Reality Roundup: Oct. 18

“Dancing with the Stars” Season 33 Episode 5

The remaining nine couples on season 33 of “Dancing with the Stars” performed emotional dances on Tuesday for “Dedication Night.”

Seeing as it is midway through the season, each couple had a surprise visit from one of the judges during rehearsals. Judges Carrie Ann Inaba, Derek Hough and Bruno Tonioli gave pointers and tips to each of the celebrities.

The judges panel was also joined by three-time mirrorball champion and former pro Mark Ballas. Having Ballas was a huge step up after having Gene Simmons guest judge.

Disney Channel actress Chandler Kinney started off the night with a contemporary to “I Hope You Dance,” dedicating the performance to her mom. She and her partner Brandon Armstrong earned a 32 out of 40 after she was told to “dig deeper” by the judges.

Stephen Nedoroscik dedicated his powerful Argentine tango to men's gymnastics. He and Rylee Arnold were dressed in blue, dancing to “Seven Nation Army,” which fans can only assume was a reference to Penn State.

The Olympian earned a 33 out of 40, proving that he is taking every critique into consideration during rehearsals and striving to improve every week.

Next to hit the ballroom floor was Danny Amendola, who stepped up and showed out.

The Super Bowl winner danced a contemporary to “Unsteady” with his partner Witney Carson. He dedicated the emotional dance to his former coach and friend, the late Mike Leach.

This was by far the best dance of the night, earning him straight nines across the panel. Amendola is definitely an underrated celebrity to look out for this season.

“Comeback King” Dwight Howard performed next, dancing a rumba to “Shoot for the Stars,” his own song. He dedicated the heartfelt dance to his children and earned a 29 out of 40 with Daniella Karagach for the night.

Reality Royalty Phaedra Parks also dedicated her performance to her mom, dancing a rumba with Val Chmerkovskiy. The pair earned a 32 out of 40 as Hough dramatically broke one of his scoring paddles in half, protesting the unwarranted five that guest judge Simmons gave Parks last week.

Midway through the episode, Judge Derek Hough invited his wife Hayley Hough to the dance floor for an emotional contemporary.

H. Hough suffered through life-changing brain surgery last year, having to relearn everything. D. Hough shared that the doctors told him she would never be the same person, and that it was a true miracle that she survived.

The couple shared their wonderful story through an emotional and impactful dance, wetting the eyes of everyone in the ballroom.

Brooks Nader had her three sisters join her on the dance floor this week, performing a salsa with her partner Gleb Savchenko. What a dance to follow the Hough’s.

The judges seem to really be critiquing Savchenko for his choreography this season, giving them a 32 out of 40 as well.

Former Bachelor star Joey Graziadei landed himself at the top of the leaderboard again alongside Amendola with his Viennese Waltz dedicated to his fiancée Kelsey, whom he met on the show.

He and his partner Jenna Johnson earned a 36 out of 40 for the night.

After suffering a mishap and shedding lots of tears last week, Ilona Maher redeemed herself with her rumba to “My Way,” which she dedicated to her U.S. Women’s Nation Rugby Sevens teammates.

She and Alan Bersten earned a 32 out of 40, and the judges exclaimed their pride for Maher’s comeback.

Jenn Tran and Sasha Farber were the last couple to perform.

Tran dedicated her dance to Taylor Swift for making her feel less alone, dancing a foxtrot to her song “The Archer.” The pair earned another 32 out of 40 for the night.

It was time for elimination, as the stars lined up waiting to hear the results.

Howard and Karagach, Nader and Savchenko, and Kinney and Armstrong were the final three couples standing.

When hosts Julianne Hough and Alfonso Ribeiro revealed it would be Nader and Savchenko going home, the model’s face was nothing less than shocked. Savchenko then revealed that he did not think they would be going home, stating that he thought they were going to win.

Well, Gleb, the showmance didn’t work out in the eyes of the audience.

Episode six of DWTS will be everyone’s favorite theme: “Disney Night.” The eight remaining stars will dance to classic songs from Disney originals next Tuesday. - Sarah Gavlak

"Survivor" Season 47 Episode 5

The tension at Lavo camp is palpable after Genevieve Mushaluk’s big move last tribal in taking out Kishan Patel.

Jerome “Rome” Cooney is upset that his name was on the block, Christine “Teeny” Chirichillo is clearly on the bottom after losing their number one and Solomon “Sol” Yi seems to be lost on the tribe dynamics.

This puts Genevieve squarely in the best position in the tribe, with all three remaining tribemates viewing her as their number one.

A new twist was announced at the next challenge. The three tribes would be randomly divided into two teams, with the winning team getting to enjoy some cross-tribe communication prior to the merge… and a dry hot dog with no added condiments or toppings. This of course took place, as all rewards do in the budget era, in the Sanctuary, “where good things happen.”

