DwtS News
Here are links to two reports from backstage at last night’s Dancing with the Stars Performance Show: one from TV Guide and one from People.

In his TV Guide Celebrity Blog, Ian Ziering encouraged his fans to vote for Billy Ray Cyrus, in the event that he and Cheryl Burke are kicked off tonight.

Show dates have been announced for the Dancing with the Stars summer tour. It looks as if they’ll be stopping in places they missed last time, and avoiding some major cities like L.A., New York, and Chicago. So far, the cast consists of pros Cheryl, Edyta, and Louis, and celebs Drew Lachey, Joey Lawrence, and Joey McIntyre — all of whom were also involved in the last tour.

DwtS By The Numbers
Islandia55 at Dance-Forums.com has taken the time to calculate the average length of the routines each week, and if you think the dances seem shorter this season, you’re right. According to this chart, last night’s routines averaged only 1:11 minutes long, as opposed to 1:40 at this point last season.

Further, Islandia55 subtracted the time Laila Ali spent with her head on a pillow during her Waltz to find that she only danced for 45 seconds during that routine. Total time spent dancing in a 90 minute show — 12 minutes.

More DwtS By The Numbers
Just to give you some idea of what it’ll take for your favorite couple to move on to Week 9, we’ve got the percentage of points (out of 251 total awarded) that each couple received from the judges last night:

• Apolo & Julianne: 23%  (58 of the 251 points)
• Joey & Kym: 22% (55 out of 251)
• Laila & Maks: 21% (53 out of 251)
• Ian & Cheryl: 19% (47 out of 251)
• Billy Ray & Karina: 15% (38 out of 251)

So, to avoid elimination, Billy Ray will need at least 4% more of the audience vote than Ian & Cheryl — or more, if he has to climb over one of the other couples, instead.

The top three couples look to be pretty safe, but a surprise dip into the Bottom Two would help predict the final three. If Ian & Cheryl escape the Bottom Two this week, they have a good shot at the finals, as it would seem they’ve got a big enough fanbase to bolster their scores over at least one other frontrunner. (Then again, people may just vote for Ian this week as a means of ensuring BRC goes home.)

However, should one of the top four couples go home tonight and Billy Ray escapes the Bottom Two altogether, I’d still expect BRC to go home next week, instead of whatever couple survives the red spotlight. Billy Ray will likely have to make up even more ground in votes (fewer couples means bigger gaps in scoring percentages), and he probably won’t enjoy the same boost he may be getting as a result of those in the audience who are mad about the judges’ treatment of him this week.

Renewal Season
It’s that time of year when networks announce which shows will be back in the fall. Gilmore Girls is out. Blood Ties and Medium are in. And things are looking better for Veronica Mars.

Yahoo!TV has an interesting article about shows that flopped in the States but became hits overseas — including Ireland’s love affair with Blind Justice, starring Ron Eldard as a blind cop.