Dancing with the Stars Fall 2011

Cafe Society
181

The audience excessive booing during the judges comments is ruining the show. IMHO I can understand it if a judge says something really harsh. But they are booing the moment the judge offers any criticism at all.

I was disappointed the first round of Strictly Come Dancing had the same excessive booing. But then, the second week the booing was gone. I guess TPTB took steps to make sure the audience was more respectful. I wish DWTS would do this.

I’ve always tried to ignore grassy knoll theories about judging. But this season it seems the judging is being manipulated. The scores they are giving Chaz are just undefendable. He’s never deserved anything better than a 5. TPTB must have told the judges to prop him up until Cher visited.

182

I may be naive, but I honestly don’t think the producers manipulate the specific judging. But I believe entirely that the judges grade on a curve. They generally give marks based on the contestant’s demonstrated ability, rather than relative to the other contestants, except in a very general way - that is, the best contestant doesn’t typically get graded lower than the worst.

But I’ve seen this in judged Olympic-type sports, like figure skating, as well. Marks for a contestant seem to very much be related to the judges’ expectations. So you rarely see a 20th ranked skater get better marks than a second ranked skater even in artistic merit, even though to the unskilled eye, the 20th ranked skater gives a much more artistic performance. To a great extent, people see what they expect to see.

183

Among the reasons I love this show - The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly paso.

Chynna got so stiff when she got lost, it was hard to watch.
David is getting better (still choppy, but better), and Kym is a great choreographer.
It took me a while figure out what Carson was doing. I’m guessing that Anna thought doing jigs was a better choice than having him try to lead her through (or her try to backlead him through) some of the more standard Viennese waltz moves?
For the paso, people say “be aggressive” but when you watch the pros or the troupe (say in the opening paso), there’s nuance to the aggression and there’s other emotion in there. But they don’t seem to say that to the “Stars.” And you end up with Nancy stomping with her “mean” face. To Flash Gordon. Which didn’t help.
This is the best Hope has ever danced (and also the best she’s ever been dressed. maybe the costumers finally figured it out). It was sweet. She looked more fluid than usual.
Cheryl’s costume didn’t make sense. Was she supposed to be Superman’s cape? And if so, why was Clark Kent dragging it around? Wouldn’t that blow his secret identity all to hell? Honestly, I could barely focus on the dance because I couldn’t figure out what she was supposed to be. I think he did ok, but I’m not sure because the costuming was so weird.
Derek is awesome. Ricki’s shoulders were a little weird, but for the most part she did great with a difficult dance to a weird song and it all made sense.
This was also Chaz’s best dance. I’m glad his mom got to see it.
And I loved watching JR & Karina’s dance. So much that I rewound and watched it again.

184

I agree that the scoring is being weighted rather oddly. I mean, someone who completely loses her choreography should be given 5s or 6s at the most. It’s akin to forgetting the lyrics in a singing contest. And Chynna didn’t just fudge some words. She almost came to a complete stop. Yikes. Oh, and her makeup was way too severe.

Anywho, this week was very enjoyable in terms of entertainment value. So that’s the good news.

LOVED Derek and Ricki’s tango with him stabbing her in the end. Also loved JR & Karina’s foxtrot. Thought that they were very close to each other in terms of quality and entertainment value. Not sure why Carrie Ann didn’t “get” the whole tongue-in-cheek delivery of the Pink Panther number. We should give her a ticket for not having a lee-sance for her minkey.

Nancy looked either on the verge of tears or very pissed at the judge’s comments. I think that they were overly harsh on her. Gosh and I never thought I’d feel sorry for the harpy!

Liked Hope and Maks’ dance. Hope has an ego that can stand up to Maks; I like that.

I think Rob will go home tonight. He’s supremely boring. He’s not as entertaining as Carson, nor endearingly humble like Chaz. He’s not as charming as David Arquette or as talented as JR.

I’ve noticed weight loss by Rob, Nancy, Chaz and Ricki.

BTW, a LOT of “Look who’s here” camera shots of the audience. Dr. Phil (?), Donny Osmond, Roseanna Arquette, Courtney Cox, Cher…

185

Yeah, I had the “WTF, Dr. Phil?” moment also.

And as Girl Next Door said, Richard Simmons was just plain scary. It took me a second to process who it was (which I did primarily by the sequined tank top), because he truly looked like death warmed over.

