Dancing With the Stars

[carabosse]

I was hoping for John and Charlotte to win, and was very disappointed. Kelly and Alec threw in a lot of fancy lifts in their final number, and Kelly fell out of the finish of each one. My boyfriend (not a big dance fan) even noticed the lack of strength and control.

It seemed to me that the judges were scoring on popularity along with the the audience. Sure, Kelly was the "most improved" but she still lacked the style by the last week. My cynical opinion is that Kelly won because she will make a better promotional spokesperson for the next season.

[Skittl1321]

carabosse, I'm glad you noticed Kelly fall out of the lifts. What frustrated me the most was at one point she actually stopped dancing, waited for her partner to walk next to her and then they started to do a step together.

I could not believe the rave reviews of that dance.

I certainly agree with most improved, but if contestants were not kicked off each week, someone else could have been most improved. It is easier to improve when you are around longer and get more lessons.

(wow.. three posts in one day, I better go back into hiding)

[Helene]

In the first dance, each team did their best defined dance, with John/Charlotte reprising the Quick Step and Kelly/Alec repeating the Samba, this time with no wardrobe malfunctions.

Although I preferred Kelly/Alec in the two previous shows, I'm not sure what the judges were thinking this time. O'Hurley kept his mannerisms to a minimum in the Quick Step, and was a lot of fun, and he tamed sticking out his abdomen instead of lifting his chest. For a non-professional man to gain the lift and posture in two months has got to be the hardest part of the entire contest. Kelly/Alec's Samba was more technically accomplished than their first attempt -- she was able to lift her arms -- but it seemed a bit stiff to me. I preferred the dash of the Quick Step to the rather Dance Feverish Samba.

I'm not a big fan of freestyle, because of the tricks involved, but although I thought John/Charlotte's started out a bit slow, it was a hoot, and showed off a wider range of dance styles. They went out of their comfort zone stylistically, while Kelly/Alec stuck exclusively to their strength. The lift that John/Charlotte practiced with Patrick Swayze in the studio didn't come off cleanly, but Charlotte was a real pro in saving it, and they had a few bobbles, but not nearly as many as Kelly/Alec. I'm not sure about the relative difficulty, though, and if Kelly/Alec's difficulty was high enough, the "deductions" for the bobbles may still have netted them higher scores than John/Charlotte.

I think one of the reasons there has been so much reaction to the freestyle scoring is that Kelly/Alec received 10's, which have an emotional resonance and the expectation of perfection, when, in fact, the judges boxed themselves in by giving John/Charlotte 9's across the board.

I would have called it the other way in this episode.

[miliosr]

I am like a moth drawn to the flame when it comes to this topic . . .

Last week's ratings were the best yet. The show was # 1 for the week with 22.4 million (!!!) viewers. The show also finished # 1 in the 18-49 demographic with 8.7 million viewers.

ABC has renewed the show for a second "season" but has been very circumspect about when the new season will air. Part of this may be practical (ABC's fall schedule is already set) but it may also be that ABC learned its lesson from the Who Wants To Be a Millionaire? debacle. (This was when they behaved like crack addicts by overairing a successful show in the name of short-term ratings dominance and running it into the ground.)

As far as the music selections go, my understanding is that the teams get a very short list of selections to choose from. Basically, the selections are songs that ABC can secure the rights to without breaking the budget. This might explain how Rachel and Jonathan wound up tangoing to "Toxic" by Britney Spears.

It has been interesting reading comments about the final performances on other boards. If you can wade through the conspiracy theories (i.e. ABC ordered the judges to throw their votes to Kelly and Alec because Kelly is an ABC contract performer), there tends to be a common theme among the fans supporting one team or the other. The John and Charlotte fans love them for their (or her, really) cool elegance and technical precision. The Kelly and Alec fans love them for their passionate performances and willingness to risk failure by attempting more difficult moves. I fall into the former camp but I have to admit that the latter is a perfectly legitimate belief as well.

Sorry I let you down Carbro but have no fear! The lighthearted (and lightheaded) miliosr report will be back for Season Two (to the delight of a few and probably the horror of everyone else on this board!)

[carbro]

Oh, miliosr, I am sure to the delight of many! Thanks for the update-slash-preview. If ABC goes for another in-house name, I wonder whether it could be Mickey? (Kelly's tie to the network does lead one to suspect a certain potential conflict of interest, doesn't it?)

I look forward to a new round, and a new set of analyses by you, Helene and others who've been such a help in pointing out critical details.

[miliosr]

This appears in today's USA Today:

Acknowledging viewer frustration with the voting process, ABC is adding a weekly results episode when Dancing With the Stars returns in midseason. The results would combine the viewer vote and judges' scores for the same week. Viewers will vote by phone and on abc.com. No air date or time has been set.

In addition, today's NY Times has a very informative article about the controversy surrounding the finale.

[Personally, I don't think ABC rigged the finale. The judges erred by giving John and Charlotte marks of 9.0 when Kelly and Alec had yet to perform. The judges had no place to go but up when they assigned marks to Kelly and Alec. And, as the NY Times points out, Kelly and Alec would have won regardless because, in the event of a tie, the viewer scores were the tiebreaker.]

[miliosr]

FYI -- Kelly Monaco and John O'Hurley will be returning for a "dance-off" rematch on September 20, with a results show planned for two days later. Only the public vote will count this time.

The miliosr report will be sitting this one out as (a) I don't like "do-overs" in Dancing With the Stars any more than I like them in figure skating, and (b) I don't want to lend any encouragement to ABC's obvious desire to overair the show.

See you when Season 2 returns!