I trust we’re all psyched and ready for tonight’s two-hour season premiere, having whetted our apptetites with the pre-game speculation.
I’m going to go out on a limb and predict the winner, before the first fox has been trotted: Ian Ziering. Why? He’s partnered with Cheryl.
I’m not sure if the producers ask the audience to behave themselves as far as hostility is concerned, but if not, I can definitely imagine the crowd booing Heather Mills off the stage. I think most people see her as the villain in this whole McCartney mess–I know I do!
Just something I’d like to see, FWIW.
Okay, halfway into it:
Ian – good, as expected, because they don’t give Cheryl bad partners
Paulina – not bad, and she seems incredibly likeable
Billy Ray – yuck
Leeza – a bit stiff
Joey – whoda thunk?
I agree with Twickster about the competitors so far. I’ll add that Laila Ali and Max seem to be well suited. I think she needed to be partnered with one of the macho guys so she could be appear a little more feminine.
Cliff was better than I thought he’d be.
And I agree with you on those two. John was esp. impressive considering he had hafl the practice anyone else did.
Clyde - he seems like a really sweet and shy guy. Unless he gets a little more comfortable and dances better, I don’t see him going far.
Shandi - she comes across as pretty likeable, but I think she starts off badly because she doesn’t already have a built in fanbase.
Apollo - will probably pretty well. He’s not bad to look at and he’s got some good hip action…now if he’ll only do it to match his partner. I think the shoulder thing is going to troublesome for him and if he does master it, will it do anything to his speed skating?
Heather - with the bitter divorce thing, I thought I was already disliking her, but I found her a lot more likeable than I thought I would. I admit I just might be a sucker for the artificial leg story they’re playing up. I’m not voting for her, but good on her for getting out there and dancing.
I missed all the dances through Billy Ray Cyrus, but I thought that Shandi looked like that smile was glued on her face with superglue. And her partner seems to be a major ass. Leeza was very stiff. I wonder if Clyde’s partner is the tallest they have? Joey Fatone was quite good, so was Leila. Surprisingly good was Heather Mills - the leg didn’t seem to make a difference.
StG
I didn’t watch every one dance.
Ian - Good, a little stiff but should improve
Paulina - I like her, I can see her improving a lot [Fernando]She’s got the legs of a dancer [/Fernando]
Leeza - I agree w/ twicks, she’s a bit stiff
John - He did surprisingly well and he genuinely looked like he was having fun.
Apolo - He’s so cute. It wasn’t great but he has potential, he can move a little better than some others.
Heather - Yes, I wanted to dislike her and yes I did. I thought she was very stiff (no not the leg) and unnatural. I noticed she didn’t get extra applause during the routine that so many other dancers did, but she did get enough applause at the end. But no one booed when she got criticized for her upper body.
Like I said I didn’t watch everyone but going by judges comments, I think Billy Ray is in trouble.
Here are my thoughts:
11 votes per person? Geesh.
I voted for Apollo Anton Ohno 3 times - thought he had great charisma on the dance floor
I gave 2 votes to Leila Ali because she really impressed me with her softer side
I gave 1 vote each for Clyde Drexler, Joey Fatone, John Ratzenberg, and Ian Ziering. They all did fine.
I gave Heather Mills one vote mainly because she intrigues me. She’s come across as a bitch on wheels in interviews and in the press and wanted to form my own opinion.
Leeza Gibbons, the Miss USA chick, and Paulina Porizkova were all forgettable IMO. I thought it was funny how the Miss USA chick jumped up and down when Bruno called her Barbie.
I think Billy Ray is an incredibly good looking man, but boy he stinks as a dancer. He could take some lessons from Jerry Springer on self-deprecating charm. He wasn’t as bad as, say, Master P but he was actually counting when he danced. Yikes. I think he should be the first to go.
I am sexually attracted to Maksim, but his admiration for himself exceeds mine. I wonder if he’s still dating that C singer from last season.
And I wish all of them would lay off the golden shimmery powder and fake tans.
Nope. I think it was one of those things played out for the camera. I can’t remember her name, but I know she’s engaged to Mike Modano of the Dallas Stars hockey team.
OK, well, most of the couples seem to be starting off at a rather lower level than I recall from series past.
I’ll pretty much go with Twickster and Li’l Mahoney in this, so far, fairly charisma-free crowd: my top picks are Joey Fatone (really threw himself into it, and he’s got bags of personality) and Paulina Poriskova (which I admit may be colored by my schoolboy '80s crush on her in those Cars videos). Of the rest, the one with the most raw potential is Apolo, and his partner is 85 pounds of pure cuteness, but his lack of practice really showed. Eye-yan didn’t get off to that good of a start, but with Cheryl as trail boss he will likely make it most of the way through the cattle drive. Clyde the Glide may get things going as well. The rest, meh, and frankly, none of the female celebs seem like instant charmers. Ah, well; I guess Leila and Maxsim should get a little credit for being able to move at all, considering the crushing weight of all that ego they were carrying around.
BTW, if anyone ever wanted to consider what I might look like ballroom dancing, and I’m pretty sure you don’t, see John Ratzenberger, for all the better or worse. I like his attitude and he certainly made an effort, I’ll say that much.
Oh yeah, and very clever of ABC to make it more likely that people stay at home to watch DWTS by advertising all those utterly crap movies like Firehouse Dog and whatever that thing with Ice Cube was supposed to be.
