Is anyone else watching? Jerry and Anna are doing “Celebrate.” This is just so … yikes.
Slight spoilers ahead:
Jerry has improved a lot but he just is out of his league. Loved that he found his sense of humor, but thought his freestyle was meh.
Wow. Stacy & Tony blew it big time with that boring, uninspired disco. I absolutely agreed with the judges that they expect so much more from her. I would have loved to see what Lisa Rinna could have done with “Stayin’ Alive.”
Drew & Cheryl. Didn’t love the music but their freestyle was so energetic and fun that I’m rooting for them to win.
The first hour was utterly useless. One of these days I’m gonna wise up and tune in halfway through the show, when the actual dancing starts.
Anyway, quite a lot surprised me there tonight. Stacy’s frankly rather listless freestyle; Jerry and Anna’s giant 'fros, which cracked me up, and the sheer raunchiness of Drew’s freestyle, which I enjoyed thoroughly.
I don’t recall that the finals of last British series involved repeats of previous routines with the dancers even wearing the same costumes, but maybe my memory is faulty.
Should Drew have gotten a perfect score? The ‘Thriller’ routine seemed to come of better than the first time he did it, and the freestyle was wildly ambitious but not technically perfect. I’d still give him high score overall and I hope he wins the whole enchilada.
Both Stacy’s dances were letter-perfect as usual, but as PunditLisa said, she blew it big time on the freestyle, mainly by missing the chance to really cut loose.
Jerry was his most entertaining yet, and his freestyle took some risks, but he still comes in last from a technical standpoint. Now the big question: will the audience carry him to a (sorry, fans) undeserved win?
I really would like to see Drew win the whole ball of wax. . . and the ugly disco ball trophy as well. I just hope Mrs. Lachey keeps that kid inside until Sunday! She does look ready to pop!
And I’m betting that ultimately the judges’ scoring of the Sunday night dance will determine the winner. Consider this: So far Drew has 3 points tonight, Stacey has 2 and Jerry has 1. Let’s assume that Jerry gets the most Viewer Votes, Stacey is second and Drew is third. That means everybody goes into Sunday night with 4 Points! Or let’s say Stacey gets the most Viewer Votes and Drew is second. They will both have 5 points. It’s all just too close. Unless, of course, Drew gets the most Viewer Votes. . . then he’s untouchable.
I didn’t like the finals - they’ve done those dances before. In fact, not only have they done them, but they reprised them on Fridays and highlighted them several times. I could practically go out and do that jive myself. I didn’t need to see it again. (Also, by giving Jerry 9’s it meant that the others had to be higher. Had to. No surprise there.)
Jerry & Anna’s freestyle was weird. Stacy’s was dull. Deadly dull. I kept thinking they were going to do something (they’d been told to go to the edge - and no.) 2 hours worth of TV (mostly fastforwarded) and the only thing worth watching was in the last 10 minutes.
I loved Drew & Cheryl’s freestyle.
Right now, if Drew comes in second in audience votes, then he’ll win. If they come in last, Jerry (who I assume is leading) wins.
I came to this show fairly late in the game and I’m who is responsible for working up and choreographing the dance routine? My guess would be that it’s the pros. If so, isn’t it unfair to blame Stacy for the dull performance that took place tonight?
Frankly, I hope Stacy wins. She is absolutely mesmerizing! When you watch her dance it’s hard to tell which one is the amatuer and which one is the pro. This isn’t the case with any of the other amatuer dancers; although in my opinion Lisa Rinna came close.
I have got to get the damn VCR hooked up …
I was switching back and forth to skating, and skating outranked this, so I caught Jerry and Anna’s freestyle (very fun), and Stacy and Tony’ s (yup, dull as ditchwater, I can’t believe no one told them that while they were rehearsing) – but totally missed Drew and Cheryl’s, and they’re the team I’m rooting for. I’m sure I’ll get a recap Sunday night – but could someone describe it? Style? Song?
That is why I said Stacy **& Tony ** blew it. 
Although I’m sure Stacy was allowed some input. With her WWE background I was expecting to see something along the caliber of an off the ropes scissorhead flying camel, but noooo, we got a disco routine that would have been right at home at a junior high talent night.
Oh, and I just wanted to say that I FINALLY figured out why I think Tony looks familiar! Tony is John Edward’s (“Crossing Over”) long lost brother!
