Our stars may be falling apart, but they still attempted iconic dances with their rightful partners restored.

Famous Dances Night has never been one of our favorites – we would rather the pros craft new iconic dances instead of rehashing old ones. Not to mention half the routines were jazz, with only two jives and a quickstep representing the ballroom of a ballroom dance competition. We’re much more excited for Team Dances next week, where it’ll be guys versus girls for the first time; just look at Mark’s wide-eyed face to understand how exciting this is. Week 6 began with “Putting on the Ritz” – which Tom claimed was “better than Young Frankenstein.” Anyway, the famous dances got mostly eights as the competition grew ever closer. It’s impossible to predict who’ll be in the finale.

Good news: we’ve finally started winnowing out the football players! One down, two to go. The couple eliminated in ninth place is… Doug & Karina! It’s no wonder; their dancing, while improving marginally, still was not up to par with the others’. This is the third-lowest finish ever for a football player, after Keyshawn Johnson (last place, season 17) and Michael Sam (tenth place, season 20). Interestingly, it is Karina’s fifth time landing in ninth place, after Floyd Mayweather (season 5), Rocco DiSpirito (season 7), The Situation (season 11), and Gavin DeGraw (season 14). The only result more common than Karina getting ninth is Derek getting first place, which has happened six times.

Doug and Karina went out on a somewhat high note, doing a Bollywood number to “Jai Ho.” Karina had a lot of fun learning the new dance style. She said it helped her abs, as if she needed it – but perhaps she noticed how very six pack-y all the guys were looking this week. Doug really suffered when put side-by-side with professional dancers; it made his mistakes that much more obvious. He got the only sevens of the night, but claimed he was finally having fun. Were you convinced?

Now, let’s welcome our stars!

First Place, 29 points: Wanya & Lindsay. All the boy band crossover fanfics came true when the Boys II Men singer recreated NSYNC’s “Bye Bye Bye”! NSYNC members (and former DWTS finalists) Joey Fatone and Lance Bass were on hand to offer Wanya encouragement – amid Lance being proud and Joey being a ham, there was actually a touching bit about Joey always looking up to Wanya. The number was crazy fun, and admit it, you did the bye-bye-bye move along with Wanya!

Second Place, 28 points: Paige & Mark. Per Tom, Mark finally found a dance to match his facial expressions! After a legal snafu midweek that forced Mark to change routines and even dance styles, he and Paige ended up doing the opening to Austin Powers. Austin Powers is the role Mark was born to play – the whole number was a good time, a perfect storm of Mark Ballas creativity, silliness, and raunch. Paige got to show off her athleticism with flips and a mid-air split. One would think this would most tickle Carrie Ann’s fancy, given that she was Fook Yu in Goldmember, but it was Len who gave the couple a ten after having been plied with birthday cake.

Third Place, 27 points: Antonio & Sharna. It looks like Sharna hit a nerve last week when she blurted out that she doesn’t think Antonio will win. Antonio, who has not given any indication of caring about the competition, was suddenly very hurt and betrayed. After a lengthy and excruciating interval of watching him attempt things like emoting and communicating (evidently not his fortes), we finally got the gist: he doesn’t want Sharna to admit he won’t win, however true it is. He even went for the low blow, saying Sharna should be rooting for them because she hasn’t won yet either. Well, maybe if she had a halfway-decent partner… Anyway, he closed the night with a hectic jive to Footloose that was overscored by the judges (they’re contractually not allowed to end the night on a sour note).

Fourth Place (tie), 25 points: Nyle & Peta. Oh the drama! Nyle tempted fate by declaring Val as his competition because Nyle’s better than the other contenders… it’s a very fine line between confidence and arrogance, and Nye slipped a little over it. To be fair, he is probably a better dancer than the other contestants, so he can back up his boasts, but he needs to dial that back or he’ll be voted off in no time. He and Peta did the quickstep from The Mask – which is doubly iconic because of Helio and Julianne’s version in season 5 (not to mention the zillion homages the show has done to that number in the seasons since). While Nyle still did a mind-bogglingly good job for not being able to hear the music, he slipped up a couple times. The mask, which they had no time to rehearse with, was seemingly designed to give Nyle some humility – limiting his peripheral vision when he relies on seeing Peta for musicality.

The judges lost no time in giving Nyle some realtalk. Len prefaced his by saying he’s gotten kinder over the years (which is actually very true). Carrie Ann expressed skepticism, leading Len to snap, “Listen, sweetheart, how many tens have you given out?” There followed one of the most glorious “oooooohhhh”s to ever permeate the ballroom.

Fourth Place (tie), 25 points: Jodie & Keo. We start with how unhappy Keo was after getting chewed out by Maks and Len last week, leaving Kim to sulk outside and refusing to talk to anyone. But he’s back with Jodie, and recreating the music video to Pink’s “Try.” Keo took the challenge literally, deciding to do the physics-defying lifts from the video. Honestly, those lifts were too extreme for a Week 6 contestant to pull off – I don’t know whether the fault is Keo’s for attempting them or the producers’ for assigning the dance, but there was some poor judgment exercised here. Jodie got injured attempting it, leading Keo to modify it. Jodie got through the dance, as nerve-wracking as it was to watch, and did a great job. The judges just seemed relieved Jodie got through it.

Last Place (tie), 24 points: Kim & Sasha. The dream team is back, and opened the show with what was our favorite number of the night: “You Can’t Stop the Beat” from Hairspray. It was so high energy, this writer made like Bruno and got up to dance too! Kim has a stress fracture in her foot and was instructed not to rehearse. But she declared that she’s had two kids, and begged Sasha not to change his vision for the routine. We love their easy chemistry, and she’s a real trooper.

Everything about the number was awesome, from Tony as Corny Collins (yes!) to Kim’s dress literally making her a checkerboard chick! Kim did a great job with a lot fo jive, and kept up with a horde of professional dancers. Everyone was duly impressed, including Marissa Jaret Winokur (season 6 semifinalist and original Tracy on Broadway). Everyone except Carrie Ann, who took her crazy pills and wanted higher energy. Bruno, acting for all of us, started righteously catfighting her. Kim said she could be a sleeper hit, and now we’re hoping for that too.

Last Place (tie), 24 points: Ginger & Val. Janet Jackson routines are becoming Val’s specialty. Ginger did a fine job, she kept up, and all the judges’ commentary was to that effect: well done on dancing competently, but nothing special. When Bruno waxed on about the need to “punch it” in Janet Jackson routines, Val ran over to be punched as a visual aid – such dedication to pedagogy! This is Ginger’s first time anywhere near the bottom of the leaderboard – just as a double elimination looms. Yikes!

Last Place (tie), 24 points: Von & Witney. Witney laments that she’s cursed during Switch-Ups, as she always ends up in tears over low scores. But she’s back with Von, who’s very excited about Michael Jackson, and does a decent job impersonating the King of Pop. We barely remember this routine.

Who do you worry for heading into the double elimination? Do you think the guys or girls will win the team dances? And did Nyle turn you off with his cockiness?