Judges rank Bristol Palin third on 'Dancing'

The "improbable" moved a little bit closer to the "possible" Monday night, even if that doesn't exactly mean "likely." Nevertheless, Bristol Palin is still in this.

Amid high security, her mom in the audience, and a pervasive sense that TV's biggest hit has gone a bit daft, Palin handled her two routines Monday night as if nothing daft were going on at all. She scored a total of 52 points out of 60 - decent scores, but far from winning ones.

As expected, Jennifer Grey (in her final routine to a song from "Dirty Dancing," of course) got a total of 60 points out of 60. Kyle Massey, the other contestant, scored 56.

The strange 11th season of "Dancing With the Stars," and Bristol's politicized run, took an even stranger turn when TMZ reported that Palin and partner Mark Ballas had received death threats.

"It sucks that people still don't think I deserve to be here," she said, while adding in a pre-dance taped piece: "There are lots of haters out there just waiting for me to fail - that's what gives me more motivation."

Could Palin win? ABC and "Dancing" have long been a bit cagey about how the final night is scored. The judges' scores are added to their previous night totals - which are calculated as percentages of the total scores - along with viewer's votes, also percentages of the total number of votes. If the top two contestants have identical judge scores the final night, which happened in the 8th and 9th seasons, viewer votes made the difference.

But a dancer who lands in third place in the judges' scores in a season finale has never won, leading to a long-held impression, at least among fans, that you'd better bring your best game to the last show. To win, Palin needs a lot of votes to overcome a third-place finish. Possible? Sure. Likely? No.