DWTS Recap Week 4 – AJ Gets Larger Than Life With His Cha-Cha

And another week gone by! Boy did AJ know how to get the fandom excited. It was a long episode. Made to feel longer with what was probably a record number of commercials tucked in tonight. Now I’m going to give a bit of a warning before I go into this blog. I always write what I really think in here. I don’t lie and if I think something needs to be said, I will. So I’m going to be honest in here and if that upsets some of you, I’m sorry. But I do think it needs to be said. I love the Boys and I love this fandom. You guys know that by now but I haven’t let it hold me back before and I won’t tonight. Just keep in mind I want the best for AJ. I want him to win. I wouldn’t be pushing his run on Dancing With The Stars as hard as I am if I didn’t.

So let’s get going!

It wasn’t a “Most Memorable Year” week though every story and song did tend to tug at the heartstrings though AJ’s didn’t go as deep as it could have. I suspect that might come up later. The one thing I noticed is that they kept hyping up AJ to the extreme. Like yeah I was already excited but I felt like they were also using BSB for ratings tonight. Are they suffering this season? There was a lot of controversy when they decided to hire Tyra as a new host. It was just interesting.

One thing tonight that also got my attention was the scoring was freaking CLUSTERED tonight. There was like a five way tie for the bottom score. And the bottom score was only a 21. Basically it became a point of anyone going home. And it seemed like there’s just a lot of decent dancers on this season of the show. There’s a few people I think are going to go home soon enough, like Nelly who looked mad that he was called safe tonight. If you don’t want to do the show then, don’t do the show? I thought he’d be fun this season and he’s been disappointing. I think Chishell is another one who if she can’t get consistent will go soon enough. And definitely Jesse, which sucks because Sharna is one of my favorite pros but tonight he was so off time and stiff. I didn’t see any improvement from his previous weeks. He seems to be stagnant.

Nev of course gave another strong performance. Remember on an earlier week I asked if he had dance experience? Well in poking around some DWTS fan forums and sites, I found out he does. Like he was majoring in dance in college, he once planned to pursue a career in it. Similar to how Kaitlyn once thought she’d be a dancer. Why hasn’t the show mentioned this? It did come up in an Instagram story but come on, not everyone checks that. I don’t think it’s right to talk about Kaitlyn’s dance history, or AJ’s dance history but we’re going to completely overlook Nev. Most will think he’s new to this but he isn’t. He studied contemporary at one point. That’s why this is so natural for him. Just doesn’t feel right to not mention it.

Let’s talk about what was the strongest dance of the night, which was Skai. Like I said, she’s going to be strong competition. She came back tonight after a beautifully touching dance in tribute to her friend Cameron Boyd who died tragically from a seizure. Now I saw plenty of comments saying she was using this for scores and I’m sorry but this isn’t okay. She’s a kid. It’s the first time she brought it up on the show. And the dance itself was really good. Let’s not be petty and put her down to boost up AJ. Let’s not put down any celebrity to push up AJ. That’s not okay. I’d rather the fandom stay classy, you know?

But let’s move on to AJ’s insanely Larger Than Life performance.

All the Boys sent their well wishes to him which had me ALL up in my emotions. You can watch them on AJ’s instagram stories. They only showed Nick’s good vibes for AJ on the show. AJ talked about BSB and the fact what they have is a brotherhood. God I miss seeing all five of them together. I hope next year things will be safe enough that it can happen again. I wasn’t sure what to expect. They just said all five would take part. What happened? We had four literally LARGER THAN LIFE digital Backstreet Boys dancing with AJ for his cha-cha! Holy shit. Can I get them in my house? My birthday is on Thursday (October 8th), and that would be an epic gift. I was ALL UP in my damn emotions. Because I miss concerts. I miss that life. I miss seeing them perform. And the fact this all came together for AJ was SO DAMN WONDERFUL.

But, my fangirl within me aside…because I did in fact adore the ever-loving-shit out of that dance, let’s talk about his score. He got three 8s which I will say was absolutely fair. His cha-cha as was pointed out, was a little loose on the footwork. I’m not comparing Boys but if you watch Nick’s cha-cha and then AJ’s you can see the difference I’m talking about. He can perform the living crap out of a dance, it seems to be the technical part that keeps slowing AJ up. And I think it’s because AJ is a perfectionist. It’s getting him too inside his head! I know he can do better. I know he can be better. But it’s like I said above, I don’t think it’s right of fans to put others down to try and say AJ’s scores are unfair. They’re not. He’s getting better each and every week guys, and that right there is enough to be proud of. I do hope he gets out of his head. Tonight he was towards the top but so were a lot of others. A lot of 24s got handed out tonight and I worry if he doesn’t breakout he’ll get lost in the shuffle. He’s better than that. You’ve got this AJ!

Of course he was declared safe tonight, which means we’re moving on to 80’s Night! Did anyone else get visions of Sphynkter? Just me? I’d love to see a reference or an easter egg to that somewhere but I think it might be too BSB fandom niche for that to happen. Either way I think AJ will have a lot of fun with that. Fun is what I want AJ to have because I think the more fun he has, the more he’ll loosen up. Loosening up will definitely help his performances and make them seem more effortless.

The elimination was a disaster. Tyra named the wrong couple safe instead of in the Bottom Two and everyone got confused. But in the end while rushed, it got sorted out. Monica and Val were in danger along with Anne and Keo, and the judges chose to save Monica and Val. Not surprised. Monica while not amazing, is better than Anne. I wonder how much heat the executives from ABC will give Tyra for mucking that up though. Especially since she’s an executive producer? Hmm. Anyway, next week this blog will be late as I’ll be live tweeting the show on TDS instead of Gemma because it’s Canadian Thanksgiving! Should be a fun time for all!

I leave you with this week’s scores!

Skai and Alan — 28
Kaitlyn and Artem — 25
AJ and Cheryl — 24
Monica and Val — 24
Justina and Sasha — 24
Nev and Jenna — 24
Johnny and Brittany — 24
Vernon and Peta — 22
Chrishell and Gleb — 22
Anne and Keo — 21 *ELIMINATED*
Jeannie and Brandon — 21
Jesse and Sharna — 21
Nelly and Danielle — 21

Make sure you’re ready to vote again next week! We can never assume anyone will be safe!