Dancing with the Stars: Lucky 7

So last night, after the entertaing, aerial-filled group rock & roll routine involving all the couples, Len Goodman exclaimed, "this is the most exciting season yet."

Well, I don't know about that, but I'd say that, top-to-bottom, this is the most well-rounded group contestants. There are seven contestants remaining, and they each performed a different dance last night (I liked that). I'm going to break each of them down, from least likely to most likely to win, because I think they all have a chance to win, except of course for my pick to go home Tuesday night...

7. Jane Seymour: It's not her fault that she's in her late fifties and can't really pull off a fast-paced jive. I knew one week, she was going to be required to be something other than elegant, and it happened last night. Although the judges told her her jive was too boring and slow in the nicest possible way, I think she'll end up going home. Maybe it would've helped if her partner Tony Dovolani didn't bring up the whole "was it a lift" scandal every chance he got."

6. Marie Osmond: She was my "most improved" for a few weeks in a row, but then fell off (figuratively and literally), and delivered a tentative paso doble that rivaled Jane's jive in slowness. It seems like she's hit a wall in her progress, but I think she has at least one more good week in her, which we'll get to see next week because I think she'll be able to squeeze a few more votes out of the fainting to get her there.

5. Jennie Garth: She's my new most improved, and her biggest problem is her crippling fear of performing. Which is a shame because her and Derek's mambo was the most entertaining routine last night (nice job on the choreography Derek). She's this year's Ian Ziering, the 90210 alum who can't get out of their own way to win, which is a shame because she's gotten really good.

4. Cameron Mathison: This is also a shame, because I think he's been better than Helio the last few weeks. That's even taking into account their weird Pocahontas-themed samba (?!) that looked more like a tribal dance than a ballroom dance. Bruno, Len and I thought it was a misfire, Carrie Ann was the only one that got it. Still, although Cameron is the hot soap star, it still seems like Helio is considered more the ladies' man, grabbing that coveted voting demographic. There's also the fact that I generally know who people are, and I had no idea who this guy was a month ago.

3. Sabrina Bryan: This is the biggest shame of all, because she is CLEARLY the best dancer in the competition. Her not making it to the finals was solidified in my mind by her fox trot last night, which wasn't mind-blowing, but certainly didn't deserve the weak 25 the judges gave her. She's obviously held to a different standard than the others, and that's fine, because she has more natural ability. Unfortunately, that's gonna stop her from winning, the same way it stopped Mario Lopez and Joey Fatone from winning. We like people on this show who are good, but not TOO good.

2. Helio Castroneves: There's no way his cha cha cha was the second-best dance of the night. His footwork is ok, but 72% of his performance is just smiling really big. Last night he was pretty good, but at times (last night included) he seems a bit awkward, which is to be expected since, as he pointed out, he's the only non-entertainer left in the competition. This was followed by an awkward silence from Samantha Harris. Good times.

1. Mel B (pictured, right): Yes, I wanna crown her ass, so I'm going to. Mel and Maks have been my favorite couple overall all along, but now their dancing has become good enough that I believe they will win this competition. Her rumba was tres lovely (though I wouldn't go so far as to say it was perfect) and, more importantly, they consistently deliver the most entertaining rehearsal footage and backstage interviews. Don't underestimate the Maksim factor either. People are also voting for the pro dancers, and though Maks' massive ego was a major turnoff for some at first, we've all grown used to it and now we love it.

So who do you think is going home tonight? Are the judges being too hard on Sabrina or just hard enough? Finally, since I never watch the results show, can you please explain to me why Barry Manilow keeps popping up everywhere?