With the end of the season only a few weeks away and with two eliminations looming on Tuesday, the tension has been ratcheted up on Dancing With the Stars. The workload has increased for the dancers, who had their usual routine to learn, in addition to four minutes of mambo for a show-ending marathon, as well as a separate routine in the event that one winds up in a Tuesday dance-off to stay alive. The pro dancers seemed tougher in rehearsal, and their tired pupils often pushed back. The added pressure took its toll, as no one received a score of 10 this week. However, the three judges signaled more clearly than ever on Monday who they would like to see advance, using the marathon in particular to set their pecking order.

At night's end, five dancers had total scores (adding the score for their individual dance and their marathon score) between 36 and 31, with a second cluster of four dancers between 25 and 22. While everyone in the second group has a powerful fan base, with perhaps more personal popularity than the likes of Mya and Joanna Krupa, it is highly likely that both of those leaving Tuesday will come from that bottom group. Surprisingly, there may be no one in more trouble than Melissa Joan Hart, who the judges praised so effusively just two weeks ago. While partner Mark Ballas brought in his dance champion mom Shirley to give Hart a woman's perspective on the waltz, her lack of natural grace is becoming harder to ignore: "It looked like you were trying to remember what you were told," said Bruno Tonioli. Hart got a score of 20, tied for the low on the night, and she followed that up by being the third dancer and first woman knocked out of the marathon.

Kelly Osbourne also finished with a 20, and had the lowest score among any of the five dancers who chose the jitterbug. The foot injury that received so much attention last week proved to not be a major issue, to the point that she wasn't cut any slack when she stumbled slightly coming down from a lift. The comments from the judges about her needing to overcome her fears seem gentle on purpose, as if they don't want to provoke a big backlash. However, Osbourne received the highest score in the mambo out of anyone in the trailing group of four even though she and Louis van Amstel did almost no true choreography; this fact and the amount of time the show has spent pushing her ugly duckling storyline should keep her safe on Tuesday. But she needs a real "moment," and soon.

The two men in the trailing pack, Michael Irvin and Louie Vito, continue to improve slightly but will likely soon become victims of the lack of any more cannon fodder. Irvin was shown in rehearsal acting frustrated upon being pushed by partner Anna Demidova, but their waltz had a simple charm that all the judges noticed, with Len Goodman giving him an 8 -- more than he would give Mya for the same dance. Still, the waltz score of 20 and Irvin's status as first out of the marathon continue to mark him as the weakest dancer remaining. Like most of the dancers who are pushing their personality, Vito picked the jitterbug, but despite the thrilled reaction from the audience and a notable stunt when he did a backflip off the judges' table, his tendency to freelance was criticized -- dropping partner Chelsie Hightower twice didn't help either. The pair finished the evening tied with Hart and just two points ahead of Irvin.

The night's top jitterbugger was Mark Dacascos, who is becoming adopted by the judges even though his chances of winning a popularity contest with Donny Osmond seem slim. Lacey Schwimmer knows her partner can handle a lot physically, and she threw a ridiculous amount of athletic difficulty into the routine, including a woman-lifts-man interlude at one point. The audience is beginning to respond to this style, even though Dacascos may seem weak on personality. But while his 26 tied him for the lead after the individual portion, he finished only in fifth place in the mambo. From what viewers could see, Dacascos and Schwimmer appeared to be posing more than truly dancing, and the judges called them out.

Tied with Dacascos in the individual phase was Krupa, whose waltz with Derek Hough took advantage of her height to create a beautiful spectacle. And while there's no romance going on here, Hough's choreography is doing a fine job of creating that appearance on the dance floor: "That's gonna be our 'get a room' dance of the season," quipped host Tom Bergeron after the routine. Krupa wound up leading the evening after winning the marathon, so despite her lack of a high public profile coming into Season Nine, we're going to have to start taking her seriously as a potential champion. But have her performances really done enough to move her ahead of inferior dancers Osbourne and Hart in the popularity sweepstakes?

Another dancer who is more highly regarded by the judges than by America is two-time Bottom Two survivor Aaron Carter, who actually ended the evening as the top-scoring male. Carter seems to have figured out that the voters have had enough of his whimpering, but he still hasn't learned how to comb his hair. His waltz with Karina Smirnoff was without either big mistakes or the gorgeous moments that Krupa provided, but even though both Tonioli and Carrie Ann Inaba gave ambivalent critiques, he got an 8 from both judges and a 9 from Goodman. He then became the top male scorer in the mambo (almost by default since overall the men appeared more lost than the women). Even if the voters still aren't digging him, his score is almost certainly too high to put him in any danger.

It was obvious that Osmond would be jitterbugging, since he's selling his ability to make 'em laugh more than his ballroom grace. But rehearsal footage showed the 51-year-old struggling with the stepped-up pace of DWtS. Kym Johnson choreographed a clever routine, but it may have been too vigorous in that Osmond's waning stamina became evident as the dance progressed: "It was like watching a steam engine trying to keep up with a bullet train," said Tonioli. He finished the night with the fifth-highest score (24 for the jitterbug plus fourth place in the mambo), so while America will ensure he's perfectly safe, the judges are hedging their bets.

And what of Mya, heretofore believed to be untouchable? Her 24 on the jitterbug only tied her for fourth after the individual dances. Mya is the textbook example of a performer who is much easier to admire than like. Her interactions with Dmitry Chaplin are more businesslike than DWtS fans typically want to see, and when the pair tried to be playful near the start of the dance, Goodman slapped them down for wasting his time. This week marks the first time she's faced even mild adversity, and it will be interesting to see how she responds, and if America will react to her no longer seeming inevitable by rallying on her behalf.

The format of the marathon made it impossible for viewers to see all the dancers at one time until the numbers got down to the final four, so we will have to take the judges' words for it that the early order of departure was fair. It came down to a battle between Mya, who was slinky smooth but not too passionate; against Krupa, who was being twirled every which way by Hough. The win for Krupa may have been another coded message: Mya, act like you want this.

The judges seem likely to want one woman and one man to leave this week, so my best guess is that Hart's time is up, having been outdanced by Mya and Krupa and out-storied by Osbourne. As for the male in danger, I suspect that the perception that Irvin has come from farther back will give him the nod to stay over Vito if it comes to that.

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