Dancing with the Stars – History of the Judges Scores, Part 2
Part 2 in my series about the Judges Scoring History covers season 6 of Dancing with the Stars; the season of Kristi Yamaguchi and Mark Ballas (read Part 1 here). Prior to re-watching the season, I remembered it as a season in which Kristi dominated. I don’t think, anymore, that that is necessarily the case. She is still probably the biggest ringer the show has ever cast, when looking at it from a fanbase AND experience point of view, but she didn’t dominate the show in like I remember. I also never got the feeling – like I did with Nicole – that the judges were purposely underscoring her in order to make it look more like a horse race. In fact, I have very few gripes with the judging in this season, period.
Here were the scores from Week 5, onward:
Season 6 Weekly Scores (Part I)
Celebrity | Week 5 | Week 6 | Week 7 | Week 8 |
Kristi | 29 (Rumba) | 30 (Jive) | 26 (V. Waltz) | 29 (Quickstep) |
28 (Cha Cha) | 26 (Samba) | |||
Jason | 27 (Rumba) | 24 (Cha Cha) | 29 (Quickstep) | 29 (Tango) |
26 (Paso Doble) | 23 (Samba) | |||
Christian | 23 (Rumba) | 27 (Foxtrot) | 25 (V. Waltz) | 28 (Tango) |
21 (Samba) | 29 (Mambo) | |||
Marissa | 24 (Samba) | 26 (V. Waltz) | 27 (Tango) | 25 (Foxtrot) |
25 (Rumba) | 25 (Mambo) | |||
Mario | 27 (Samba) | 28 (Rumba) | 24 (Foxtrot) | 27 (V. Waltz) |
27 (Mambo) | 26 (Jive) | |||
Shannon | 23 (Samba) | 24 (Rumba) | 27 (Tango) | |
24 (Rumba) | ||||
Marlee | 22 (Samba) | 21 (Mambo) | ||
Priscilla | 21 (Rumba) |
Season 6 Weekly Scores (Part II)
Celebrity | Week 9 | Week 10 | Week Finale |
Kristi | 29 (Tango) | 30 (Cha Cha) | 30 (Jive) |
28 (Jive) | 30 (Freestyle) | ||
Jason | 28 (Foxtrot) | 24 (Cha Cha) | 30 (Quickstep) |
27 (Paso Doble) | 27 (Freestyle) | ||
Christian | 27 (V.Waltz) | 26 (Cha Cha) | |
29 (Samba) | 26 (Freestyle) | ||
Marissa | 26 (Quickstep) | ||
26 (Rumba) |
– Week 5 – The judges essentially raved about Mario and Kristi, while all the rest got constructive criticism. I think the judges gave Marissa an accurate score, but were quite harsh on Priscilla and Shannon. Both of them, in addition to Christian, were underscored, particularly when compared to Marissa. Christian, frankly, was robbed. They gave the encore to Kristi, but I was shocked to realize that, IMO, the best dance of the night belonged to Edyta and Jason.
– Week 6 – Here we see, again, a bit of over-scoring – Christian had been in the bottom 2 the previous week, so this week he gets raves on a dance that clearly seemed rushed to me. Again, Mario and Kristi get raves, and Marissa gets handled with kid gloves. Marissa isn’t a “bad” dancer, per se, but she isn’t as good as Shannon or Pricilla. I often think that if you dance better than the judges expect, you get better scores than people who danced better – if those people are expected to dance better. Follow me? Anyway, Mario would have gotten a higher score if not for the lift police. I don’t disagree with the judges and Shannon’s hips (she has none, lucky beyotch), but the words exchanged with Bruno were quite harsh – the look of utter shock on Shannon’s face was hard to look at and that shock is a likely catalyst for what comes later…but more on that later.
– Week 7 – This is the week where everyone has one good dance and one not so good dance. And that pretty much sums it up. I would say there’s a trend between this season and Season 5, but it can likely be chalked up to the first week with two whole dances. The only scoring that impressed me as off (other than Marissa) was Jason. As much as I loved him, I thought he was slightly overscored in his quickstep. I just don’t get the love affair they have with Marissa. I mean, she’s not a “bad” dancer, but I don’t think she’s always worthy of the scores she gets. I think she might be getting the “personality” score.
