Step in time with our Dancing With the Stars performance-show liveblog:

It's week eight, and doesn't it seem as if 12 unsure celebs took to the dance floor only yesterday?

To the voters' credit, they really seem to be picking off the stars in the proper order, including last week. While Shannon may have had a few more glamorous performances under her sequins than Marissa, the American Pie star had plateaued, while the diminutive Tony winner has steadily improved week to week.

Anyway, once again, it's two dances per pair, one ballroom and one Latin. Can Kristi pull herself out of the second-place doldrums? Will Cristián be able to power through a ruptured tendon? Can Mario and Karina keep it clean? (Hopefully not!)

Kristi Yamaguchi and Mark Ballas Jr. kick off the night with a quickstep...

8:07 p.m.: The hotfoot pair ends their routine with a lift—not forbidden anymore after the judges decided they should allow one per dance. It certainly beats all the scolding when someone's foot comes off the floor.

8:08 p.m.: "What more do you want? You're there," Bruno says. But Carrie Ann has noticed some flaw, somewhere...looks as if the 30s gonna have to wait.

8:10 p.m.: Sure enough, 29.

8:16 p.m.: Mario and Karina Smirnoff sure have cleaned it up and, as Len would say, are dancing a "wow of a [Viennese] waltz."

8:19 p.m.: They get a 27, and Len wins our heart: "Usually your ballroom reminds me of Britney Spears getting out of a car," he told Mario. "But tonight, I thought that was the most elegant I've seen you dance."

8:25 p.m.: Marissa Jaret Winokur's fox-trot is winning her praise for her poise, posture and the joy she brings to the floor, but Bruno thinks it was bold, classy and "not quite appropriate." And we have to wait to see how that translates into numbers.

8:32 p.m.: "Not quite appropriate" means 25.

8:34 p.m.: Jason Taylor's dancing the tango tonight with the help of a secret weapon—a spray tan.

8:36 p.m.: Now that was one hell of a lift. And they didn't break hold, so let's see...

Len: "It was a tad too much like an Argentine tango." Hmph. Bruno: "I hate you because you're so beautiful, the two of you...So sexy, so beautiful, poetry in motion." Carrie Ann: "Fantastic and intriguingly great."

8:39 p.m.: 10, 9, 10. (For the record, despite all evidence to the contrary, tango in this competition is classified as ballroom rather than Latin, hence Len's quibble.)

8:40 p.m.: Next is Cristián de la Fuente, who's putting off having surgery on the bicep he injured last week so he can stay on the show. This week, he and Cheryl Burke will have to get creative to make up for the actor's lack of lifting power.

8:47 p.m.: Their tango isn't quite Jason-and-Edyta caliber (or maybe I'm distracted by that Michael Jackson glove), but you can't tell that he's hurt...

8:48 p.m.: "Exactly what a tango should be," Bruno says. And Carrie Ann saw "nothing at all wrong with that," either. Len gives Cheryl a shout-out for the injury-masking choreography.

8:50 p.m.: They're jumping up and down after Carrie Ann gives them their first 10 of the season. All told, Cristián ekes out a 28 and no one should be telling him to "Beat It" tomorrow.

8:56 p.m.: Kristi kind of looks like a KFC mascot in that outfit, but this samba is admittedly far better than the chicken dance.

8:58 p.m.: Or is it?

"I didn't care for it," Carrie Ann says hesitatingly. "It felt a little bit out of control." Things get better with Len, who thinks it was just a bit off-balance, and Bruno praises the routine for its technical difficulty. (Flash forward: Jason may be topping the leaderboard once again tonight.)

9:00 p.m.: Tying their all-time low, they get a 26, making it a 55 on the night.

9:01 p.m.: Loving Mario and Karina's jive...but a bit of a stumble on the end, with all those fancy-shmancy lifts.

9:02 p.m.: "It's not that I'm squinchy," Len says in response to Tom Bergeron's characterization of his facial reaction to that dance, "but the whole thing had a roughness for me...Your feet are bloody big ugly ones."

"That was the spirit of rock 'n' roll, what the jive should be!" Bruno protests. And Carrie Ann thinks Mario's usual wildness worked.

9:05 p.m.: They get a 25, giving them 53 overall, a two-point bump up from last week.

9:11 p.m.: It could be the music's fault (we know the couples are assigned their respective tunes), but Marissa's is another one of those slo-mo mambos.

9:13 p.m.: "A little bit dainty," Len agrees (with us), but Bruno and Carrie Ann think that Marissa brought the funk and the heat. She gets a 25, thanks to Bruno's 9, and that makes for an overall 50, a couple points lower than last week.

9:16 p.m.: What's with this music?! Now it's a slow samba from Jason and Edyta...

"I appreciate your attempt at being flamboyant, but I don't think it went so well," Carrie Ann says. "It was alright, but next week's the semifinal," Len chimes in. Even Bruno doesn't think it was as good as it could have been.

"I've heard a lot worse than that, and they didn't cuss at me, so it's cool," Jason says backstage, presumably comparing the judges' constructive criticism to the raunchier reprimands he's received on the football field.

9:19 p.m.: So much for that top spot. That samba is only worth a 23, their lowest since week three, giving them a 52 for the night.

9:24 p.m.: If Cristián can replicate his earlier score with this mambo, he'll top the leaderboard for the first time. His left arm is sporting a sparkly sleeve, for medicinal purposes—and they pulled off a right-arm only lift. Things are looking good...

9:26 p.m.: "Fabulous job," Len raves. "The things you can do with one arm—it's magic...More energy than a volcano in the Andes!" Bruno gushes.

9:28 p.m.: "We should have started dancing with one arm way before," Cristián says backstage.

Yup, 10s from Carrie Ann and Bruno to give them their first-ever 29 and sole possession of first place with a 57, which is also the highest two-dance total achieved so far this season.

So, while things got sloppy for our front-runners, wounded equaled wow for Cristián. A quick rundown: Cristián: 57; Kristi: 55; Mario: 53; Jason: 52; Marissa: 50. Whose time has come and who deserves another chance?

Tomorrow, DWTS marks its 100th episode with the judges' countdown of their top 10 favorite dances; the return of Mario Lopez, Mel B, Sabrina Bryan and a host of other past faves; and a performance by Rascal Flatts.