Apparently StGermain and I aren’t the only two with Ty crushes.
But damn, he looked even more surprised than Lil Kim did – understandably, because she deserved to go to the semifinals and he doesn’t.
WAG: More women than men vote, and they were either charmed by his ass shaking or offended by Lil Kim’s, or both.
Unusually for me, I actually watched that live. Confused expletives were yelled at the TV.
I don’t know how Tom and Samantha resisted calling that ‘one of the most shocking eliminations ever’ throughout the whole show. Because I’ve certainly never been more shocked by this show. On the other hand, I was more shocked because they didn’t, so I suppose that’s probably why.
God knows I love Ty, but he is not 1/10th the dancer that Lil Kim is, even if he works 12 times as hard. If one of the three good dancers was going to accidentally go, I would have assumed it would be Gilles, with his lack of a built in fan club, but then, maybe I’m just projecting my own desire for Gilles to go onto the voters.
Tom and Samantha use the “shocking elimination” line if the producers tell them to, but Tom has said that he doesn’t know who’s been eliminated until they whisper it in his headset during the final elimination.
I agree that it was a double-fakeout by the producers, though.
Chelsie looked like she was going to cry. Not because she doesn’t want to keep dancing, but in that horrible “I didn’t know that I was doing that to you” way.
I was truly shocked at the result as well, I was expecting Lil Kim to be in the final three, let alone the semi-final.
That is kind of my pet-peeve for shows like this, it may be “Dancing with the Stars”, “American Idol” or another similar show where the audience is asked to “Vote in”, people do not necessarily vote for the best performer.
They may vote for a local favorite, the one they perceive as handsome or sexy or some other criteria that may not be truly relevant.
There was one time a few season ago here in Canada when we had the “Canadian Idol”, in Ottawa, a local newscaster urged the viewers to vote for the last contestant from our region, the guy was NOT even good, why should I have voted for him.
In the case of “Dancing with the Stars”, I guess they are trying to avoid that problem by having professional judges give scores as well, but even with the low scores they gave Ty this week, we still get this result. I expect even hasher critics and lower scores next week.
My guess is Ty is getting a lot of the same votes that Sara Evans & Billy Ray Cyrus got, because of some reason other than “she/he’s a good dancer.”
I like Ty. I’ve said so many, many times. But really? This? He needed to go last night.
Should they? Maybe I missed it, but I don’t recall being told by the show that people are supposed to be voting for the best dancer, they seem very careful just to say that people are voting for “the person you want to see next week.”
In that case, the idea that the best performer should be voted for is just your opinion of what the contest should be about, and is no more valid than someone using rate of improvement as their voting criteria.
Also, this is a team competition, not just an individual competition. It’s “Ty and Chelsie,” or “Lil’ Kim and Derek.” From what we’ve seen this season, has any pro really done better than Chelsie? Combine the skill she is showing this season with where Ty is, and I think it’s really not that unreasonable that they’re still around.
And this isn’t American Idol. The winner doesn’t get a contract or money or anything like that – they get a mirror ball trophy. WOW! Voting for “the person you want to see next week”, and not necessarily the best dancer, doesn’t really matter in this competition. I enjoy watching Ty and Gilles and Shawn. I also really like their partners, which throws a whole other wrench into the voting on this show (you know, it’ll take a horribly awful partner to get me to stop voting for Maks!). But in the end, who really cares… It’s the awesome Mirror Ball Trophy!
Agree. The people who keep going are those who have some combination of dance ability and a winning personality – because those are the people we want to keep watching. There are occasional “miscarriages of justice” – Cloris Leachman lasted way longer than she should have, though Wozniak, this season, got booted pretty promptly, and the contested win of the soap star in the first season led to a revamp of the voting rules – but generally the good dancers who we like last, and the bad dancers and the people who don’t grok the vibe (Penn, I’m looking at you) don’t.
[OT] I’m currently watching Gilmore Girls on DVD, and in an episode from the beginning of season four that I watched last night, Emily held Rory hostage, making her watch hour after hour of ballroom dancing competition. At one point, Emily points out Corky Balas and his wife as many-times champs, and says that Corky is working on a show about their lives and careers that will star his son, Corky Jr. “No,” thought I, “his son is Mark, not Corky Jr.”
I wonder what happened to that show – and if Corky Jr is gnashing his teeth that Mark got the star-making DWTS gig. [/OT]
Weird. I just Wiki’d Corky Ballas.
