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Viewers prove ‘Dancing’ no day at the beach

The judges voiced their displeasure after former “Baywatch” babe Pamela Anderson was sent packing on “Dancing With the Stars” on Tuesday.
/ Source: TODAY news services

“Dancing With the Stars” viewers sent former “Baywatch” babe Pamela Anderson home on Tuesday night. Anderson received a combined score of 51 for her Viennese waltz on Monday.

Erin Andrews and partner Maksim Chmerkovskiy, who also received a combined score of 51 on Monday night, joined Anderson and partner Damian Whitewood in the bottom two.

Niecy Nash received the lowest overall score during Monday's performance show (49 points) but was among the top three on Tuesday. Also among the top three were Evan Lysacek and Nicole Scherzinger.

When all is said and done, the season is quickly turning into the Evan Versus Nicole Show. And while Nicole is unquestionably the more skilled technical dancer, it's looking more and more like Evan might grab it away from her.

If indeed Nicole can't win despite her high skill level, why? Her first problem is that she has no way to improve. She was already a professional dancer when the season started, and there are no surprises left in her bag of tricks. The only thing the judges can ever find to take away from her is Derek Hough's unconventional choreography, and the audience certainly isn't going to suddenly be impressed when the choreography becomes more conventional.

It's not that the show isn't trying to leave her room for improvement. In fact, the struggle to hold down her scores has grown downright silly. Carrie Ann Inaba watched Nicole's waltz, called her the best dancer the show has ever had in 10 seasons by far and then awarded her … a 9 (as did the other judges).

Viewers probably aren't buying this "Nicole isn't any better than anyone else" narrative, however. It's very hard to win without momentum, and Nicole has no way of getting momentum.

Evan, on the other hand, started out strong and has been steadily improving. He had a surprisingly difficult time learning how to use his feet like a dancer and not like a skater, and he has very odd-looking ankles (on display during the group cha-cha).

Not only that, despite many years of performing choreography in the context of skating, he hasn't always hit the style dead on, as was the case last week when the judges felt he was too "lyrical" and "balletic." Evan's tango this week, on the other hand, received the first perfect score of 30 in the entire season — something even Nicole's never had.