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Dancing With the Stars


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Rick has a nice personality and a good work ethic but he had reached the limit of what he was going to achieve. (The extreme height differential between Rick and Cheryl wasn't helping matters, either.) It wasn't his time -- Bristol for sure needed to go -- but, as he wasn't going to win in any event, his wasn't an unfair boot.

Rick really got sunk with the show's gimmick of the week. The quickstep was always going to be difficult for him with the closed hold and the extreme height difference, but having to use Julianne and Helio's choreography really made it an almost impossible task. The choreography was really put together for relatively short, but well-matched dancers with uber-perky personalities and Rick and Cheryl are really the complete opposite. Without Cheryl being able to put something together more suited to Rick's strengths and weaknesses (and really her own strengths and weaknesses since Cheryl's not even close to as good a Standard dancer as Julianne), I thought there was a good possibility he might be going home.

As an aside, I was really amused by the apple boxes the producers must have been putting Cheryl on for the backstage interviews. It was fascinating seeing how Cheryl grew to be the same height as Derek Hough! :rofl:

I honestly cannot explain how Bristol has held on unless all of Alaska &/or every "Tea Party-er" in the America is dialing in, non-stop. If that's the case, she might win. Does anyone know if the final-final selection of DWTS is up to the public or will it be up to the expert judges once the Final 3 or 2 are known?

I can't remember if there is any judges vote in the final, but even if there is, the votes will be so close that the public vote will determine the winner. The judges are always pretty generous to whoever is in the final no matter how terrible they are. Actually, you can pretty much tell who is getting major public support because no matter how bad they are and how little they are improving, their judges comments become much more positive about halfway through the season. The producers don't like to come across as telling America that their favorites are not very good.

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Actually, you can pretty much tell who is getting major public support because no matter how bad they are and how little they are improving, their judges comments become much more positive about halfway through the season. The producers don't like to come across as telling America that their favorites are not very good.

Yesterday a friend of mine, who took tango for a number of years, and I were talking about the show. He didn't understand why the judges were so harsh with dancers who he thought were stronger in their frame, more precise in their footwork, and who were dancing in the character of the dance, while dancers he felt were stompy and elementary would get gushes from the judges. I guessed that it was a matter of expectations, and that big guys, especially big athletes, got credit for not falling over, but your explanation makes a lot more sense.

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Week Eight - Elimination Eight

Kurt Warner and Anna Trubinskaya

Much like Rick Fox, Kurt was a hard worker and had a nice personality. But, he had reached the end of the line with what he was going to achieve (at least within the context of this show.) So, his was not an outrageous boot.

We (and the show) now face an interesting prospect -- Bristol Palin could win the mirrorball trophy. Based on what we have seen so far, she would be the least deserving contestant of the four who remain (and the least deserving winner ever.) In the past, the show has always managed to dodge the bullet of a clearly undeserving contestant winning it all on the back of a motivated voting bloc. Probably the closest the show has ever come to the nightmare scenario happening was when Sara Evans kept advancing despite being the worst dancer on the dancefloor. Mercifully, she quit before we found out how deep she would have gone.

If Bristol wins, I will be interested to see if it provokes a backlash from the casual viewer along the lines of "clearly, this show is just a popularity contest and has nothing to do with who is the best dancer." (In truth, the audience vote has never been entirely about dancing but the "best" dancer usually prevailed in the end -- except Season 5 when Helio STOLE the mirrorball trophy from Mel B!!!) In trying to bump up ratings by courting controversy through Bristol (because of her love-her-or-hate-her mother) the show may end up achieving a short-term gain at its own long-term expense. We'll see.

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......If Bristol wins, I will be interested to see if it provokes a backlash from the casual viewer .....

It shouldn't, as it's the "casual viewers" that keep voting for Bristol. Yeah, I keep forgetting that too. :thumbsup:

I should qualify that, when I'm referring to casual viewers, I'm referring to people who either watch live but don't vote or people who watch on other media (i.e YouTube) and don't vote.

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Some of the people voting for Bristol aren't viewers at all. There are websites dedicated to Sarah Palin that are publishing the phone numbers and website links for voting for Bristol, and giving specific instructions for how to vote several times using different methods. I think anyone who follows DWTS at all will be ticked off if they think the system can be (and is) manipulated.

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If Bristol wins, I will be interested to see if it provokes a backlash from the casual viewer along the lines of "clearly, this show is just a popularity contest and has nothing to do with who is the best dancer." (In truth, the audience vote has never been entirely about dancing but the "best" dancer usually prevailed in the end -- except Season 5 when Helio STOLE the mirrorball trophy from Mel B!!!) In trying to bump up ratings by courting controversy through Bristol (because of her love-her-or-hate-her mother) the show may end up achieving a short-term gain at its own long-term expense. We'll see.

I doubt it. This show has never been about the best dancer, and it's been quite obvious since the beginning when Kelly Monaco won on the back of a huge General Hospital fanbase. Actually, I think the "best" dancer has won a few times, but mediocre dancers have won just as often, and more than a few downright poor dancers have made it to the finals.

