For Dancing with the Stars's 200th episode, celebrities from past seasons rejoined the cast and either mentored team dances, or sat in with the panel and judged one of the new contestants. (Did you see our girl Erin Andrews sitting with Evan Lysacek and Jake Pavelka?) Sixth-season winner Kristi Yamaguchi helped coach three of the remaining dancers in a swanky routine set to Michael Jackson's "Working Day and Night," which would've been an innocent task if it didn't seem like she purposely picked the worst team ever.
When Kristi Yamaguchi and Apolo Anton Ohno picked three pairs of remaining dancers each for the team cha-cha-chas, Ohno smartly chose Jennifer Grey and Derek Hough as the first duo for his squad. Yamaguchi selected next and chose... Bristol Palin and Mark Ballas.
What. The worst team on the show? Really, Kristi? Are you just trying to make Bristol feel good? Because we've all seen that Wonder Years episode where Kevin gets to captain his gym class basketball team, and he chooses clumsy Paul first, and then Paul just ends up feeling (and dribbling) like a chump. I know you partnered with Mark Ballas during season six and won the competition, but that does not excuse inflicting Bristol on your unsuspecting team. And word: Apolo Ohno is no fool. When it came to the next selection, he snatched up Brandy and Maksim, the other great team this season. Yamaguchi rounded out her team with Rick Fox and Cheryl Burke (eh) and Kyle Massey and Lacey Schwimmer (meh).
But the joke's on me, because Yamaguchi's team scored a collective 24 while Ohno's team racked up a 27. If the Audrina Patridge Rule of Voter Randomness comes into play, that gap is not nearly enough to ensure that the one of the lesser-scorers will go home.
Here's Ohno's team's far superior cha-cha-cha. Seriously, Bristol Palin scored three fewer points than this. We're at the point in the competition where the judges are too tired to make sense.
Now let's all click ahead to see how the individual dancers fared, yes?
As for the individual dances, Jennifer Grey, Brandy, and Rick Fox tied for a three-way lead. But you should be most impressed with Brandy, who earned top marks even though guest-judge Gilles Marini opted to give her a "9" instead of the obligatory, we're-all-celebrities-and-we-all-love-each-other "10." In fact, that might also be sabotage. Downright Hitchcockian, these guest stars.
Here's Jennifer Grey, who recovered swiftly from last week's out-of-control paso doble.
And here's Rick Fox emoting like a ghostlier Sammy Davis Jr. and scoring 37 points.