Who will win the Season 22 Dancing with the Stars Mirrorball trophy? Five couples will compete in Monday night’s semi-finals, just one week before the winner is revealed.
The season started out with 12 celebrities and after eight weeks of competition, five are hoping to move on to the finals and win the Mirrorball trophy. Will fans see Nyle DiMarco, Ginger Zee, Antonio Brown, Wanyá Morris, or Paige VanZant be crowned this season’s winner?
SPOILER ALERT: Find out who went home on Monday night’s semi-finals below.
Here’s the latest buzz on who is favored to win and which two celebrities will be going home at the end of Monday night’s semi-finals competition.
According to ABC , the five remaining couples will dance two dances on Week 9 — a Trio Dance and an individual dance that requires the couples to perform a dance style they haven’t danced to this season. Host Tom Bergeron will then announce which two celebrities will be leaving the show and who will dance their way to the final night of competition on May 24.
Nyle DiMarco and Peta Murgatroyd, and Ginger Zee and Val Chmerkovskiy have been frontrunners this season and they have been very popular with fans. Although they haven’t topped the leaderboard every week, Nyle and Ginger have strong fan support, giving them the edge over their competitors.
However, there are some fans who feel that Nyle is getting extra attention because he is the show’s first deaf dancer and that Ginger has been given a boost from ABC because she works for the network as a meteorologist on Good Morning America.
Buddy TV ‘s Derek Stauffer states that the show “really loves to promote the network’s talent” and has an “invested interest” in having Ginger win because it would help Good Morning America become a more popular how.
“Ginger Zee, weather woman for Good Morning America , has been a good dancer, not a great one… the show edits her in the best light possible. ABC is really hungry to make GMA a huge success [but] there is way bigger talent this season than the little meteorologist who could…”
Despite the push for votes for Ginger from the folks at ABC, she still has to compete against Nyle who is a very strong contender for the Mirrorball Trophy. According to Romper , Zee will have to “out-charm DiMarco” if she wants to win.
Considering Nyle and Peta dazzled everyone, including the judges, when they danced in silence during a portion of their Paso Doble last week, they may be tough to beat.
There is power in silence. #DWTS pic.twitter.com/ayioKxTEZg
— Nyle DiMarco (@NyleDiMarco) May 10, 2016
Monday night’s double elimination will reveal the three couples who will move on to next week’s season finale. With NJ.com predicting that Ginger and Nyle will be two of the three celebrities to make it to the finals, who will join them and which two couples will leave the show after their semi-finals dances?
Ginger, Nyle, and Paige were the top three on the leaderboard last week. If votes from the fans are strong, it’s possible that viewers will see all three of them as this season’s finalists.
However, there’s always a chance that if a hefty portion of Pittsburgh Steelers star Antonio Brown’s 555,000-plus Twitter followers voted for him last week, he could be a contender.
It’s time to be heard, #SteelersNation . #DWTS #TeamBoomin
VOTE NOW: https://t.co/ArZ4fkSV4J https://t.co/Un9xA9ghe8
— Pittsburgh Steelers (@steelers) May 10, 2016
And Wanyá Morris? The Boyz II Men singer has been fun to watch, but after hitting the bottom of the leaderboard on Week 8, it will be a pleasant surprise to see him make to the final round of competition next week.
UPDATE: Wanye and Antonio were both eliminated on Monday night’s semi-finals. Ginger, Nyle, and Paige will compete in next week’s season finale.
Watch the Dancing with the Stars two night finale event starting at 8 p.m. ET on Monday, May 23, followed by the two-hour Dancing with the Stars season finale on Tuesday, May 24 at 9 p.m. ET on ABC.
[Image via ABC Television Network]
