Dancing with the Stars – Season 20 Odds (Week 8)

America has spoken and now Dancing with the Stars is down to its final four for Season 20 with Nastia Liukin, Riker Lynch, Rumer Willis, and Noah Galloway remaining.

While it may have been sad to see Robert Herjavec and Chris Soules get the axe this week, it wasn’t a surprise. Both were long-shots following Episode 7. Herjavec and pro Kym Johnson were sitting at 35/1 to win while Soules and partner Whitney Carson were bringing up the rear at 40/1.

Here are odds on each dance team after Week 8:

Nastia Liukin (with Derek Hough): 1/1

• Despite his injury, a gimpy Derek Hough hasn’t slowed down Olympic artistic gymnast Nastia Liukin, who has been teamed with guest professional dancer Sasha Farber. Like an athlete who returns from injury in the playoffs to win it all, a healthy Hough next week could put the talented Liukin in the finals. Liukin remains a 1/1 favorite to win it all.

Rumer Willis (with Valentin Chmerkovskiy): 2/1

• “Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps” Week 8 will be remembered as the turning point for Rumer Willis and dance partner Valentin Chmerkovskiy. Despite being the last to be called safe in Week 7, the duo cast aside any nerves with two perfect scores. Wow! Willis leapfrogs Riker Lynch for second place in the odds and is at 2/1 (up from 5/1 last week).

Riker Lynch (with Allison Holker): 4/1

• Riker Lynch’s DwtS season could perhaps be best summed up with a Rocky-style training montage. Early on, Lynch seemed clumsy and ready for departure – a far cry from his talented cousins, the Houghs. Then Lynch put in the work – presumably while listening to “Eye of the Tiger” – and rebounded with two weeks of high scores. What a champ! America isn’t voting for him, however, which is why he was the last to be called safe this week. Hence the stagnation at 4/1.

Noah Galloway (with Sharna Burgess): 10/1

• After posting the second lowest scores in Week 8, Noah Galloway and his partner Sharna Burgess can’t be feeling optimistic about the final four. Still, this American hero has overcome so much to still be competing for the mirrorball. Plus, he seems to have the support of judges Len Goodman, Carrie Ann Inaba, Julianne Hough and Bruno Tonioli. Don’t count him out yet. He’s up from 15/1, due more to the reduction in number of contestants than performance.

(Photo credit: Ailura (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 at (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/at/deed.en)], via Wikimedia Commons. Photo has been cropped.)