‘Dancing With The Stars’ Switch-Up Partnerships Revealed: Which Celebrities And Pros Are Together In Week 5?
The infamous switch-up week is coming up on Dancing With the Stars, and the new pairings have just been announced. This is the third season where DWTS has done this temporary switch, and it always generates a lot of buzz, both positive and negative. Which celebrities will be dancing with which pros in Week 5 of Season 21?
As People details, the Dancing With the Stars switch-up pairings are now official. DWTS fans voted like crazy for their favorite temporary combinations, but many would say that there are a couple of surprising pairings in the mix. Will these new couples flourish or falter when they take to the dance floor in the October 12 episode?
The Dancing with the Stars switch-up week couples are revealed! http://t.co/u6e00KF4GZ @DancingABC #DWTS pic.twitter.com/KUpkHaqK5P
— People (@people) October 7, 2015
Nick Carter will dance with Witney Carson in Week 5 rather than Sharna Burgess, while Bindi Irwin gets Val Chmerkovskiy for the week instead of Derek Hough. Tamar Braxton shifts to Louis van Amstel, and DWTS viewers will watch Paula Deen dance with Mark Ballas.
Hayes Grier is coming off a fantastic performance with Emma Slater this past week, and now he will dance with Allison Holker in the switch-up. Allison’s regular partner, Andy Grammer, shifts to Sharna Burgess, and Carlos PenaVega will dance with Lindsay Arnold.
https://instagram.com/p/8i0doiD0Ze/?taken-by=dancingabc
Carlos’ wife, Alexa PenaVega, dances with Derek Hough instead of Mark this coming week, and many viewers will be excited to see Alek Skarlatos dance with Emma Slater. The scores and fan votes from both Weeks 4 and 5 will be combined to determine the celebrity eliminated at the end of the Week 6 show.
These new partnerships are generating a lot of buzz, along with a fair amount of scrutiny. As those over at PureDWTS note, at least a couple of these pairings raise some eyebrows. Many Dancing With the Stars fans were definitely hoping to see Alek and Emma together, so that pairing does fit. However, the Hayes and Allison pairing seems to come a bit out of left field. There were many votes coming in for Hayes to be with either Witney or Lindsay, people noted, with little push to put him with Allison.
The pairings of Mark with Paula and Val with Bindi surprise a lot of curious fans, as well. Surely, many of Bindi’s fans were voting to put her with Mark, though the pairing of Derek and Alexa seems likely to have been legitimate.
There are a good number of DWTS fans who suspect that the producers manipulated the pairings for the switch-up week, though of course that is all speculation and nobody will ever know for certain. However, given that the voting is based on Twitter posts, many who analyze the hashtags have been suspicious about the legitimacy of the pairings in all three seasons of switch-up weeks. Regardless, the pairings are what they are, and there should be some interesting performances to watch.
Maksim Chmerkovskiy is back to guest judge again in Week 5 of Dancing With the Stars, and fans are hopeful that Tom Bergeron will be able to return, as well. Alfonso Ribeiro did a great job stepping in for Tom this past week, as Tom needed to be by his ailing father’s side. However, DWTS fans love their Tom and hope that he will be able to return this coming week.
Which Season 21 DWTS switch-up pairings are you most anxious to see? Which new Dancing With the Stars partnerships do you think might struggle with this change-up? Stay tuned for more scoop regarding dance genres and more as the Week 5 episode comes together over the coming days.
[Photo by Tibrina Hobson / Getty Images]