– Week 8 – A week later than Season 5, we hear the old mantra of “that was good, but not quite good enough for heading into the semi-finals. Marissa got it, as did Jason on his second dance. Christian did not get the talk, he actually got raves and this was the week after he tore his tendon in his arm. He actually did very well, but I thought that he was not as good as Mario who was scored lower. Kristi got her usual raves although she and Mario both got some flack for their second dances. Kristi because her Samba was “awkward and out of control” – and I absolutely agreed with that assessment. WAY too much stuff in that dance. Mario’s feet were apparently bad or “rough” – but still, better than Christian. While I agreed with Jason’s critiques, there is no way he was 3 points behind Kristi in the second dance. As for Marissa, she is far below the other dancers in terms of quality.
– Week 9 – Marissa gets a break (a little) on the scores, much like the semi-final ease up in Season 5. She still gets a good bit of criticism (lack of body content in hold, missed leap on the run), including the “It’s not a semi-final dance” for the second one. But her quickstep was pretty good, so I can see the improvement in score. On the other hand, Kristi, Christian and Jason all get basically rave reviews with minor critiques thrown in. Kristi got the “too hectic” from Len on her Tango (agreed) and the “hair out of sync” from Carrie Ann on her Jive (agreed) – which was really Mark out dancing her a bit, like he has a tendency to do with all his partners on Jive. Christian was “occasionally flatfooted” on his Viennese Waltz. I take it back, Jason was not critiqued at all and in my notes I have the words “slightly over rated” for his Paso Doble. That’s okay, because I have “underscored” next to his Foxtrot. 🙂
This is a random note, but I noticed that Marissa got harder dances, while Kristi got dances that were perfect for her. The dances on this night were determined by “random draw” and I always wonder about those and if they are REALLY random. At the end of the night I also felt that Jason out danced Kristi, even though she beat him by two points.
– Week 10 – Jason and Christian are pretty much left in Kristi’s dust. She is the most consistent and technically superior of the three so that’s no big thing. Not much point in discussing the scoring, although I will say that Christian’s injury does catch up with him – I didn’t get the feeling there was underscoring going on to prop up Kristi. As for Jason – the Cha Cha was clearly not his dance, especially not in a “cha cha challenge” where they all dance to the same song one after the other. Not that Kristi needed propping. I predicted as soon as her name was announced that she would win. She’s *Kristi Yamaguchi* after all.
Season 6 Summary – On finale night, Christian is announced as 3rd place before there is anymore dancing. After that, both Kristi and Jason are given perfect 30’s – pretty safe, since Kristi is still 9 points ahead. I didn’t note whether I found Jason’s score to be valid or not, since it really didn’t matter at that point. No one is going to over come a 9 point lead against Kristi. That’s not to say the scores weren’t valid – they were. I had very few problems with how this season went down. No real surprises. No shocks. They did make a point, from time to time of saying that a dance wasn’t up to par for a given point in the season – which is how it should be.
Random Observations:
I forgot that pro dance. Thank you for posting it. I wish we had more pro dances like that now. Interesting to look at season 6 and maybe the caliber went up but Kristi’s dances don’t hold up. They are still amazing. Kristi’s jives versus Mya’s, Jennifer or Nicole’s jives. Her jive isn’t as impressive anymore. Same with her tango compared to Jennifer’s two tangos. Mark did a lot of the same spin moves in so many of Kristi’s dances. Jason isn’t entertaining but Priscilla and Mario are more impressive than I remembered them. Priscilla is amazing for her age.
Yeah, Melissa, I was surprised to see that kristi’s dances didn’t quite stand the test of time – I also attributed that to Nicole and, to a lesser extent, Jennifer. I think she was a better dancer than Jennifer, but I think Derek was more creative with jennifer’s choreo. He had to be, with her issues. I expect that brooke’s dances won’t hold up either, though, and for the same reason.
We need MORE pro dances!!
Thanks for linking that up – it was great to see it again.
And I think you’re right about Derek having to be more creative with his choreo for Jennifer. He couldn’t use a lot of his big tricks because she just couldn’t do them, so he had to actually choreograph a dance. And honestly, I feel that some of his work last season was his best because it was simple, evocative and lovely Maybe not what Emmy nominators look for, but IMHO, more pleasing and more impressive.
Well, I liked the pro dance, but preffered that on “Esa Morena” by Ozomatli. week 4, if I’m not wrong. I love Rueda de Casino and they did one on samba… hehehehe
I loved Kristi. Never forget her mambo, paso, rumba, freestyle and chacha (not team).
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May I suggest you one thing?
Can you compare the scores the judges give to each pro?
For example, Len never gave a 10 to Lacey. I think she will never get a perfect 30 because of him… Think that there could be similar cases… =]
oh, I almost forget…
WE DO WANT/DESERVE/NEED/ASK/CLAIM/WISH/ETC MORE PRO DANCES!!!!
