Yeah, that was pretty freaking surreal.
Couldn’t agree more. I wish people had kept Ratzenberger instead of BRC, who has been hopeless from the start. At least Ratzenberger had musicality.
They did. It has felt to me right from the beginning that the judges seem to be invested in Apolo & Julianne to win. He’s made mistakes and not been called on them where the better dancers have been. I don’t think he’s as good as Joey or Laila and I really don’t want him to win.
And why not an actual Latin mambo? There’s tons of actual mambo music without resorting to a pop song. Drives me nuts to see them try to dance Latin to dances that aren’t remotely Latin.
Boy, Billy Ray kinda turned into a douche after that “crap” comment didn’t he. Awkward. He seems to have forgotten the Justin Guarini rule of reality television: while the audience in the studio loves to boo the judges, most viewers actually like them. Go after them at your own risk.
I thought Apolo and Julianne did best last night, especially with the horrible music they had to work with.
Joey and Kym did well, but looked a little slow to me. I can’t really describe it, but they’ve done better. They look great doing it though (especially Kym… aye aye aye).
I actually find Samantha oddly charming, and her occasional flubs add to the live TV fun of the whole deal, but she shouldn’t try to joke along with the contestants. Just laugh and move on, Sam.
Tonight will be an interesting elimination. I have little doubt that BRC will stomp his way out the door, but you never know. It may be more interesting to see who else gets the heat lamp of doom.
I don’t know. Billy Ray’s in a pickle right now because he clearly isn’t in the same league as the other dancers, and he’s very well aware of that fact. Yet what is he supposed to do? Quit altogether? Do a half-assed job of it a la Master P? If he did that, we’d be calling him an ass and the judges would roast him. So he tries. He really, really tries. And still he looks like the tin man with epilepsy.
And therein enter the judges. I think Len and Carrie Ann handled it well. They don’t belabor the weaknesses that are very evident to everyone, they give him kudos for trying, they offer some words of wisdom should he make it to the next round, and then give him 6s and 7s – not too high but so low that it’s insulting.
But the wild tongued Bruno, on the other hand, blew it last night. He hit waay below the belt. And there was no reason for it. What good could calling someone’s honest effort “crap” serve, especially knowing that the poor chap had to deliver another dance? Why would he embarrass him in front of his kids when it was probably Billy Ray’s last night on the show? For the love of pete, he should have bitten his tongue and let Billy exit with his dignity. Not only was it rude, but he roused the Kentuckian in Billy Ray and they BOTH looked bad in the end. Worse, Bruno risked rousing the BRC fans to call and try to keep him on for another week!
Sitting here at work, and “Stand by Your Man” pops onto the mental jukebox. “WTF,” sez I.
Then I remembered that last night was The Most Bizarre Musical Choices Evah on DWTS.
Yeah, Billy Ray should have left ahead of Heather Mills. And maybe Paulina Porizkova. He’s just too awkward, & he really doesn’t have it in him to do two dances–while the other 4, apparently, do.
And that “mambo” last night? I tend to confuse the latin dances, but I know the mambo a little, & I didn’t see a mambo. Kind of like his ballet-thing last week that was ostensibly a waltz, but had no waltz in it.
I’m just catching up with last night’s episode on tape. I’m afraid Billy Ray Cyrus and his fans have to face facts. We’ve got people in this competition striving to get 10’s if not a full 30, and Billy Ray’s just trying to get an 8. There are times when, no matter how hard you try or how much you want something, you’re out of your league. From what I saw of Bruno’s reaction, I don’t think he intended to blurt out “crap”, and he did look embarrassed afterwards, but I don’t think it accomplished anything productive.
I agree the music’s been strange. How can you rumba to “Imagine”? I felt like I was watching the moves to one song while listening to another, although the dancing looked good. It’s the same with “Jesse’s Girl”. I like the song, but I wouldn’t want to tango to it, nor would I call it slow and romantic.
Joey’s still my favorite, but Laila and Apollo look good, too, and I’d like to see Ian step it up, although I’m not sure if he can. It was sad to see Mohammed Ali looking so out of it. I actually remember him from the 70s all full of bluff and bluster. Now his daughter’s the one floating like a butterfly; I just hope he’s aware of just how good she is.
Excuse me. I just watched Apollo and Julie’s paso doble. I agree with what others have said. While I can’t swear to the verses, the chorus was definitely “My Darling Clementine”. Oh well, they made it work well enough.
That music last night was just freaky. I felt awful for poor Ian, having to stand there and swivel his hips to Imagine! Talk about the single worst musical choice EVER on this show. Oy.
At least Billy Ray just came back tonight and delivered the gracious response to Bruno’s “crap” last night. It was a good move on his part. Although I certainly didn’t blame him for being upset last night; that was just mean on Bruno’s part.
