Sabrina Bryan

For Halloween week Dancing With The Stars has the chance to go full on OTT and get away with it, however the actual result isn't as scary as you may have imagined, with the remaining contestants participating in a Country Week (still quite a scary thought though).

So the remaining stars - remember Pamela Anderson, Bristol Palin, Helio Castroneves and former boy-band-boys Drew Lachey and Joey Fatone have all been given the boot already - this week will be going head to head to see who has the best yee-haw and who can dance in a line with the best of them as the first round of dances will see the stars dance to a country hit, with backing provided by Little Big Town. LBT's appearance also marks the first musical guest of the season.

So what can we expect from the dancers? With the competition hotting up there's only so much the remaining pairs can give to mark themselves from the pack, now is the time to separate the men from the boys. Cheetah Girl Sabrina Bryan is atop the leaderboard going in to this week, and given her shock 2007 exit we might see her go all the way to the final this time round, but we can't rule out the rest of them just yet. Meanwhile fan favourites Emmitt Smith, Kristie Alley and the remaining Olympiads competing might have what it takes to go all the way, with Alley perhaps the most likely to fail should her batteries die out for good.

Continue reading: Dancing With The Stars: Sneak Peak At Week 6

Have Bristol Palin and Mark Ballas really put their bust-up behind them? Or are the smiles all for show? Mark Ballas has been pretty chivalrous, as he spoke to the press about falling out with Bristol, behind the scenes at Dancing With The Stars. Palin has hardly been doing well on the show – she’s not exactly a popular character and she’s scored pretty low each week that the show has been on. “We love each other," Ballas explained to People Magazine. "Sometimes people piss each other off. We've swept it under the rug and carried on. We had a rough day out of many, many, many days that we've spent together." Pretty generous behavior, given that she accused him of being mentally and physically absent from some of their rehearsals together.

Palin also accused Mark Ballas of wishing that he had been dancing with his former partners, such as Sabrina Bryan or Shawn Johnson, though he insists that isn’t the case, stressing that whilst he will “continue to support them… Bristol is my number one and I'll always be here 100 percent.” The media, of course, will be looking for the smallest sign of ongoing drama, though Mark insists that the row is behind them. “We're fine," Ballas said backstage after the show. "We've danced together before. This isn't our first season together. The last season we did together, we didn't argue once – nothing, we were just chill. So the fact that we've made it through a season and a quarter and this is now our first fight is amazing.”

Is this just a front from Ballas and Palin though? Bristol herself hasn’t been quite as vocal on the matter – though she’s hardly renowned for being tactful when she’s faced with pressure, so maybe the show’s producers are trying to make sure that Mark does all the talking. It will be interesting to see how the pair get on for the remainder of the series… for however long they remain.

Dancing With The Stars Season 15 had its first ‘9’ score last night (October 1, 2012), courtesy of girl band singer Sabrina Bryan. Her routine, with Louis Van Amstel, had the judges in rapture, especially Carrie Ann Inaba who said she’d never seen such lines of Dancing With the Stars before, according to People magazine. Bruno Tonioli awarded Sabrina 8.5 and compared her to Ginger Rogers, at the height of her career: “a true dazzler.” Len Goodman was equally full of praise for The Cheetah Girls star, remarking on her upper body control and legwork: “the hits just keep on coming,” he said.

At the other end of the scale was Bristol Palin who went home with the lowest score of the evening – a paltry 18, which was less than last week’s score of 19.5. “You were not in hold enough,” Bruno told her, as her Western-inspired routine failed to impress. Palin explained that she had taken her dancing partner Mark Ballas to a shooting range to give him an insight into her world but that sadly hadn’t translated into chemistry on the dance floor.

It was the second episode of the show and tonight, someone will be going home, in the Dancing With The Stars results show. One dancer unlikely to exit tonight is Kirstie Alley, who proved to the judges that her age should not be an obstacle to her progressing n the competition. “Age is just a number and you just proved that to us,” said Carrie Ann, whilst Bruno told her “Experience counts, and you showed it. You blended beautifully.”

The Dancing With The Stars contestants didn’t show any signs of slacking as the show entered its second week, reports CBS News.

The first episode of DWTS usually features an impressive bow: the stars having had three weeks to prepare their routines, but as the show continues, they only have one, which in the past, has caused standards to drop. But not this time; Olympic gymnast Shawn Johnson, Comic actress Kirstie Alley and Girl band singer Sabrina Bryan all delivered confident, sparkling performances to increase the pressure on their rivals. "I have something no one else can do, it's like my secret weapon," said Johnson, a gold medal-winning gymnast, using her considerable and bendy talents to her advantage. The quality now is astounding, and any weak dance will be punished quickly, as there’s no room for mistakes. Fellow Olympian Apolo Ohno put the pressure on sports stars competing to succeed: "As an Olympian, if you're not in the top 3, you're not on the podium," he said, before delivering a composed performance. "Speed with control," said judge Len Goodman. Determination, focus and hard work!" lauded Bruno Tonioli. “Someone put on his competitive pants today!” Joked Carrie Ann Inaba. It was a popular dance indeed.

Elsewhere, French actor Gilles Marini showed incredible synchronization, staking his claim for a continued presence on the show, and shaking off the effects of a strained hamstring, which was the cause of some backstage rehearsal drama. Next week the stars "will take creative control," explained chief judge Goodman. "We want eye-popping stuff".