Her scream is heard echoing through the night. Help!! My VCR stopped recording before the freestyle portion. Does anyone know where I can see in on the net?
Before that portion I felt that Mario really had the edge over Emmitt. Emmitt just seemed a little more clunky and stiff tonight. But I do like his attitude. What upsets me is the way the judges fawn all over Emmitt and find no fault, but with Mario they are so picky about every little thing (you stepped off on the wrong foot). I’m sure if you wanted to be nit picky you could write pages on Emmitt, but for the last few weeks nothing but overblown praise.
Don’t get me wrong. I really like Em, but the judges seem to be showing him a little unfair advantage.
I think Emmett’s Hammertime was the most fun thing I have seen all season. Actually Emmett is just flat out fun to watch. I hope he wins, and I wish I could see tonight’s show. We have Leahy tickets tonight, and I don’t think I can figure out my VCR in time.
running piglet cheese I’m going to have to disagree with you. While Emmitt did look a bit nervous to begin with, his freestyle routine looked a lot better, smoother and riskier than Mario’s. Then again, I went off Mario fairly early on. I tried to vote for Emmitt after the second dance, but couldn’t get through.
Whichever of them wins, it’s been a terrific contest! I thoroughly enjoyed watching this season.
One last question though. Is it just me, or does Mario seem to have fallen in love with Karina?
Like I mentioned, I didn’t get to see the freestyle so possibly my opinion would change once I saw it. Anybody have any ideas where I could see a webcast of it? As far as Mario loving Karina I never could get a feel for the “real” Mario. He seemed very scripted and “on stage” all the time so I never got a feel of his true personality.
Em on the other hand had personality out the wazoo.
I’m so tired of the obviously staged judging. It seemed to me that they had this tie planned well in advance, and knew what they were going to give on each dance before it was performed. Carefully planned to build the tension…Will Mario catch up? Will Emmitt be able to hold his momentum?..keep watching. Like professional wrestling. Although I do think the dancers themselves go out each dance and do their best and are taking it all seriously.
As far as a relationship between Mario and Karina, it seems to be there, but I for one an happy that it isn’t “We’re moving in together” before they have a chance to know each other outside of the competition. Although I suppose if you stand someone under that kind of pressure, you can probably take them when things aren’t so hectic.
Missed the first dance from each couple, but dang, I think Emmitt may just have sewn it up with his MC Hammer freestyle last night. That was something to behold. He did indeed muff the second lift, but overall, I thought it was both more difficult and more entertaining than Mario’s.
Like others here, I’ve gotta question the ‘coincidence’ of both contestants being exactly tied. C’mon judges, judge already.
Won’t be in a position to catch the award tonight, but it doesn’t matter. The dancing’s over anyway, and although I think Emmitt should get the trophy, both are worthy.
Seriously, though – what the hell will they do with Cheryl next season? I’m not sure at this point they can seriously pretend she’s not the best possible pro for a male star to be paired with. Should she just retire, undefeated?
I was wondering the same thing. There’s no doubt she’s good, but she’s also had good partners.
Next season I would like to see them do something about the judging. I don’t want to see week after week of 8’s, 9’s and 10’s, especially early in the season. There were too many times this season when the judges had legitimate critiques (no heel leads in the foxtrot comes to mind) yet still gave high scores. Like El_Kabong, I also have some doubts about the coincidence of Mario and Emmitt being tied and spent part of Tuesday night’s program wondering which judge would be the one to give Emmitt a 9 and what excuse he or she’d use for doing so.
Cheryl is without a doubt a fine dancer and a great partner. And she had a really good partner to work with.
But it’s not just her talent as a dancer that takes her to the top–her talent in choreography is what really works the magic. The way she capitalized on Emmitt’s strengths was what truly made him shine!
Not that he isn’t drop dead sexy just standing there! He most definitely sizzles!
S P O I L E R S A H E A D! ! !
Now, I’m very disappointed.
Don’t get me wrong. If you asked me who I’d rather be married to, who I’d rather spend an evening with, hell, who I’d rather spend five minutes with, it would be Emmit in a walk. He’s got more charm in his little finger than most men have in their entire ancestry. He’s got a smile that will light up the room every time. He appears to be the Real Deal, a nice guy.
