Week 7 on ‘Dancing With the Stars’: Halloween episode ends with axing (VIDEO)

If the “Dancing With the Stars” mirrorball trophy were to be awarded to the person with the most charm, likeability and fan base, the finale would be a fight to the uncoordinated, joint-pain death between Tommy Chong and Michael Waltrip.

And who’s to say it won’t be? The show’s two elder statesmen have held on through nearly two months of eliminations, staying put while better but less popular dancers, including Jonathan Bennett last week and Antonio Sabato Jr., who was eliminated on Monday night – have been sent packing.

But that’s OK. The duo’s staying power is entertaining and the only thing, most weeks, distracting us from the anticlimactic inevitability of Alfonso Ribeiro’s victory.

Monday brought a spooktacular episode, with lots of amazing costumes and zombie/spider/vampire/mime madness. The production values of “Dancing With the Stars,” I must say, have improved dramatically this year. The clever videos the show splices in throughout the episodes are slick and sophisticated, and the costumes are so intricate, it’s hard to believe they’re put together as quickly as they apparently are.

I enjoyed every performance on Monday except for Waltrip’s plodding “jive,” which he delivered dressed as a convincing “Toy Story” Woody. It’s hard not to want to throw a few sympathy votes at the race-car driver, who’s as earnestly goofy as he is hopelessly uncoordinated.

Every week, I look forward to Ribeiro’s performance, and he delivered again this week with a smooth and sexy rumba with partner Witney Carson. I also love watching Janel Parrish, who’s a great performer and a very good dancer who’s usually underscored. Bethany Mota also is a front-runner, partly because of the skill of her expert partner, Derek Hough.

And I do love to watch Chong, who somehow pulls it off every week despite physical limitations imposed by his 76-year-old body. His presence would be missed much more than Sabato’s, even though the latter was a better dancer.

A Ribeiro/Chong finale? Just about as crazy as a Waltrip jive. So who knows?

What do you think? Was Len a little jet-lagged, or have I just forgotten how cranky he is? Can the judges please get some less tippy chairs? And can someone please instruct Mark Ballas to dispose of those horrifying zombie contacts immediately?

This story was originally published October 27, 2014 at 11:19 PM with the headline "Week 7 on ‘Dancing With the Stars’: Halloween episode ends with axing (VIDEO)."