Has Samantha popped out about six inches in the last couple of weeks or has she? She was barely showing so recently, and now she’s looking totally preggo. She’ll probably stay slim and beautiful the whole time, too. I think I hate her.
TWO Chmernovskys? ::swoon::
The results show is airing on the East coast.
Ian makes it to the finals? What! The! Fuck!
Twickster: Ian makes it to the finals? What! The! Fuck!
No, he/she made it to the semi-finals. Would you have preferred the person going home to stay??
Sorry – yes, I mispoke – semifinals.
It was obvious who was going to go home between those two – I was just surprised that [see spoiler above] made it to the semifinals, and that my failure to vote for [the other person in the bottom two] single-handedly caused that person to be in the bottom two.
I agree. I was lazy last night, too as I didn’t log on and vote.
It’s aired everywhere now - Steve Sanders has quite the fanbase… who knew?
Must vote next week.
Okay – here’s my theory. People realized that the “true” bottom two were Billy Ray and Ian – so, to make sure Billy Ray went home, they voted for Ian. No one could possibly think he’s a better dancer than Joey. (As I just said to a coworker and fellow fan – “Ian has learned the steps, but he hasn’t learned how to dance.”)
Perhaps, but then Joey reminds me so much of Mario last year - technically a better dancer (although given his alleged foxtrot, that’s still debatable), but just so damn smug about it, I, and I expect others too, really don’t want to see him win. I believe Mario lost on the basis that he and Kareeeeeeena arrogantly cruised their way to the final thinking that they had it in the bag and Joey is going exactly the same way.
I know it is of no consequence at this point, but seeing Joey under the light before Ian was simply a travesty. There needs to be a reweighting of scores to give the viewers “opinions” less weight.
I would be content to get rid of Ian and then just watch the other three go for a couple weeks without getting rid of any of them. They are very entertaining.
Still haven’t seen the episode, believe it or not (I won’t even try to make an excuse), but there probably isn’t anything new I could say about the dances anyway. Just commenting on what new there is.
As strange as I’ve found Billy Ray Cyrus’ run, I find the reaction to him at least ten times weirder. For Pete’s sake, when the hell does anyone get a free pass just for “trying hard” and “hanging in there”? Does that COMPLETELY excuse stinking up the joint? Now to BRC’s credit, he has made a fight of it, and I’d have to call him solidly mediocre. That’s definitely sufficient for the early stages, but not when it’s down to five. (And I also remind everyone that 5 contestants left equals 4 votes per phone, so an outpouring of viewer support can’t save him anymore.) He’s not terrible, but at this stage “not terrible” isn’t enough. Easy to understand, right?
The Crap Exchange was definitely pushing it, but it amounted to nothing more than a parting blast, so I can’t raise a stink over this. And let’s face it, a little ribbing is good for reality TV, especially one that’s supposed to be entertaining.
Anyway, ripping the judges is a stupid idea, mainly because they give you your scores. Slag them, and you’re essentially saying that you have no intention of winning this thing. Moot point for BRC, though, as his chances were between “none” and “totally none” from the very beginning.
PunditLisa - No one with five working brain cells is going to tear down BRC for walking out of some silly little stars-with-too-much-time-on-their-hands show. Staying on the show and facing the judges means dealing with criticism. Period. And IMO, they were extremely lenient with him. Bruno Tonioli just finally ran out of patience. I’d cut him a little slack on this one. I mean, he’s far more important to this show than late-middle round cannon fodder.
twickster - Friendly reminder! The finals has three contestants! (Y’know, so there isn’t a threat of someone winning the judges scores and losing the vote and the other vice versa, which makes it a tie, and we have more stupid controversy.) The only way Ian wasn’t going to make it was if BRC finished ahead of him; it wasn’t happening with him last in points and a measly 4 votes per.
You are correct that the finals will have three contestants this season. But the ordinal rankings have been abandoned. Instead, for each couple, their percentage of the total judge points awarded during the night is added to their percentage of the audience vote. So the tie thing isn’t going to happen any more, even if they went down to two couples in the final.
For example, the sum of all the scores awarded on Monday night was 251. So each couple got points from the judges as follows:
Apolo & Julianne: 58/251 = 23.1%
Joey & Kym: 55/251 = 21.9%
Laila & Maks: 53/251 = 21.1%
Ian & Cheryl: 47/251 = 18.7%
BRC & Karina: 38/251 = 15.1%
So we know that I&C’s share of the audience vote exceeded J&K’s by at least 3.2 percentage points. I know we can calculate a maximum percentage that B&K and J&K each received, but I can’t be bothered to do that additional math. Maybe someone else will jump in.
You know how I’ve been rooting for Joey since Week I? Forget Joey. I just converted to the Cult of Apolo. That quickstep was freaking phenomenal.