"Mark Alexander “Corky” Ballas, Sr. (Born 1961 in Houston, Texas), is a retired competitive ballroom dancer who holds several Latin dance championship titles[1], [2].
He has one son, DWTS Current Champion Mark Ballas, with former wife and partner Shirley Ballas, born on May 24, 1986. Corky and Shirley Ballas also raised and trained Julianne Hough, the two-time [Dancing with the Stars US series] champion, and Derek Hough, the current reigning Dancing with the Stars champion. "
So Corky Jr, is Mark, since Corky Sr. is really Mark. But did we know that he “raised and trained” Derek & Julianne? And what does that even mean?
Ah-ha. I clicked on Julianne, and apparantly their parents sent Julianne and Derek to London to live with Corky for a year while they were going through their divorce (they too were dancers).
That’s what I thought, too…until the details of Shawn Johnson’s contract became public. The celebrities get a* boat load* of money, depending on how long they survive. (Too lazy to look up the cite.)
Oy! posted the info on page two. The crux:
So they’re making money – which I don’t have a problem with, they’re performers on a show I enjoy. That money is paid as the season goes along – the prize is the mirror ball only, no prize money or contract, as RachelChristine pointed out. Of course, there’s a career bounce for many, though far from all, contestants. Pros get paid as well, I’m sure, plus get exposure of a kind that has been completely unavailable to ballroom dancers in the U.S. prior to this.
Thanks for looking that up. Yanno, I have addl. respect for Mark that he’d decide not to go with the the “jr” of his father’s nickname.
Looks like next season may lose all three of the Wonder Triplets.
Julianne only came back this season because her boyfriend was on; it doesn’t surprise me overmuch that the other two might not be back.
And there’s little doubt that this week Ty picked up all of the remaining Chuck Wickes votes.
I am exasperated at Kim being gone, but I’m still more exasperated that Melissa is still there.
Good point on who the country fans are voting for.
Why do you not like Melissa?
I don’t dislike Melissa, but I had the same opinion with Steve-O earlier in the season. If a contestant cannot compete during the actual “game” as it were, then that contestant should be out of the competition. This nonsense of being scored on an earlier taped rehearsal and then relying on the fans to take pity and give votes, essentially, at that point, for being someone that they like, is nonsense. If they want to keep up any pretense of people being judged for their dance performance, and it not being a big popularity contest, then that rule needs to go directly into the trash can.
I don’t think people voted for Melissa because she’s popular (if she is). I think people (including I) voted for her because during performance, she’s one of the, if not the best dancer, and the competition would have been lessened without her.
I could have sworn I saw Jewel and the back of Ty’s head entering the White House Correspondent’s dinner. I mean on TV; I didn’t attend myself. I was rather startled (in part, because I wouldn’t expect to be able to recognize Jewel or Ty in a line-up, let alone a crowd), but am still uncertain. Did anyone else see them?
Eh, people are judged on their dance performance – and Melissa got 7s, even based on rehearsal footage, which seemed like well-deserved marks – but the voting, that’s a crap shoot. I don’t think the show even maintains a pretense that the people voting are supposed to be doing it for the best dancer.
Time for Ty to go home – he had a hell of a run to make it as far as he did, and I think it’s great that he’s garnered a couple of million new fans, but he doesn’t belong in the finals. I just hope those millions of fans don’t send him there undeservedly.
I really don’t get the Gilles love – 60 for the night? The waltz, esp., was just so “meh” to me – and I loved the “I Got Rhythm” number that the judges were so snarky about. I’m rooting for Melissa and Tony to win, though I don’t think they will.
(And Oy! – didn’t watch the Correspondents’ Dinner, so don’t know if Ty and Jewel were there or not.)
I was watching the Correspondent’s Dinner in order to hear Obama and Sykes, but there were a lot of famous people entering. (As it turned out, while Obama was funny, it was mostly a waste of time watching.) But as the various stars were walking the red carpet, I thought I saw Jewel’s face in the background, and near her what appeared to be the back of Ty’s head. If I wasn’t hallucinating, I guess they weren’t considered big enough names for either C-SPAN or MSNBC to show specifically. Or they weren’t there. I just don’t think of the Rodeo/Country Music circuit as Obama’s (or any Democrat’s) base, so I was a tad surprised.