Halloween is months away, but that hasn’t dissuaded Dancing with the Stars from staging a Fright Night-themed episode – where the real horror is reserved for Aishah Akorede, who becomes the latest celebrity to be eliminated and so misses out on next week’s final.
It’s a tough last twist for the likable former Miss Universe Ireland, who uses her big exit to talk about her experience with sickle-cell disease, which can cause tiredness and shortness of breath. “I hope people can look at my journey – you can keep going,” she says, flanked by her pro partner, Robert Rowinski.
It’s hard to overlook the randomness of staging a horror-themed instalment in early March – unless it’s a sneak preview of what awaits Micheál Martin when he meets Donald Trump over St Patrick’s weekend. The other problem is that this semi-final (RTÉ One, Sunday, 6.30pm) lacks the crucial element of tension. The blame, for once, rests not with RTÉ but the voting public, who bafflingly relegate Jack Woolley, the front-runner, to the dance-off against Akorede.
The result is a predictable win for the taekwondo Olympian, who has already clocked up a streak of straight 10s for his alien-themed salsa to Red Alert by Basement Jaxx. With a result like that, it is unthinkable that the judges will send him packing, making the dance-off a foregone conclusion.
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Woolley, then, lives to hoof another day. In the final he will join the Olympic gold medallist Rhys McClenaghan, the TikToker Kayleigh Trappe and the Mrs Brown’s Boy actor Danny O’Carroll.
All the surviving contestants have fun with the horror theme. Akorede dresses like a witch, O’Carroll bops to Alice Cooper with a replica snake on his shoulder, and Trappe tangos to Hot to Go by Chappell Roan. The loudest yell, however, is courtesy of Karen Byrne, the judge, who we see receiving a surprise proposal from her boyfriend (and former DWTS contestant), Jake Carter, at the previous night’s rehearsals.
Back on the dance floor, Woolley and McClenaghan again share bragging rights. The former delivers that show-stealing salsa with Alex Vladimirov (“from another galaxy”, Arthur Gourounlian says), the latter a perfect paso doble with Laura Nolan (“exceptional ... that flip at the end,” Brian Redmond enthuses). Each scores a perfect 40. That makes them front-runners for the final – though if the voting public continues on its erratic trajectory, it’s impossible to predict a winner.
