After a season of some stellar — and awkward — dancing, season 17 of Dancing With the Stars is about to wind down with a two-night finale featuring Corbin Bleu, Amber Riley, Jack Osbourne, and … Bill Engvall! Yes, two underdogs have made it to the finals amid a lot of controversy over the merit of Engvall’s dancing skills. Many dancers who had shown marked improvement went home long before they should have, and this week’s elimination of Leah Remini has outraged some fans and divided our own DWTS “experts.”

Kim: This has certainly been a shocking season on Dancing with the Stars. We’ve seen many talented dancers go home far too early, including Elizabeth Berkley, Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi, Christina Milian and Brant Daugherty, while a few of the underdogs like Leah Remini, Bill Engvall and Jack Osbourne have remained in the competition. What do you think about the audience’s remaining choices for the upcoming Season 17 finale? Do you think any of the four remaining couples have the Mirror Ball trophy on lockdown?

Chuck: At this point, it’s hard to tell WHO the audience is going to vote for or who will win. They seem to have forgotten that, while voting for their favorite performer, this is still a dance competition in which the better dancer should be rewarded. If anyone should get the Miss Congeniality award, that would be Bill, but the mirror ball trophy? No.

KT: I’ve seen a lot of raging debates in the social media discussion boards. Personally, I think it’s been more exciting that no one has been safe this season. Most seasons you can make a fairly educated guess about who is going to make the semi-finals and the finals even if you have no idea about ballroom dancing or even the vaguest notion of who all the celebrities are in the competition. I also love rooting for underdogs – they are what this competition is all about. I enjoy watching people who didn’t have much dance experience improve week-to-week. They are inspirational in their own way.

CD: Yes, the show is supposed to be about people having little-to-no dance experience, so one of the debates is how fair is it to everyone else that Corbin seems to be a shoe-in. What people seem to forget is that his style of dance is NOT ballroom, which is all about the frame and the hold and the technical steps. For anyone who trains in a specific genre, re-learning all that is tough. He might have an advantage, but he still has to lose the swagger that comes with his training (and which had been pointed out to him earlier in the season). Perhaps the previous dance experience also played into Elizabeth Berkely’s early departure, but it seems a little ridiculous to me to get a 30 for your dance and then be eliminated by someone who has the lowest score several weeks running. Jack is certainly the main story of inspiration now, and I am very happy that he’s made it this far. But there have been many stars who did show week-to-week improvement (like Leah) who deserve to be there over Bill.

KT: I’m surprised that Bill Engvall is still around in the competition at this point, but I’m not mad about it. Bill works just as hard as any other contestant and he obviously has a huge fan base with the Blue Collar Comedy Tour. Having a huge fan base means a lot in this competition – but it always has, not just this season! I get annoyed by some of the comments I read online. I say kudos to him for lasting and surprising everyone. Some of the others may have been better dancers, but I believe he puts a lot of heart and soul into it and he deserves to go as far as anyone else in the competition.

CD: Sorry, but I’m mad that Bill is still there. He’s a nice guy and all, and he works hard, but his performances are all over the place. This week alone, the first dance was not good, but he improved on the second. There’s got to be some point where the fans just say, “we like you, but you really have to go.” I mean, the voters got rid of Valerie Harper pretty quickly, and you’d think she’d have the most sympathy votes of anyone there regardless of how badly she was dancing. I just can’t believe Bill’s fan base can keep him there with such low judges scores. He really should have gone home the week Snooki was eliminated. Of all the “underdogs” who have shown the most improvement, only one of them is left. Leah Remini should not have been eliminated this week. I would have been happy had the four included her and not Bill. She overcame her biggest obstacle the last few weeks – her own self-doubt. It just bugs me that likability is trumping real growth and accomplishment.

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Well, can you believe we’re at the halfway point on Dancing With the Stars season 17 already? The new once-a-week format has made the time fly by, but I did notice that with this week’s show we’re starting to see a bit more padding to fill out the two hours than we had when the show was fully cast and had to zip along to cram everything in. They really should cut the show back to 90 minutes at this point like they used to do back in the earlier seasons. But I guess it’s easier for ABC to fill two hours rather than trying to find a new half-hour show to fill the gap between DWTS and Castle.

But, now that we are at the halfway point, it’s time for Kim and I to make some predictions and look back at our original post to see if anyone we had high hopes for has left the building prematurely (and I can safely say the answer to that one is yes).

CD: I have to say, the level of dancing on this week’s show was superb all around. We got our first perfect score courtesy of Elizabeth and Val, and more tens were flying around as well. And, as Tom Bergeron said, Len was quite the enigma this week. I don’t know if he has it out for Amber Riley, but this is the second week in a row he’s given a much lower score than Bruno or Carrie Ann.

KT: But you’ve got to admit that Len is always a little bit harder on Derek Hough (and indirectly his partner) than some of the other professional dancers. Either Derek is a golden god in his eyes or he falls from grace nearly every week. It’s a lot of pressure on Derek to constantly outdo himself with his choreography and always allow his partner to shine to her full potential while pleasing Len’s scrutiny! However, I think it’s that dynamic between Derek and Len and the high standards Len holds Derek to that are just some of what keeps me invested in watching this show week-to-week.

CD: And Derek did win an Emmy, so the pressure is even higher on him now! I have to ask now if your opinion of Snooki has changed now that you’ve seen her in action. Carrie Ann said she’s the most improved of anyone this season, and I have to say she looked simply elegant gliding across the dance floor this week. I think week-to-week she’s turned in consistently good dances and she’s shown a real dedication in rehearsals, considering she’s flying back to the East Coast every week to be with her family.