Teeny was a part of the winning team, along with Sam Phalen, Rachel LaMont, Tiyana Hallums, Sue Smey, Kyle Ostwald and Caroline Vidmar.

The winners quickly began sharing their tribe dynamics.

Teeny shared that they are on the bottom of their tribe after losing their number one ally at the previous tribal council. Sam tried to shut down any talk of him and Sierra Wright being a power couple/showmance. Tiyana inexplicably called out Gabe Ortis with three of her fellow Tuku tribe members at the reward, including Gabe’s close allies in Sue and Caroline.

Rome quickly becomes paranoid back at Lavo camp and attempts to repair a destroyed (annihilated?) relationship with Sol. Rome shares not only that Genevieve does not view Sol as a long-term ally, but that Teeny has an amulet advantage they gained on their journey.

Everything Rome shared with Sol was true. However, Sol decides to talk to Genevieve about what Rome shared, giving her a chance to save herself after getting exposed. She adamantly denies everything and flips it back on Rome, framing him as a chaotic player who is lying to improve his position.

When Sam returns from his reward, he is quick to share everything with his Gata tribe aside from the perception that he and Sierra have. He shares that with her later after the two are able to talk alone.

Sierra is understandably frustrated that she and Sam would have a massive target on them should they make it to the merge together, and begins to question if the Breadwinners Alliance with Rachel and Anika Dhar is a better option.

Sue and Caroline inform Gabe about Tiyana throwing him under the bus, to which he is upset. Caroline tells Tiyana to apologize to Gabe in an effort to keep Tuku united come the merge.

While Tiyana ends up apologizing to Gabe, she lies and says she only told a few people about his idol play at their first tribal.

Gabe knew this was a lie based on the information Caroline and Sue told him, and decided he needed Tiyana out of the game.

The Gata tribe showed up to the Immunity Challenge with chickens they won at a previous reward. Because the chickens would not lay eggs and some members of the tribe were opposed to killing them for food, they negotiated with Jeff to return the chickens in exchange for 18 eggs.

Gata was feeling good after their negotiation. However, that did not carry over to the challenge, as they would lose immunity by a few seconds. On top of going to tribal, Gata also had to give up their flint, meaning they could not cook the eggs they just bartered for.

Andy Rueda was quickly deemed an easy vote by the Breadwinners after his poor challenge performance and emotional instability.

However, Sam had other ideas. He feels Andy is completely loyal to him, and would rather target Anika. He was worried about the Breadwinners, and it was common knowledge that Anika did not have a vote.

He would have to convince his partner-in-crime, as Sierra does not completely trust Andy and she wants to keep the Breadwinners as an option in the merge.

Sam also has an idol good for only one tribal council, which adds another wrinkle to their plan. The idol would have no power following this tribal, but keeping Andy while playing an idol he was unaware of would cause Andy to lose trust in Sam.

However, a third option emerged, which is what occurred at tribal council. Andy remained in the game while Sam kept his idol. This kept Andy from learning he was lied to and allowed Sam to potentially use his powerless idol as a bluff later in the game.

A shell-shocked Anika was blindsided by a 3-1 vote, and she refused to wish anyone on her tribe well on her way out, including her number one in Rachel.

Sierra must have felt a stronger sense of loyalty and trust with Sam than the two women, as many are questioning her strategic reasoning behind the decision.

Not only does it appear Sam is the one making decisions for the duo, but she has put all of her eggs in Sam’s basket despite them already having a target as a known pair. The Breadwinners Alliance, on the other hand, was relatively kept a secret (although both Sam and Andy knew) and would not have immediately been seen as a threat by the other tribes.

This also ostracizes Rachel, a player who was seemingly down to work with Sierra, after she lost her number-one ally.

Player of the Week- Genevieve Mushaluk, Lavo

Although Lavo was not the featured tribe in this episode, Genevieve was shown to be in as perfect of a situation as one could be in this game, something pretty unexpected after she was practically invisible the first few episodes. Each of her tribemates views her as their number one, yet none of them perceive her as a threat because they’re all more wary of each other.

She also brilliantly navigated what could have been a potentially game-wrecking situation with Rome outing her to Sol. She not only cleared her name but flipped the target onto Rome after outing her.

Genevieve will have to manage her threat level come the merge, which was hinted at in the next episode preview. However, she played about as good of a premerge as possible. If her merge game is anything similar, she is a favorite to take home the Survivor 47 crown. - Alex Perez

Sarah Gavlak is a third-year majoring in telecommunications. To contact her, please email sng5393@psu.edu.

Alex Perez is a third-year majoring in broadcast journalism who hopes to one day be on the show himself. To contact him, please email app5877@psu.edu.