This week Battle of the Blades featured "Viewers Choice" songs. Each pair had five songs that viewers could vote on, the song with the highest votes would be the song that the pair would perform with. Some of these songs didn't work all that well as skating songs in my opinion.The guest judge was Chris Nilan. I'll rank the pairs based on judges score.
In a rare occurrence, my favorite of the night was also the one that the judges ranked highest. Bryan Berad and Marie-France skated to "Can't Help Falling in Love" by Elvis. This was simply stunning. They made the skate into a waltz, and performed that. It turns out that this was actually the first song at Bryan's parents wedding. Everything about this skate was great. They got a 17.5 (out of 18) from the judges, and even that earned a few boos.
Tanith and Boyd Devereaux skated to Micheal Bublé's "Fever", one of the few songs that worked well. They earned a 17.3 from the judges. They both are such great skaters and made it look effortless.
Curtis Leschyshyn and his partner Elena got a really weird song, unless when you hear "Give Me Everything" by Pitbull you think "oooh that'd make a lovely figure skating song". Yeah, didn't think so. If you like watching lifts, this is the one you want to watch. Elena called Curtis a "God" when it came to lifts, she's now doing lifts that she's never been able to attempt before because she was never with a partner who could do them. Keep in mind, she has an Olympic Gold medal in this sport! They got a 17.2 purely for the technical difficulties of the lift.
Tessa Bonhomme and David skated to Kelly Clarkson's "Breakaway", again a song that actually works for figure skating, and got a 17.1. I wasn't a big fan of it, but she has such a strong following that I doubt they will be in any danger.
Cale and Violetta were in the bottom last week, actually they were in the bottom the week before too. Cale is a good skater, when he's out there I forget that he was a hockey player. Which means I'm always surprised when he's in the bottom. This week they skated to "Suddenly I See" by KT Tunstall. They were meant to have this incredible lift at the end, but were unable to pull it off. The skate earned them a dangerously low 16.8.
Brad May and Anabelle needed a big week after being in the bottom pair last week, being eliminated, and then saved. Unfortunately, Brad fought with his pics a few times during the performance. They also had a weird song choice "Electric" by Shawn Desman. They tied Cale for the lowest mark of the night 16.8.
Monday night came and Ron announced the first three safe pairs: Bryan and Marie- France, David and Tessa and Boyd and Tannith. This meant that out of Curtis, Brad and Cale only one would be safe. As the those three stepped up to the lights, Ron announced that the votes were so incredibly close between the 4th and 5th place teams that the accounting firm in charge of the votes recommended that all three pairs skate- it was just too close to call. This had never occurred on Battle before.
Curtis was first to skate, and did an even cleaner skate than Sunday. Then Brad took the ice, and the parts that he stumbled on Sunday he was able to execute. Until he threw Anabelle, he mis-threw her and she put her hand on the ice to steady herself. Last up was Cale, who were able to show the audience what the "big lift" was supposed to look like. He pulled it off. At the end of the night, the judges unanimously decided to eliminate Brad and Anabelle from the competition.
Next week the pairs will be skating to a Halloween theme. Last year these were great, if you want to watch one, watch this one with Shae-Lynne and Patrice!