KEY POINTS:
Singer Megan Alatini and infomercial queen Suzanne Paul will meet in the final of Dancing With The Stars after former basketballer Brendon Pongia was voted off the hit show last night.
Pongia's combined total of 56 points after his two performances was not quite enough to sway the judges and voting public. Although he was just one point shy of Paul on 57, he was well behind Alatini's 70.
The Good Morning host was magnanimous in defeat, saying: "It has been an amazing journey, she [partner Hayley Holt] did a wonderful job and got something out of me."
The couple's steamy rumba, which scored 30, did nothing to dispel rumours that the pair could be an item. Judge Craig Revel-Horwood said he could not take his eyes off Holt - she "was enough to set a gay man straight". "It was lewd and lascivious - just as we like it," he said.
But their efforts could have been undone by a seemingly wooden tango, which scored them just 26. "The passion was completely missing," said judge Alison Leonard.
Suzanne Paul had an unlucky start, with a mishap during her first dance, a waltz, when her dress became entangled in her partner's microphone. She was consequently given the lowest score in the first round - 25.
Paul, who said the show could be the beginning of a career in television for her, and cracked a joke about paying back her creditors, pulled things back to the tune of Mission Impossible while performing the paso doble.
Although Revel-Horwood said Alatini's jive "lacked the wow factor" the former Truebliss singer's next dance was a near-flawless cha-cha, scoring two perfect 10s.
"That was some of the best partner dancing we have seen on this show," he said.
Fellow judge Brendan Cole said it was a "sexy little dance - and the lift at the end was spectacular".
