I’ve never watched the show so I don’t know how it works. But I was just reading about this season and I’m curious about something. Clyde Drexler was one of the contestants. As I understand it, he got a low score on Week 1 (ninth place out of eleven), but nobody gets eliminated on the first week. On Week 2, he got the lowest score of the week and his combined score for the first two weeks was the lowest. But somebody else was eliminated. On Week 3, he again got the lowest score but somebody else got eliminated. And again on Week 4. It wasn’t until Week 5 that he was kicked off (by having the lowest score for the fourth consecutive week).
So why, when he presumedly was the worst dancer, was Drexler able to last so long? Does the show handicap the talent? (No Heather Mills jokes please.) Is there some kind of immunity that Drexler was winning each week? Does something other than the judges’ scores decide who goes?
The judges scores are only 1/2 the equation. Viewers are encouraged to vote for their favorite dancers by phone and internet, allowing some pathetic dancers with big fan bases (I’m talking to you, Billy Ray Cyrus) to continue on. But as dancers are eliminated you can usually really see the difference in those who have aptitude and a strong work ethic and those who are in it for the publicity.
This year (and last year), from the judges - each contestant’s score is the percentage of points they got out of the total points given out that night. Then, that percentage is added to the percentage of total audience votes.
When the judges give everyone the same score, it’s an absolute popularity contest.
When the judges give everyone approximately the same score, it may as well be a popularity contest because the difference in points from the judges isn’t going to matter.
The judges count for 50% of the score, and the number of votes per phone number (not per household, not per voter) is restricted to the number of remaining contestants minus one. While this makes it harder to give a free ride to an undeserving contestant (unlike the one or two golden children you see on American Idol every damn season), it’s not impossible. And it still takes a while before the contestant is truly dead in the water (Master P, anyone?).
Remember the second contest? Jerry Rice, greatest NFL wide receiver of all time, colossal nationwide fanbase, more popular than…well, Joe Montana? He was never the best in the juges’ eyes. Never. Come the final three, he has the worst scores again despite some major bungling by Stacy Kiebler. The votes come in, and Rice is…second. In the very end, he could not overcome his bad marks. So they do matter (usually), but they’re not all-important by any means.
Clyde Drexler’s problem was that pretty much the only NBA star from his era anyone talks about anymore is Michael Jordan, meaning that the only fans who were going to vote for him in droves were diehard Trailblazers fans and a few Rockets fans who remember that incredble '95 championship run. Not in the same league as Jerry Rice or Emmitt Smith voting bloc-wise.
No, Clyde Drexler’s problem was that he was clearly delusional about the quality of his dancing, which made him whine about poor treatment from the judges, which made people stop voting for him.
While the grumbling certainly made things worse, the unfortunate fact was that he didn’t have a lot going in. Frankly, he’s lucky to have made it past the third round, but his NBA credentials alone weren’t going to carry him much further.
There have been and always will be fortunate sons in these types of contests. Just no avoiding them. Thankfully, nearly all of them get the boot at some point.