But all I can think every time he dances is “Who’da thought he could dance so gracefully, being such a big man?” Mario has minimal personal charm, and his ADD thing would make me nuts in a heartbeat. But when he dances, I think “Damn! Great dancing!”
Sorry, but Mario was robbed by an adorable smile. Emmit did very well, but Mario danced like a pro from day one.
I think that’s part of the reason he lost. He claims to have had little formal dancing experience before this show, but he was so good to start with that he was like a ringer. Kinda like Stacy Kiebler–the leggy blonde from last season who was consistently excellent the entire season. She came in third, being beat out for second place by Jerry Rice, who was clearly not as good as she.
It’s more exciting to root for someone who is getting noticably better week after week. You kind of feel they have accomplished more–that they deserve to win more than someone who looked like a pro from the start. You may not hold the same view, but the audience loves an underdog.
Especially when the underdog is a hugely popular football player.
Oh, and I completely agree with Chanteuse that Cheryl’s choreography really makes a big difference. She is by far the best in that regard.
I suppose it all comes down to whether we choose the person who’s made most improvement or the one who’s best overall. This stuff isn’t easy to learn or pick up, and I’m talking basic ballroom stuff, let alone the fancy choreography. As my father pointed out last night, if I had to hire Mario or Emmitt to dance professionally, going purely on skills, yes, I’d pick Mario. On the other hand, in the spirit of this competition, which I see as trying master a new skill, I’d give the edge to Emmitt.
OK, I only saw the show for the very first time the night of Joey, Mario, and Emmit. I had heard only the name before that. I became an instant addict, so much so that I downloaded uTorrents of the entire season and watched the entire season in a huge marathon yesterday. (Toward the end, I skipped over truly enormous amounts of fluff!)
Now, I don’t have the skill or knowledge to see the marginal improvements that a true judge has, but frankly I didn’t see enormous change in either Emmit or Mario start to finish. Emmit came out from the very start surprising you with his agility (for such a big man), his surprising hip work (again, for such a big man), and his incredible, easy charm and thousand watt smile. Mario surprised you with the dimples, and the moves of a pro, from the very start. His mark downs were always for rules violations, not poor dancing. It may be my lacking eye, but to me, both men stayed quite consistent from beginning to end - they learned new moves for each week, but I didn’t see a huge improvement overall in either. Remember, they’d each had six full weeks of training prior to the start. If they were going to learn the fundamentals, that would have been when.
In fact, the only really significant changes I saw in any of the contestants were in Harry Hamlin, who improved very significantly for three weeks and got voted off, and in Jerry Springer, who when he would take it seriously (the waltz and the foxtrot), did a surprisingly good dance step for a man his age and physical condition. Of course these two were never serious contenders anyway, although Hamlin had some potential if he could have kept on going.
So I’m not sure I entirely buy the “improvement over the season” theory. But maybe you guys have a better eye than I do.
To me it’s not “degree of improvement” so much as it was that Emmitt clearly started out with zero dance training – Mario, despite his protestations to the contrary, clearly has done serious dancing before. (No one who started from scratch in August could do the split he started his freestyle with.) Thus Emmitt seems truer to the stated premise of the show.
Plus, of course, his smile could melt Nancy Reagan’s heart.
I don’t know - Mario admitted some break dancing, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he’d never had any actual training before. But I’m willing to bet that Mario has been hell on wheels on a dance floor for as many years as he has been allowed in them. Then again, I’d be willing to believe Emmit has been too. He’s got too much natural grace and rhythm not to have been.
Now, Joey admitted to tap as a kid, and I think that really did contribute
I don’t know the facts - I’d never heard of either of them prior to seeing the show on Election night, and I doubt I’ll ever hear of either of them again, unless they can also sing and make the next Moulin Rouge or Chicago. But I do believe that some people are naturals, and others simply aren’t. So I have to take them at their word, because I have nothing but that to go by, and “he’s too good” doesn’t seem very fair to me.