The fact that there was actual Olympic pairs skating going on elsewhere didn't keep “Skating With Celebrities” (Fox, Mondays, 8 p.m. ET) from continuing its chronicle of three celebrities' March Toward Adequacy. With only Kristy Swanson, Jillian Barberie, and Bruce Jenner remaining with their professional partners, the show dispensed with "eliminating" anyone and simply advanced two teams to its final round: Swanson and Lloyd Eisler and Barberie and John Zimmerman. And yes, this means we have seen the end of Bruce Jenner dressed in purple satin.

Past weeks have seen the contestants dance to bad music from the movies, bad music from the '70s, and bad music from the top of the charts. This week, hosts Scott Hamilton and Summer "Not From Skating, What's It To You?" Sanders explained that the competitors hadn't picked the music— the judges picked it for them. Raising as it did the prospect that Swanson and Eisler apparently skated to "Boogie Fever" on purpose, the idea that only this week's music was forced on anyone came as something of a surprise.

The frontrunners
Barberie and Zimmerman have been the apparent frontrunners since the first night of competition. She has the look of a dancer and the sexpot credibility that it takes to become a morning-show host in L.A., after all. Zimmerman has a simple sex appeal that's less affected than that sported by a lot of male skaters, so it made sense that he would appeal to a mainstream audience.

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While they remain the most technically proficient of the skaters, there is something a little bit "Booyah!" about the way these two skate. They seem to be going all out with tricks and competitive spirit, and she certainly has a knack for getting injured. (She needs to consider the current reemergence of roller derby and its attendant injuries, however, before expecting anyone to think a few minor scrapes make her sexy.) But there is rarely much feeling inspired by their routines. Barberie excels most in expressing the complex thought, "Look at me!"

Furthermore, as curmudgeonly judge John Nicks pointed out, many of their tricks were repeats of things they'd shown off with last week. When the judges force a number on you to make you do something different, it's not a good idea to do the same thing at a different tempo.

Last dance for Jenner
Next up were Jenner and his partner Tai Babilonia. Bless her heart, Babilonia has put up with being dropped, shoved off the ice onto a platform, and romanced by a 50-year-old Olympian in the equivalent of a sailor suit. Seeing the knock-kneed, graceless Jenner still in the competition at this late date was jarring — not that seeing, say, Todd Bridges would have been better.

Their skating has improved, but Jenner proves the importance of natural ability in skating by not having any. Every bit of competence he wrings from himself is the result of backbreaking work, and that is to be admired. It is not, however, particularly fun to watch. As much as Dorothy Hamill loves to repeat that Jenner and Babilonia are doing it for the geriatric community, they are seriously out of their depth with the other remaining couples.

Jenner and Babilonia's scores put them behind Barberie and Zimmerman. We came to understand over the course of the hour that the top-scoring team would automatically advance to the final, while the other two teams would helpfully engage in a time-filling "skate-off" that would ensure that one team without Bruce Jenner on it advanced to the finals against the other team without Bruce Jenner on it.

Indeed, the outcome here certainly seemed like a foregone conclusion, and when Swanson and Eisler came up to skate, they were likely just determining whether they or Barberie and Zimmerman would have to obtain a spot in the finals by beating up on the old Olympians.

CONTINUED : Swanson steadily improves

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