What I find interesting about Bristol is that as much as she is getting significant support for reasons other than her dancing, she seems to inspire a hostile reactions for non-dancing reasons as well. Bristol's not a very good dancer, but I think she's nowhere near the worst dancer ever on the show. Even if she won, I don't think she'd be the worst ever winner. Kelly Monaco really was very, very bad.

I think anyone who follows DWTS at all will be ticked off if they think the system can be (and is) manipulated.

DWTS is actually quite studious about avoiding being characterized as a game-show. If you'll notice, the only thing the winners receive is the (worthless) mirrorball trophy; there is never anything that can be characterized as a prize of any real value. By staying on the "reality show," side of the FCC's dotted line, the producers are able to play fast and loose with the rules of the show (what are they?) and the judges don't have to maintain any consistency (my commentary on this is long and involved). This also gives them a lot of leeway on the issue of robo-calling and vote manipulation which has come up more than once on this show, and I'll be interested in seeing how this comes out if really is as big of an issue as some have alleged this year.

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Week Nine - Elimination Nine

Brandy and Maks Chermkovsky

Well, my prediction for the Final Three was two-thirds correct -- Jennifer and Bristol made it w/ Kyle filling Kurt's spot. I see Kyle placing third w/ the Dirty Dancing and Sarah Palin fanbases duking it out for first place. Poor Bristol -- she may be praying that she doesn't win!

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I started this season liking Bristol. Sweet girl, in over her head doing her best, but the last few weeks my good feelings about her have nosedived. She's coming across as a spoiled, entitled little brat. Her "I'm real" putdown of the other "fake" contestants really turned me off.

She did show some inprovement in her paso Monday night, however she didn't deserve nines. That's entirely the judges fault for overscoring her the previous weeks.

I now find myself in the postion of hopeing she fails big time at her freestyle so the judges can lowball her scores and hopefully negate the huge voting blocks that are keeping her in the competition. Wanting a person to fail on national T.V. doesn't make me feel very good about myself. It makes me feel mean and small, but I can't help it.

I dearly hope Lacey choreographs an amazing freestyle for Kyle. Derek's freestyles are always awesome so I expect him and Jennifer's to be great.

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I dearly hope Lacey choreographs an amazing freestyle for Kyle. Derek's freestyles are always awesome so I expect him and Jennifer's to be great.

Mark choreographed that fantastic freestyle for Shawn in Season 8 (which, I'm convinced, edged Shawn past Gilles for the title that season) so Mark and Bristol may be more competitive than you might think. I don't know if Bristol can "cut loose," though.

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I dearly hope Lacey choreographs an amazing freestyle for Kyle. Derek's freestyles are always awesome so I expect him and Jennifer's to be great.

Mark choreographed that fantastic freestyle for Shawn in Season 8 (which, I'm convinced, edged Shawn past Gilles for the title that season) so Mark and Bristol may be more competitive than you might think. I don't know if Bristol can "cut loose," though.

Yeah you're right, but he also had Shawn to work with! :wink:

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I am completely floored that Brandy was sent home and that Bristol is STILL in the competition. Actually, this is not a dancing competition at all, is it?

If Audrina, who dances beautifully, can be sent home so early just because she lacks a wide fan base and Ms. Palin has been voted in week after week because of the clout she seems to carry, it is clear it's not about the dancing.

Every time I see Bristol Palin dance, I cringe through most of her movements. She doesn't realize that movement must extend through the feet and hands, much less that her upper body should be supple and pliant.

She knows nothing about articulation of body parts. Her head sits on her shoulders with no extension of neck at all. There is no high-held body carriage, no relaxed, stretched arching. When her arms are raised above her head, her shoulders go with them. Her upper body-torso-legs is one solid unbending piece.

The way she hooked her foot around Mark's leg in the tango, all turned in and with no finesse, just a chop of a movement, was the ugliest foot movement I've ever seen on DWTS.

Can you tell I'm not a fan? :D

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She knows nothing about articulation of body parts. Her head sits on her shoulders with no extension of neck at all. There is no high-held body carriage, no relaxed, stretched arching. When her arms are raised above her head, her shoulders go with them. Her upper body-torso-legs is one solid unbending piece.

Oh, dear. (Are you sure you weren't watching me in Intro Flamenco class :wink: )

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She knows nothing about articulation of body parts. Her head sits on her shoulders with no extension of neck at all. There is no high-held body carriage, no relaxed, stretched arching. When her arms are raised above her head, her shoulders go with them. Her upper body-torso-legs is one solid unbending piece.

Oh, dear. (Are you sure you weren't watching me in Intro Flamenco class :wink: )

:rofl:

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She's coming across as a spoiled, entitled little brat. Her "I'm real" putdown of the other "fake" contestants really turned me off.

She did show some inprovement in her paso Monday night, however she didn't deserve nines. That's entirely the judges fault for overscoring her the previous weeks.

I now find myself in the postion of hopeing she fails big time at her freestyle so the judges can lowball her scores and hopefully negate the huge voting blocks that are keeping her in the competition. Wanting a person to fail on national T.V. doesn't make me feel very good about myself. It makes me feel mean and small, but I can't help it.

