Don't tell Apolo Anton Ohno. But Carrie Ann Inaba told People magazine a secret recently:

"For me, this is my personal favorite season," Inaba said, "because everybody's got this joy about them when they're dancing."

So, can the Dancing with the Stars judge crown a winner? Not just yet. But she does have some favorites, of course.

"I'm so proud of them all," she said of the dancing stars. "[Sabrina Bryan is]obviously doing really well with the marks, and she's just a tiger out there, and Helio Castroneves kind of touches your heart so, who knows?"

Inaba has also been impressed so far with Jane Seymour "even though she threw a lift in last time and I took some points off, it was her mother's birthday, and her mother recently passed away, so I give her a lot of credit, because she's just an amazing trooper."

As far as this season's dark horse?

Carrie goes with Cameron Mathison from All My Children.

"We didn't expect him to do so well. He had a slow start, but now he's catching up to the pack. He came out with the "Superman" number, ripped off his sleeves, and I'm sure that every woman in America was kind of like, ‘Woo-hoo!' I think they all voted for him last week."

Matt Richenthal is the Editor in Chief of TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter and on Google+.