Well, by ‘Stacy’ I meant both partners, really (yeah, I know that’s not clear), and from the practice tapes that have been shown on the show so far, it seems pretty certain that the pro and the amateur both have input while working up their routines. In this specific case, Stacy and Tony, who have both shown considerable athleticism previously, elected to go way conservative on the one dance where they could do things like lifts that are banned from the regular ballroom styles. The other two pairs may not have had the same levels of technical expertise, but they both had much more inventive and difficult programs, and the judges scores gave them credit for that.
Country outfits, danced to “Save a horse, ride a cowboy”. Lots of lifts, slinging each each other over their shoulders and between each others’ legs, stuff like that. Pretty much of a hoot, the crowd went absolutely nuts, and the judges gave 'em a triple ten.
Here’s where I think Stacey’s height and long legs worked against her. I think she was just too big for Tony to lift successfully except for the first lift they did where he was swinging her about with her legs extended. That was kind of nice. But that last up-on-the-shoulders-oof-grunt lift was plug ugly. I think the judges gave them a gift with that 26: no difficulty in the program and not-so-hot execution.
Omigod. I can’t wait to see the recap on that!
Yeah, that’s right, annie, I forgot about that. Stacey seemed to have a thing about heights anyway, and then Tony did indeed struggle visibly while trying to lift her there at the end. I guess they decided to go with something relatively safe as a result and it backfired on them.
So, uh…nevermind! 
On another note, I thought it was embarrassing when Len Goodman was praising Drew and Cheryl and he said that this has been such a wonderful season because they have “the best girl” and “the best boy”. . . and everyone, especially Cheryl, seemed to think Len meant HER. I’m almost positive he meant Stacey was “the best girl.” Anyone? Anyone?
I assumed he meant Stacy. I can’t imagine anyone else would have been confused because there is a clear delineation between pros and amateurs.
As far as Stacy’s height goes, yes, I’ve always thought it worked against her. But I also think that Drew’s height works against him, too. He could do some lifts, but he could have never managed the lift that Tony and Stacy did. Lifting is the only area where Jerry was heads above (er, pardon the pun) the other male competitors. I just can’t imagine Master P, George Hamilton, that ESPN dude, OR Drew pulling off any of those great lifts.
Upon rewatch today, I saw Samantha’s dance. She was competent. Maybe she should sign up next season. I also didn’t realize that they had yet ANOTHER dance on Sunday that will be judged. Thank goodness for my DVR or I’d lose patience with this show altogether.
Well, I was confused, because I was thinking “Yeah, she’s good – but is she the best female pro ever?” So I was with Cheryl on that – he’s talking to that pair, it’s easy to assume he’s, yanno, talking to that pair.
Yeah, that gave me pause, too. FWIW, I thought he was saying that for the first time there was a team consisting of both the best girl pro and the best boy amatuer. Upon reflection I think he was probably talking about Stacey, but it didn’t seem so to me at the time.
I’m sure Len was talking about Stacy with that remark, but I thought it was really tacky to be tossing compliments to Stacy during Drew’s time, even if it was couched as the prelude to a very nice compliment for Drew.
I loved “Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy”! And I also laughed my ass off at the 'fros, and even more at Jerry’s staying “in character” in the interview. I’m glad he managed to relax this week. I also was very impressed with his foxtrot, which stayed together with his partner nicely, and moved smoothly across the floor with very nice footwork.
For those who missed anything, all the dances have been going up on Rafael Pungin’s blog at http://dwts.info. This week isn’t up yet, but he’ll probably get them up tonight, judging by history.
I also liked Tom Bergeron’s clip about “total network domination”.
But then couldn’t they have done the “down lifts” like the one that L&L did during the viennese waltz (I have no idea what they’re really called - but that’s how Louis described what they were doing). And didn’t Stacy end up in a lift during that waltz?
Also during “Save a Horse” which was just really, really good & fun, Drew & Cheryl weren’t just doing lifts - they were bouncing around the stage, I’m pretty sure they did the Texas two-step for a while, they did a lot of fun things as partners, there was energy everywhere.
Stacy & Tony just kind of danced next to each other - the song was slow, so it didn’t use their speed, it didn’t show off how good of a dancer she was. (Her samba & jive did better at that) & it was emotionless.
And was it me, or were the singers horribly off key at the beginning of “Celebration”?
They were bad – but it was the version of “Delirious” that had me whimpering “the horror! the horror!”
Anyone else on the East Coast watching the finale show? Jerry and Anna just did their final dance – a cha-cha – and it was a lot of fun. He really has improved tremendously. He’s clearly on a different level from the other two pairs – but he also started on a different level. He’s clearly the “most improved” star this season.