This looks like it’s going to be a good season. There isn’t any runaway favorite, a number of appealing dark horses, and no one who’s going to hang around 5 weeks too long. I might actually have to start watching this. (Recorded, of course.)
Called Tom Delay right…woo hoo!..but I have to admit it’s one of the weirdest exits I’ve ever seen. He overtrains, gets injured, aggravates it, guts it out nonetheless, and manages to avoid looking completely horrible. He avoids last place but has to drop out anyway because he’s too badly hurt to even practice. The lesson everyone should learn, of course, is to never get behind the frail geezer. It’s always a lost cause. (Yes, I know about Cloris Leachman. She was an anomaly. It’s not happening again.)
As for Len Goodman, I know he’s going to get absolutely roasted pretty much everywhere. I agree completely that he’s been giving bum scores and idiotic justifications for them. And I completely support what he’s doing. Yes, of course I’ll explain.
First off, he done this last-man-standing nonsense long enough to know that first place and rock bottom plus one (man, it’s been too long! 
) are worth exactly the same, absolutely nothing carries over, and things like consistency and taking risks are worth about as much as a Penn Jilette highlight video. Therefore, the worst, worst, worst thing he could possibly do to Mya is to give her high scores and lavish praise every week. Why? Because she still needs votes. The viewers see her monopolizing the top of the leaderboard, either they assume she doesn’t need the help or don’t want to vote for her anymore, and she makes an inglorious exit in the middle rounds. Hey, nobody roots for Goliath. The moment she comes across as a high-heeled juggernaut nobody else is within a football field of, she’s TOAST.
Now, all three judges can’t be in on the sandbag, otherwise it’ll look suspicious. But one loose cannon isn’t likely to raise hackles, and Len has that grumpy-old-man vibe down pat. He reminds everyone that nobody’s immune from lowball scores, and nobody can get by without votes. Thus ensuring…hopefully!..that Mya goes as far as she can.
And make no mistake, anyone with any stake in this show wants her to go far. She’s the ringer. She was brought on to provide a quality performance every week, set the bar, and prevent some lousy goldbricking Jerry Rice type from stealing the trophy. That’s her purpose. Getting bounced early would be disastrous, not only crippling ratings immediately but severely damaging prospects for getting future ringers on board.
Or…maybe Len’s just having a little fun. Lord knows you have to take what you can get on this show. And given Simon Cowell’s (inexplicably, bizarrely, insanely) amazing popularity, can you really blame him for playing the ignorant jerk? I mean, why does pretty much every reality program have at least one? If this were a normal dancing contest, where everyone who starts finishes and early scores damn well do influence the final tally, then he’d be a lot more serious, put more thought into his scores, and make sure his critiques were justifiable. Here, if No-hope Schlub #3 finishes 3rd to last instead of 5th to last, who gives a crap? Let the joker be; at least we now have something to talk about other than “Man, is Chuck Liddell stiff or what?” and “What country is she queen of again?”
Oy! - Okay, here’s what you do.
Vote for the one you want to get through the most.
Yes, that’s it; yes, I’m dead serious.
Don’t try to figure out which Y’s and Z’s you have to back to get X out. It’s a huge waste of energy, and it never works anyway. (Ever hear of Scott Savol?) Even if you could find out exactly where everyone placed this week, this has no bearing on what’s going to happen the next. Ask any skilled gambler what a fool’s game using the past to predict the future is.
Pick your horse and stick with it. That’s the best you can do. That’s all you can do.
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