(Which reminds me, I need to get my "Best of ‘Whose Line’ " DVDs back from the friend I loaned them to.)

186

Someone needs to present Carrie Ann with tv’s most stupid comment award. Criticizing a Pink Panther dance for being funny? Priceless.

Has their ever been a more slapstick movie than the Pink Panther series? You got to watch the Three Stooges to get any more pratfalls.

187

Note to Susan Boyle: Virgins shouldn’t try to sing “Unchained Melody.”

188

The results have aired on the East Coast.

Yay! Don’t care for Chynna at all, and she bombed last night. Glad to see her and her botox going home.

189

Pee Wee! Can’t he be on next season?

190

THAT’s who that was!

Yeah, can’t hardly shed any tears for Chynna. She really messed up. Maybe if the judges had given her honest scores, people might have been motivated to call and save her. I wonder why they didn’t show any shots of Billy Baldwin’s reaction. I expected some chairs to be broken or something.

Still wish it was Rob, though. I keep waiting for the backlash against the Kardashians and Gosselins of the world, but it’s still not here.

191

Well, I think it’s a shame. Now it’s down to J.R., Ricki, and who? We’ve eliminated two of the four best dancers. The only one left who is really able is Hope, and I think Len’s right: she’s not committed enough, or something. She’s got the right ingredients, but she’s just not pulling it together quite right. So maybe it’s David Arquette, and he really doesn’t belong in the finals; at his best, he’s mediocre. The rest are sub-mediocre.

192

Agree that it’s not much of a field left, but disagree that Chynna was finals-worthy. Her lines were good, but her movements were wooden – and despite your Bob Fosse reference, dance is about movement, not pretty pictures. She was the Stepford contestant: zero going on in her head, and too much fear, or something, for her to embrace the process of actually learning how to dance.

We’ve got Carson, Chaz, David, Hope, Nancy, and Rob left besides Ricki and JR, who I agree are solid for the finals.

Of those six, Rob and David are the least awful. Hope would be okay if she’d spend more than a couple of hours a week practicing. Considering what a perfectionist she claims to be, as a professional athlete she should realize that.

DKW is right – for all us bitching about “too many ringers,” we’re now seeing what a season without ringers looks like, and it’s not pretty.

193

Based on the rehearsal package it looked like Tony put way too much pressure on Chynna this week. It looked like she was just burned out and hit a wall. Tony didn’t help the situation by being such an impatient a-hole. I doubt she ever had the full routine fully memorized and that made it easy to go blank during the live performanace.

They mentioned a couple weeks ago that CHynna was such a perfectionist that she’d even practice problematic moves at home late into the night and then go into rehearsal with them looking much better. That kind of grind takes it’s toil.

She wasn’t the best dancer this season, but I would have preferred her in the finals over Rob or David.

194

Can’t all the people who are voting for an LBGT person just to vote for an LBGT person vote for Carson so Chaz can go home?

Let the man go home!

195

That footage in the results show of Anna crying really bothered me. It’s easy to forget just how much work and effort goes into preparing for these live performances. Movie week is especially hard because they are expected to put on a mini-play and dance. Anna arranged sword lessons, special costumes, and they obviously put a lot of thought into the pirate story. Plus there was the dancing rehearsal. Try packing that into 5 days.

All that work and then to get slapped down by those three judges is just a bit too much. This was the one week where entertaining was more important than the dance. Yet they still ripped Anna and Carson. That footage of Anna crying obviously shows just how much it hurts.

196

I love eavesdropping on what the partners are saying to each other during the recaps. Have they done this in previous seasons and I just don’t remember, or is it something new?

197

That’s the system (points converted to rankings) that the show used originally (with ordinals for the viewer vote totals as well, of course).

They ditched it after the Season Two finale, when Drew Lachey, and every numerate viewer, figured out that Stacy Keibler’s third place finish meant that he had won.

I think that the change was a poor trade-off.

The many saves of poor-scoring contestants implies that the ranges of viewer votes is greater than of judges’ scores (i.e. 10% differences in one can overcome 5% differences in the other). The net effect is to give more influence to the votes because there is more play to work with.

The judges have exacerbated this effect by giving high, clustered scores, so that each point of those high totals is worth less.

A return to ordinals would restore the judges’ influence on the outcomes to the intended 50%.