Who goes first? Billy Ray Cyrus, I hope: he was by far the most annoying of the bunch. And WTF was the deal with ripping Karina’s extensions off her head?
Is it me, or does Len have a little crush on Clyde?
Anyway, I think I liked best Ian/Cheryl, Laila/Maks, & Heather/Jonathan.
Ratzenberger danced well for an old man. Not that he’s that old. We’ll see if he catches up, since he started late. And I think Leeza might do well if she loosens up. Maybe she should dance tipsy? No, that might be bad.
Joey & John & Leila were much better than expected. Cheryl can still choreograph beautifully.
Clyde, shouldn’t his partner have mentioned once “spread your arms out”? It looked cramped.
Shandi - her extensions were awful. It was odd, they were trying to show off something that she couldn’t do.
Whoever did Heather’s makeup should be shot. I think her biggest problem is that people hate her, which is a much bigger obstacle than the leg when it comes to the fan vote.
Billy Ray Cyrus was horrible. But he has the same fan base that Sara Evans did last time - so he’s not going anywhere.
I’m very glad that the judges didn’t give out anything higher than an 8. Let’s see if they can keep the score inflation down for at least 3 weeks this time. Does anyone know how the scores get combined this year?
Agreed. All have a real good feel for music. I love that they get people of all sizes and shapes to compete because it shows that you don’t have to be lean and lithe to dance well.
I think he was trying to shrink himself to not look to be overwhelming her. If he can gain confidence, he can be good, I think. He’s also got a good feel for music.
She had great rise and fall, though. I think she can do very well. Leeza, on the other hand, had that newbie ‘no way I’m letting my body touch somebody else’s’ thing going on that killed Trista. I don’t think there’s hope for her at all, nor for Billy Ray. And Anton wasn’t that great. He had hips, but his steps were stiff and by rote rather than from feel. Maybe it was nerves but I’m not sure that he won’t be surpassed by a couple of the other guys.
Ian was ok but I’m sick of them giving the likely winners to Cheryl. She should have gotten Billy Ray this time. If she’s so great, let her make a dancer out of a hopeless case. Notice poor Ashley’s not there this time after twice being stuck with the lost causes.
I couldn’t take my eyes away from that awful bag of a dress - saggy bosoms, anyone?
She’ll be in a fair bit of trouble in Latin, which demands a lot of knees and really rapid foot movements. If she were to compete only in standard she might do better but she’ll not be able to manage, say, a mambo.
According to Wikipedia she’s pregnant (doing the math here… yep it appears she got pregnant approximately five minutes after getting married). 
Before or after the “I dun want a Rooshian, dey tock like theees” speech? And even discarding that as harmless kidding, she bugged me. I’m sure she’ll be gone soon though.
They got less preseason practice than in previous seasons – four weeks (two for John), instead of six or eight.
Agree with amarinth – Billy Ray’s a shitty dancer, but his fan base is substantial. Where I disagree: who the fan base is. He’s on that “Hannah Montana” show, and the tweener crowd is going to keep him going for a while. They have cell phones and they’re not afraid to use them.
Re: 11 votes: they give you one vote per number of couples still in the competition (odd system, but that’s not exactly news). When I went online to vote, though, their vote-counter was broken – I’d vote, they’d say “ten left,” vote again, “nine left,” vote again, “eleven left” etc. I finally got bored of voting, have no idea how many I’d used at that point. I was voting pretty evenly for Ian, Paulina, John, and Joey.
Okay, I’m in. I’ve never watched this show, except for five minutes here or there, but I thought I’d try it this season.
I thought Cliff Clavin and Joey Fatone did a lot better than I expected, Leila Ali was great and Clyde is probably the first to go.
I’d say the two hour commitment was worth it just for this:
Shandi’s partner: “If it’s deesgusteeng, I’ll tell you it’s deesgusteeng.”
Snort.
I think it was planned. They were dancing to Billy Ray’s song “I Want my Mullet back” which, sadly, I’m familiar with because my daughter watches Hannah Montana. And speaking of Hannah Montana, she looked crushed hearing the judges critique her daddy. It’s got to be tough on a girl to one day think her daddy is cool one day and then realizing he’s just made a fool out of himself on national t.v.
Oh, and what is it with his hair? That straight-ironed thing has got to go.
It never ceases to amaze me how musicians, who HAVE to have rhythm in order to do their jobs (right? right?), cannot dance. I mean, if Billy Ray can’t feel his own song, what hope is there for him to feel a Latin mambo?
I agree that Heather Mills’ dress was awful. And her hair didn’t do anything for her either.
I wonder how they decide who dances with whom? Because this is the second time that Edyta has gotten the old dude. And Clyde’s height difference with his partner is problematic because it’s tough to look intimate with someone who is literally a foot beneath you.
You apparently haven’t met my son, who watches “Lingo” on the GameShow Network, just because Shandi is the co-host. He had no idea she was on DwtS, and it made his day.
I think they’d have a hard time finding a professional dancer, male or female, who could match Clyde’s height.
I only half listened to that Shandi chick. I thought she was saying the Russians were tougher trainers but if that stuff was what she really said she sounds like a bigger ditz than I thought. Aren’t beauty pageant winners supposed to be diplomatic?