KT: I would agree that she has been turning in elegant, polished performances week-to-week, but that still doesn’t mean I have to like or respect her. I know I should be basing this opinion strictly upon her ballroom performances, but I still don’t really want to see her make the semi-finals. Maybe I’m snarky about Snooki, but I don’t care.

CD: And what about Bill Engvall?! I don’t think either of us thought he would be here this long, and he obviously didn’t either. He’s been uneven, and I thought for sure his sloppy dance last week would have doomed him, but he puts his all into it and he was excellent this week. I still don’t think he’s going to make it to the semi-finals, but he’s gotten further than he had a right to.

KT: I love Bill more than I anticipated! He’s definitely not the most graceful dancer out on the floor, but he puts so much enthusiasm and personality into his routines that he’s hard not to like. I felt really bad for him this week when they made it look like he was going home and then did the old switcheroo. You could tell he was genuinely upset and that made me cast a couple of my votes in his direction this week.

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Well, it’s almost ballroom dancing time as the 17th season of Dancing with the Stars reveals the celebs feverishly working on their dance moves before the season premiere. In addition to the new roster of stars and pros, there is also another new twist to the competition this year – one show per week! There will be no Tuesday night results show (which I’ll miss because it was more of a music and variety showcase that just happened to feature an elimination), so it will be interesting to see how they handle the elimination week to week.

But before we get to all the competition and eliminations, fellow Clacker Kim Tibbs and I huddled together in our lavishly appointed CliqueClack Conference Room to have a look at the new stars and dish about their chances.

KIM: The first thoughts that went chanting through my mind when I read the Dancing with the Stars cast announcement for Season 17 were “Bill … Bill … Bill … Bill!” I am beyond excited about the announcement that Bill Nye: The Science Guy will now be Bill Nye: The Dancing Guy! I loved watching his kids’ program in the mid-1990s, and I especially adore a nerdy man in a bow tie. I don’t care if he’s the worst dancer ever featured on the program, he’s getting my votes as long as he’s in it! I said the same thing about Andy Dick last season too … go nerdy underdogs, go! You make the program far more entertaining in my book. My friends and I are betting he comes out dancing to “She Blinded Me with Science” by Thomas Dolby. As clichéd as it would be, it would also seriously make my day if he did. Who knows? Maybe Bill will surprise us all, as he once blew my impressionable mind with his science!

CHUCK: I definitely rooted for Andy Dick last season, so Nye certainly does seem to fill the nerd space in this year’s roster. I never watched his show, but I’ve seen him speak on TV and read some of his articles and posts online, so he does seem to be a pretty intelligent and compassionate guy. That compassion and pure likability may carry him on for much longer than his dancing will. But he could surprise us.

KT: Overall, this seems like a pretty stellar cast lineup this season. I actually recognize many of the names, which is not something I can always say. I cannot express enough admiration for Valerie Harper being added. I have adored her in The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Rhoda reruns all of my life and I find it so inspirational that she’s ready to compete not long after her brain cancer scare and apparent remission. Look at her recovering in style! She is also paired with one of my favorite dance pros on the show: Tristan MacManus, so she also has that going for her. She might just make it to the finals after all!

CD: I’m split on the name recognition, but I’m old so I know all of the older stars and few of the newcomers or athletes. And I am just so torn on the casting of Valerie Harper. Let’s get this very clear – I adore her and was so devastated to hear about her illness. She’s been such an inspiration during her ordeal, and I know everyone has been rooting for her (even if they all wondered if she would still be around by the time her Hot in Cleveland/Mary Tyler Moore Show reunion episode aired). I know she’s going to be an inspiration on DWTS to show that you can live with anything and make the most of your life, but I worry that people are just going to be tuning in to see if she crumbles under the strain. It’s tough on the healthiest of people to learn these dances week after week, so I hope it just doesn’t turn into morbid fascination for the viewers. And I love Tristan too, but why does he always get stuck with the older women?

KT: I must say I’m so excited about Elizabeth Berkley, a.k.a. Jessica Spano from Saved By the Bell, being part of the cast. Partnered with Val Chmerkovskiy, I think they will be one of the power couples to beat this season – if she can stay off the caffeine pills that is (ha-ha, I had to make a reference to the best Saved By the Bell episode ever!). She obviously has the dance experience, even if they were mostly stripper moves in Showgirls. She also looks to be in fabulous shape and Val has really impressed me the past few seasons for both his patience and passion. I’d love to see him win a Mirror Ball!

CD: Never saw an episode of SBTB, so all I could think about when seeing Berkley on the list was stripper moves. Which I’m sure will not help in any way with ballroom dancing, but you can bet at some point they will figure out how to incorporate a Showgirls reference. And maybe Gina Gershon will show up to cheer her on … or push HER down the stairs! (That’s a Showgirls reference, btw.)

KT: Another standout I will be routing for is Jack Osbourne, who is looking very svelte and handsome now, isn’t he? I loved watching his sister Kelly dance many seasons ago and I’m looking forward to seeing what the younger Osbourne can do on the dance floor. Jack is paired with Cheryl Burke, which seems like a departure from her usually being paired with the male athlete of the season. I think Jack will be one of the funnier contestants, along with Glee’s Amber Riley, who is paired with my favorite dance pro Derek Hough. I can’t wait to see what kind of choreography Derek throws her way!

CD: Wasn’t Jack diagnosed with MS not too long ago? I hope this season doesn’t turn out to be too schmaltzy now with a cancer patient and someone with MS. It’s great that they can make people more aware of these things and, again, inspire but I don’t want it all to become too maudlin. I watch DWTS for the dancing, costumes and flashy lighting, to escape for a couple of hours. I don’t want to be in tears every time I watch Valerie or Jack dance! As for Amber Riley, all I could think was “seriously?” Wow, you get dropped from a hit show and your next stop is DWTS?

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