I can't fault her for the "I'm real" thing, mainly because I don't think we can realistically expect anyone to say, "I'm a terrible dancer and I'm only here because people keep voting me in."

Unfortunately, I don't think the judges are going to give her terrible scores on Monday because a) the producers are not going to risk antagonizing a large bloc of viewers and giving her 1s and 2s would be a huge slap in the face to people who are voting for her, and b) with a vote as large as Bristol's must be, it's actually not a slamdunk that bad scores will get someone off the show. Kelly Monaco's initial scores on the first season of DWTS were quite low and she still never got voted off (and in fact, she won even though she may have my vote for worst dancer ever on the show).

Having worked in reality television in the past, I can tell you producers don't really like the idea of negating the viewer vote. It distances the viewership from the show instead of getting them fully invested in the show. DWTS is already unusual in having a judges vote at all, and the producers tend the lessen the impact of it over the course of the season by having the scores converge over time. I really don't see them pulling their punches on the finale.

The way she hooked her foot around Mark's leg in the tango, all turned in and with no finesse, just a chop of a movement, was the ugliest foot movement I've ever seen on DWTS.

For me, Laila Ali had the worst feet ever on the show. No point and push at all. It was really obvious as the show went on.

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Reading Marga's comments made me wonder - do the pros give their partners actual dance training? Or is there only time to teach the steps to the current dance(s) while throwing in a comment or two about posture, foot pointing, etc? Is it legal within the parameters of the show to bring in another instructor to give a straight dance class throughout the season? Maybe there's not enough time to do that and also learn the dance steps. Btw, I also agree with all of Marga's comments.

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There are ways of explaining your own appeal without putting the other contestants down. I thought her words were snarky.

My sister is a big fan of Bristol on DWTS and thinks she should win. My sister is also very involved in the Tea Party. Are these two things mutually exclusive? Does it really matter?

I think the only way to avoid these polarizing fan bases in the future is to quit casting politicians, family members of politicians or anyone involved with politics period. With so much anger and intolerance in politics nowadays I really don't want to see it spread to what should be a fluffy feel good dance show competition.

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Unfortunately, I don't think the judges are going to give her terrible scores on Monday because a) the producers are not going to risk antagonizing a large bloc of viewers and giving her 1s and 2s would be a huge slap in the face to people who are voting for her, and b) with a vote as large as Bristol's must be, it's actually not a slamdunk that bad scores will get someone off the show.

That's true as far as it goes and it doesn't hurt to remember that this isn't an artistic competition, it's a reality show trying to snag the biggest share possible of the tv viewing audience.

But a wrinkle here is that I've heard reports that tea party websites are instructing followers to vote en masse for Bristol.

It's a way of "enlarging" her mother's "importance". And so a lot of the voting is coming in from people who don't even watch the show. They are distorting the voting results. But I doubt that the producers would try to adjust for this. How could you split out the results that are nothing more than a political muscle flex? Pretty impossible to quantify.

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Well, I could see this coming, from the moment that Sarah Palin first appeared in the audience during one of the early shows and many in the studio emitted loud boos (which we the viewers heard in the distance, as another couple was being interviewed in the waiting room after their dance). As much as I dislike Palin politics, the booing actually made me root for Bristol, as it was so tacky and inappropriate for a studio audience to burst into "boos" just because Bristol's mom had entered the room. Think about it.

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Well, I could see this coming, from the moment that Sarah Palin first appeared in the audience during one of the early shows and many in the studio emitted loud boos (which we the viewers heard in the distance, as another couple was being interviewed in the waiting room after their dance). As much as I dislike Palin politics, the booing actually made me root for Bristol, as it was so tacky and inappropriate for a studio audience to burst into "boos" just because Bristol's mom had entered the room. Think about it.

I think you are right, it's really impossible to keep politics out of the equation in this kind of situation and the producers most likely knew it.

But it's all about the ratings for the current season, at any cost, which is why TV shows "jump the shark" so frequently. They are very willing to sacrifice anything in the future for a gain in this season.

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I have been following this thread with interest and real enjoyment. Thanks to everyone who has posted.

The latest reports on Sarah Palin have made me curious. What, exactly, Bristol Palin is a "star" of? Other than her mother's political campaigning, I mean, and its pin offs into sexual abstinence advocacy and teen pregnancy counseling.

If Bristol Palin's invitation to appear on a show entitled "Dancing with the Stars" is is based on her connection to her mother's political ambitions and political issues, it seems unavoidable that "politics" will come into play.

While booing a performer's mother is not, of course, a nice thing to do, there are mitigating circumstances. Whether you respect her or not, Sarah Palin is one of the most polarizing and confrontational political figures in the United States. She has been a trail-blazer in the art of flaunting her family life for political advantage. Her decision to make a personal appearance at a top-rated nationally televised performance seems like an invitation for some kind of audience response.

While Ms. Palin would understandably have preferred cheering, someone on her staff might have advised her of the possibility of a more negative reaction and suggested, ever so gently, that she stay at home and let her daughter perform without distraction.

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