Prior to the start of season 32 of the hit-show “Dancing with the Stars,” I wrote an article making my personal predictions for who would make it to the semi-finals and the final competition of the season. With the show wrapping up on Dec. 5, it is safe to say that the predictions were relatively accurate and well-informed.
First, let’s briefly recap the season and the eliminations and who we will be seeing dance in the finale.
The season premiered on Sept. 26 with 14 new couples prepared to battle for the mirrorball trophy. Premiere night resulted in the very first elimination of the season, comedian Matt Walsh and his partner Koko Iwasaki.
Week two, or “Latin Night,” was the first of the themed weeks this season and sent home actress Jamie Lynn Spears and her partner Alan Bersten.
The following week was “Motown Night,” which eliminated model Tyson Beckford and his partner Jenna Johnson.
NFL player Adrian Peterson and his partner Britt Stewart went home on week four’s “Disney100 Night,” which put a little bit of a damper on my predictions.
In a tear-jerking episode that featured a special tribute to late judge Len Goodman, actress Mira Sorvino and her partner Gleb Savchenko were sent home on “Most Memorable Year Night” in week five.
After “Monster Night” on Halloween, viewers said goodbye to real-estate mogul Mauricio Umansky and his partner Emma Slater.
Week seven’s “Music Video Night” led to the shocking elimination of social media personality Lele Pons and her partner Brandon Armstrong after a high-score and a winning team dance. I predicted that she would be competing in the finale.
The elimination in week eight’s “Whitney Houston Night” had viewers saying their sad goodbyes to Brady Bunch actor Barry Williams and his partner Peta Murgatroyd.
Fan favorites Harry Jowsey and Rylee Arnold were eliminated in week nine’s “Celebration of Taylor Swift” after holding on to the fan votes for nine weeks.
This left Ariana Madix (Pasha Pashkov), Alyson Hannigan (Sasha Farber), Xochitl Gomez (Val Chmerkovskiy), Charity Lawson (Artem Chigvintsev) and Jason Mraz (Daniella Karagach) to compete in the semi-finals on Nov. 28.
Thinking that they would follow in suit of last season and have six compete in the semi-finals, I predicted that Ariana Madix, Xochitl Gomez, Adrian Peterson, Lele Pons, Jason Mraz and Charity Lawson would make it. Still, I accurately predicted four of the five semi-finalists.
The semi-final competition left viewers shell-shocked when it was revealed during the elimination that all five couples would be advancing to the finals on Dec. 5. The reason for this has not been disclosed but for the first time in “Dancing with the Stars” history, we will see five couples competing for the very first Len Goodman Mirrorball Trophy.
My final four were Ariana Madix, Lele Pons, Jason Mraz, and Xochitl Gomez, leaving me with a three for five record this season. I am interested to see who takes home the trophy after the finale, though my instincts are telling me that Xochitl Gomez and Val Chmerkovskiy are the likely season 32 winners.
