Dancing with the Stars' Bindi Irwin emerged as a top contender to win Season 21 very early on, but with such success in the competition comes high expectations.

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"This week we have the Viennese waltz. We're dancing to 'Roses and Violets' by Alexander Jean. It's going well... She's also going to be blindfolded in the dance. And I don't mean those blindfolds where you can still see a little out of them. She's gonna be completely blindfolded and won't be able to see a thing. I think it'll be cool. I'm very excited about it," Hough wrote in his TV Guide blog.

"Then we have the dance duet with [Alexa PenaVega] and [Mark Ballas] to Chicago. It still needs a lot of work. We haven't even finished it yet and it's Saturday. We gotta get the troupe in there and see how it looks. It's a process."

Irwin is known for being a cheery, joy to be around, but even she apparently can't fake appearances when the stress of Dancing with the Stars truly starts to weigh on its contestants.

"When we started doing jazz for Chicago, Bindi was struggling picking it up and getting frustrated. My poor little Bindi! She's reaching that point of pure exhaustion. I need to give her a pep talk and keep her rocking. It's crazy when you see her tired. You're like, 'Nooo! My Bindi!' She's still happy, but she's just tired," Hough explained.

Irwin is also suffering from cut-up feet and giant blisters. It's hard to imagine how she's even performing on them.

"Her feet took [exhaustion] to the next level. That just goes to show you that that girl doesn't complain at all. When I say she's tired, she doesn't even say that -- you just see it in her face. I just know. She's still always like, 'No, I'm fine, I'm fine.' She has an amazing work ethic," Hough wrote.

"She's handling this entire process with incredible grace and class, and I'd love to see her go all way. I just have to keep checking on her toes every now and then. Once they start falling off literally, then I'll start worrying!"

Last week, Irwin and Hough tied for third place on the judges' leaderboard with Tamar Braxton and her pro partner Val Chmerkovskiy.

"I was really happy with our foxtrot. The judges commented on Bindi's back and shoulders, which I understand a little... but I think it was nitpicking at its best. [My sister Julianne] said, 'I can't just keep giving her 10s.' I'm like, 'Okay, that's fair enough.' The routine as a whole, I'm really proud of it," Hough said.

"It turned out really well. It did kind of put that in your mind, like, 'Okay, they're gonna be a little more picky with Bindi.' But that's also a good thing because it means she's doing well and they hold her to a high standard. It's not ideal, but it's also not a bad thing."

In addition to nitpicky scores, Irwin and Hough also lost their Season 21 "Dance-Off" to Carlos PenaVega and his pro partner Witney Carson last week. Surprisingly, Hough took full responsibility for their fall.

"When we watched the dance-off back, I realized it was my fault we lost it. I forgot the judges don't watch the monitors and we were dancing for the cameras at home... [We were] kind of in the corner. You couldn't really see us and if you did, it was just the profile of us, which isn't the full effect," Hough explained.

"So I understood what the judges meant. But when I watched it back on TV, I was like, 'Wait a minute! Wow! She was killing it!' We won America's vote! That's when I realized in the studio, we were in the corner and you couldn't see us. It was completely my fault. When you watch it on camera back, she did a great job."

Dancing with the Stars' next episode airs Monday night at 8PM ET/PT on ABC.

About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski

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