198

Man, I’m glad to see Chynna go home. I didn’t see what anyone saw in her - she was stiff, wooden, and aside from a few moments in her very first dance, I never saw anything to get excited about. Plus, the obvious skin-crank/Botox look was just hideous. The judges obnoxious overscoring while they tore other folks down for flaws equal to hers was infuriating. This week was the first time any of these vote-in shows actually ticked me off with BLATANT judge-pimping. She also had zero chemistry/connection with the audience that I could see. She certainly left me cold.

BUT I still think Nancy and Chaz should have gone home before her.

I gotta agree with this. I love Chaz, he’s a bro, and I’ve done a bit of LGBT activism myself (being bi, it’s sorta self-interested on at least one level, heh) but seriously. Vote for Carson because he’s entertaining and has potential at least… Chaz is literally painful to watch. I know he’s out there putting it all out there, but it’s humiliating to watch. He can’t dance, he can barely move. I had serious issues watching the Rocky dance, it was so bad.

I’m putting money right now on a JR/Ricki/Rob Kardashian finale. I’d rather see Hope in that third spot, but she needs to loosen up a lot, and Rob’s actively improving.

199

80’s week coming up. Big hair & perms for everybody :smiley:

Tango: David Arquette/Kym, Hope /Maks
Samba: JR Martinez/Karina, Chaz / Lacey
Foxtrot: Ricki Lake/Derek
Jive: Carson /Anna
Rumba: Rob Kardashian/Cheryl, Nancy Grace/Tristan

200

Aw, geez. When nearly everyone here agrees with me, you know the franchise is in trouble.

To clarify a bit: I think that in any tournament-style competition, there should be at least contestant who’s not overwhelmingly dominant…no more Kristi Yamaguchis, please…but really good and tough to beat. Having a favorite gives legitimacy to the contest and ensures that whoever the champion is, whether the favorite or whoever beats the favorite, will have earned it. Look at what Royce Gracie and Ken Shamrock have done for UFC (and they only ever fought each other twice!). I actually think Shawn Johnson was a good choice and if anything was a little overrated. Again, however, it’s the pack, the middle group, the contenders, that matter. Kurt Warner, Scott Hamilton, Heather Mills, Ralph Macchio, Pamela Anderson, the great big melting pot of aspirants and journeymen and hopefuls.

And, sad to say, aside from maybe David Arquette, I’m not seeing ANYONE in that group this season. Heck, Ricki Lake, who’d be 4th or 5th most seasons, looks like an absolute lock for the final right now.

So I can understand the reasons Chynna Philips got bounced, and no, I’m not going to protest or anything, but it’s tough to justify sending her home ahead of Chaz Bono, Rob Kardashian, Nancy Grace, and Hope Solo. Two, no problem, maybe three, but all four?

As far as the judging goes, yes, I do believe straight rankings are the best idea (rankings, without scores; none of this “ordinals” nonsense), but the bigger issue is that the judges have to give their opinions and give their scores under the gun, in front of a massive, hostile crowd and a snarking host. I never thought this was a good idea, and this season it’s turned the whole process into a farce. Unless these professionals can give their judgments in secret, safe from constant backlash, there will never be any hope of honesty or objectivity. And if there is blatant bias, imposed from above or not, I’d really rather it not be aired on live TV.

As for Chaz: I remember when Florence Henderson was on, not long after the Cloris Leachman fiasco, and she very vocally demanded that the judges NOT go easy on her and treat her like any other contestant. It was a truly memorable moment, mainly because I can’t remember any other no-hope doing this. Not Buzz Aldrin, not Bristol Palin, and not Chaz Bono. And I really think that the absolute best thing Bono could do right now, if not the only possible good thing, is to tell the judges that he’s not a baby and demand that they stop inflating his scores. (Oh, and kindly ask that the crowd shut the hell up when they’re criticizing him.) Look, big guy, you’re not going to win. If the Rabid Teabagger Army couldn’t carry Palin to victory, the LGBT community isn’t going to do it for you. So either you can become completely exhausted and pain-wracked and crash and burn in the middle rounds and have a ton of fans hate you, or do the honorable thing, redeem yourself in the eyes of millions, and bow out on a high note. Your call.

Well, barring a colossal upset (which I don’t see happening, honestly), you can pencil in JR and Ricki for the final right now. The only question is which no-hope also-ran will be with them. My gut feeling says Carson, but I’m not putting so much as soda money on it.