DWTS 11, Week 1 – Miscellaneous Bits of News

Occassionally I am driven to post interesting little tidbits of news I find around the web. It’s not a statement of whether I believe the posted news is actually true or not. Sometimes I just find stuff funny. 🙂 Like this bit from PopEater.com:

First? The Hoff Shocked ‘Dancing’ Fans Dropped Him So Fast

David Hasselhoff was feeling hassled after becoming the first celebrity voted off ‘Dancing With the Stars’ on Tuesday. Friends and insiders close to the ‘Baywatch’ star and the hit show tell me David was shocked and humiliated by the surprising results.

“David thought he had a bigger fan base and just can’t understand what happened,” a friend of The Hoff’s tells me. “He honestly thought he had a chance to win this competition. He would have never agreed to even participate if he thought for one second he would be the first to go.”

And just like his dance moves, the bruised actor didn’t exactly accept his defeat with grace.

“David is blaming everyone but himself for the vote,” an insider tells me. “Backstage after the show, he was blaming the producers, the lighting guys and even the costume department.”

Cheryl is writing her blogs for MSN.com this season – interesting to hear her talk about the height difference with Rick. Click the link to read the whole thing:

This year is sure to be a lot of fun since we have a really great cast. There are so many different personalities and every season is so different, so it’s fun to learn more and more about all the cast members. This year is going to be challenging for me because I’m dancing with someone quite tall. I’ve never danced with a man so tall before in my whole dancing career. For me, it’s going to be a different challenge than I’ve ever had on the show. I’m partnered with Rick Fox who is 6’7” and I’m 5’4”, so our height difference is insane.

Rick is doing well so far in rehearsals and if he has his fan base behind him and he doesn’t do bad and continues to improve every week, then I think we might have a chance to make it pretty far. The goal going into every season is always to win or make it quite far in the competition, and I see a lot of potential in Rick. The first few days I was a little scared since I was thinking, “this guy is so tall and I don’t know what I’ll do with him,” but I just decided to start at the beginning and taught him how to walk gracefully and how to use his height and long arms to our advantage. The difference in height is so dramatic, the shoe department of the show had to make me custom 4” heels so I could at least reach up to his chest level. I have always competed in 3” heels, and even that 1” is a big difference. It’s been a challenge, but it’s been a great challenge for me the last few weeks. It’s been fun to mold someone of his height into a dancer.

Mark’s writing his for USA Today – it’s kinda short and I don’t want to post the whole thing, so follow this link to read more:

What a show! I’m shocked that David Hasselhoff left. I’m really going to miss him screaming in the hallways of our rehearsal space with his booming voice! Seriously though, his partner, Kym (Johnson) is a dear friend, and I’m bummed she couldn’t stay longer.

I’m really proud of Bristol. She’s come so far in such a short amount of time, and I’m excited to continue to teach her as the competition carries on. We have the Quick Step this week, which I think will suit Bristol nicely. This dance is all about elegance and class, which she oozes.

I found this article from The Guardian interesting, and it’s clear that I’m American through and through because I prefer DWTS. 🙂

Dancing With The Stars v Strictly: which has the fancier footwork?
Which do you give top marks to? The glitz and glamour of the US show or the British version’s stern tellings-off

Thought you’d had enough celebrity-dancing launch-show excitement for one month? It appears not. Strictly might have unveiled its celebrity lineup a fortnight ago, but tonight its bigger, brasher, American cousin Dancing With The Stars hits UK screens. And as ever, this is going to be a series worth watching.

Everything is so much shinier and slicker on the US show than it is in Strictly. There are the hosts: Tom Bergeron who is more adept at reading an autocue than not-doddery-doddery-he-is-apparently-not Bruce Forsyth; and Brooke Burke who, while surprisingly inept at proffering a microphone to the person she’s interviewing, at least has expertise of the competition – she’s a former DwtS champion. Then there’s the music: while Strictly’s Dave Arch and his wonderful orchestra are great, the Dancing with the Stars band is conducted by legendary MD Harold Wheeler. And, of course, the celebrities.

And therein lies the main difference between the two series. In DwtS, you can expect to see maximums given out by the third or fourth week of the series – presumably because American audiences like to see their celebrities do well – with Goodman and his fellow judges Carrie-Ann Inaba and Bruno Tonioli (who’s even more camp and screechy than he is on Strictly) happy to overmark.

On Strictly, however, you’ll be lucky to see a maximum score of 40 prior to the semi-finals – although since Arlene Phillips left the judging panel we’ve been solely reliant on Craig Revel-Horwood to bring a modicum of sense to the proceedings. Add to that the fact that American ballroom dancing seems to be judged on different criteria half the time (watch their version of the Viennese waltz and you’ll see) and it’s no wonder that the US celebrities seem to do better than their UK counterparts.