even Von to his physical limits. Judges’ Score: 24/30

WORST OF THE NIGHT
Antonio Brown and pro Sharna Burgess (Tango) — Don’t get me wrong: I am so jazzed to see that Antonio is finally committing to the appropriate mood for each of his routines. Had he been flashing that dazzling grin throughout his moody, intense tango with Sharna, the entire number would have fallen apart. But I’m not sure his intimidating, stony-faced expression was the right fit, either — and when he and Sharna fell just slightly out of sync throughout the dance, a place at the bottom of Monday’s leaderboard seemed inevitable. Judges’ Score: 24/30

And now, the double elimination results:

THREE COUPLES IN JEOPARDY
Kim Fields and pro Sasha Farber
Wanyá Morris and pro Lindsay Arnold
Von Miller and pro Witney Carson

COUPLES ELIMINATED
Kim Fields and pro Sasha Farber
Von Miller and pro Witney Carson

Your turn! Did the right couples get booted? Which routines blew you away? Drop a comment below with all of your thoughts!

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