A series of surprises on 'Dancing With the Stars' could leave Bristol Palin on the show's ballot until November.

For starters, the teen activist and partner Mark Ballas earned their highest score yet with a 23 for their tango Monday night. They also picked up an additional 4 points during a group competition, which gives them a 5 point lead over the show's bottom-scoring couple.

"I realized if I wasn't going to go all out this week, that I'd be going home," Palin told TV Squad after the show's taping. "So I put everything I had into this dance and worked my butt off! Messing up last week could have destroyed me or given me more motivation and it did [the latter.]"

What led to Palin's break-though? "Every week, as we've kept going, Bristol's gotten more comfortable," Ballas said. "We've tried to keep it about having fun. I was really proud of her this week. She's really improved."

Another shocking score of the night was the mere 20 points earned by Jennifer Grey and Derek Hough, who had an off night. Luckily, the couple picked up an additional 9 points in the group competition.

"It was the 'guy-liner,'" joked Hough of the extra eye makeup he and the other male dancers wore in honor of "rock and roll" week. "It got in my eyes. No, what happened was Jennifer got into the rock and roll thing and there was one little off balance move in the end. It was one of those moments. The judges gave their scores. We know what it's not good. Jennifer was upset after the dance. I told her it's OK. This is what the show is all about."



Lowest-scoring pair Kurt Warner and Anna Trebunskaya were puzzled by the judges' comments. "We came out and performed what we thought was a good dance," said Warner. "We don't know [what the judges' comments] meant."

"If they'd said we'd miss a few steps and we deducted a point for each one, it'd be like, 'OK,'" saidTrebunskaya. "I'm a coach, partner and protective 'Mama Bear' of all my celebrity students. The audience went nuts after our dance and booed the judges [for our low scores.] That's all I have to say."

Audrina Patridge and Tony Dovolani, who landed in second place, were also disappointed by the judges' comments. "It was disheartening," Dovolani said. "I told Audrina that she gave me what I wanted from her performance."

"I put in so much work this entire week," Patridge said. "I wish that they'd recognized it. [But] our score was pretty good."

For the second week in a row, Brandy Norwood and Maksim Chmerkovskiy took the top spot, this time for performing a tango to Bonnie Tyler's 'I Need a Hero.' The couple also came in first in the group event, earning a total of 36 for the night.

"Maks is definitely my hero," Norwood gushed. "He's teaching me so many different things. He's the backbone to who we are."

The couple won't rest on Monday's victory. "It's already over right when we finish dancing," she said. "If we make it through [to next week], we have to focus on working so hard."

Chmerkovskiy was thrilled not only to be the top scorer, but also to have gotten out of the outfit he had to wear for most of the show. 'Those pleather pants!," he exclained. "Do you have any idea what was happening [to me]? Wow!"

One of the more impressive moves was Kyle Massey jumping on Lacey Schwimmer's back during the group competition. "Kyle thought I was kidding when I told him to do that," said Schwimmer, adding with a smile, "He was light as a feather."

Monday's performance show began with a replay of the top 10 dances from the series, selected by show's fans. Season 11 stars and pros had mixed reactions to the selections.

"Mel B.'s and Maks' paso doble had me going crazy," raved Norwood. "One of the reasons I want to win so badly is because I feel that Maks has deserved the trophy for so long. I want to win for all his partners."

"It was awesome to see those old dances," Cheryl Burke said. "It brought me back to the old days. The last routine [with Drew Lachey] was five years ago and it was nice to see them again."

"They're weren't my top 10," one pro said. "Most of our viewers may not even go online. Maybe three or four of the 10 shown were ones that I liked. Where was Mario Lopez's paso doble? Or Melissa Rycroft's tango?"