KEY POINTS:
Critics may scoff, but the numbers don't lie: Dancing with the Stars is still a crowd-pleaser when it comes to ratings.
After a slow start, with almost 65,000 fewer people watching this year's premiere than last, DWTS has been the country's most-watched show.
For the past five weeks, it's beaten out perennial favourites such as Fair Go and Coronation Street.
According to AGB Nielsen, the TV One show had 804,700 viewers aged 5-plus last week - up more than 15,000 on the equivalent episode last year.
But its audience share is down on last year, when it secured at least half the available viewers for seven out of eight shows.
Series four has failed to gain more than 48 per cent of the viewing audience in any of the five shows so far.
Four of the eight couples have been eliminated, with stage entertainer and singer Tina Cross the latest text-vote celebrity victim.
Upbeat Cross, 49, said she was disappointed the judges hadn't liked the samba she and partner Aaron Gilmore danced in their final appearance.
She said the age of her fanbase also contributed to her exit.
"They are not the mega-texters."
Cross started among the favourites but many commentators said her previous stage experience was an unfair advantage.
She said the judges were harder on her than others because of that perception.
"But I feel we did a great job, and at the end of the day we're going to walk away with that."