Kristi’s dances are great but compared to others, it doesn’t seem as impressive. Mya’s samba is more entertaining and better than Kristi’s samba. Nicole’s foxtrot is just so entertaining and charming. Jennifer’s viennese waltz is so simple, lovely and emotional. Brooke’s quickstep is better than Kristi’s. Heidi, Brooke’s dances will probably be the same as Kristi’s looking back. Though I find Brooke’s fearlessness impressive. Her salsa with all those tricks and lifts! Also her freestyle.
Jennifer’s age and injury did require more creativity. I think her argentine tango can still garner an Emmy nomination.
That’s tricky, Carlos, because it’s not just about the pro – the producers tend to give certain pros a certain kind of celeb. And if you are a pro who tends to get the wacky dancers then you’re not going to get a ten. Of course, Lacey does cross the ballroom line a lot so that plays in, but if you look at the pros who have gotten tens, it’s not because the judges like them better, but more often based on their partner. I don’t think a strict look at the pro numbers would really tell you anything – too many variables. This series is more about the apparent method that they use to arrive at a score and their comments to the dancers, to see if there has been a change. The commentary, so far, has been relative, not absolute. I will say that I have made a note every time a pro gets either called ou or lauded for choreo – that will be a separate post if it says anything. 🙂
Great Notes Heidi!
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Season 6 brings back many fond memories. That was the time I started college and I couldn’t watch the show regularly so I’d go to Youtube and focus on Marissa, Shannon and Kristi….And I was 100% Team Marissa. She is by far one of my favorite contestants on the show. But I totally see what you’re saying Heidi. Marissa did have harder dances but this was the one season other than season 8, where Tony stepped up his choreography. I liked Marissa’s overall package and she was my girl of Season 6. Was she the best dancer? No, but this was the season that I was going for the “underdog”…actually that’s a lie. I had an “underdog” fever from seasons 3-8 and then came Mya and Nicole. But, I do think Marissa’s bubbly personality helped her get to the semi finals and I don’t recall another moment where I cried when someone was eliminated. But it wasn’t tears of sadness, it was tears of joy (I’m not sappy, Don’t judge me! LOL). Lil’ Kim’s elimination? THOSE were tears of rage. But I digress…
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I remember when Tony choreographed for Marissa the first 3 weeks and Carrie Ann scolded him for not giving Marissa tougher choreography. He whined and moaned about it, but then the next weeks that came, he gave Marissa top notch choreography in my opinion. As Kristi goes, I remember thinking exactly that. It wasn’t memorable. And to me, it hasn’t stood the test of time…especially that Jive that she performed 3 times. I liked Sabrina’s way better in Season 5. But all in all, Marissa was my girl and Thank you Heidi for flooding me with great memories! 🙂
Season 6 was when I first got into Dancing with the Stars. Christian was my favourite because he just put a lot of enthusiasm into his dances and I was amazed at what he could do with one arm. I think Christian may have set the bar for dancing with injuries. It’s also the season that makes me understand why people get annoyed by ringers or people with experience-it’s tough to just have one person dominating an entire season. Although, I do agree that, looking back, Jason and Christian may have made more of an impression entertainment wise, and Jason really did impress me with his dance ability-I think he and Emmit are the reasons I look forward to athletes on the show.
Mario is another standout-I think he was eliminated too soon-he should have made the semi finals, and maybe even the finals-even the I did think the Christian and Jason bromance was adorable and enjoyed the friendly competition that it produced.
With Kristi, I think she was a wonderful dancer. But, I don’t think she had what it takes to be remembered. I partially blame Mark because I think his choreography just didn’t make a lasting impression. I feel like, looking at Nicole and Jennifer’s seasons and even Brooke’s, part of the equation is definitely the difficulty and the quality of the choreography. Kristi danced VERY well, but I feel like she could have done more, if I’m making sense. Mark does give his partners difficult choreography-sometimes too hard, in Shannen’s case and I think Sabrina’s too-but I feel like Kristi rarely pushed her boundaries in an effective way.
That probably made no sense whatsoever-sorry for such a long post!! Season 6 is definitely one of my favourites.
Yes, please, for more pro dances.
“•Derek hurts his neck, then gets food poisoning, then has a meltdown with Shannon the confessional – who was saying he’s never been challenged?? Anyway, the meltdown – they apologized over and over and over and both seemed to regret it. Somehow, that got lost in the discussions of the subject well after the fact.”
I remember this well as well as when Derek had that nasty flu during the Season with Joanna. This guy continues to amaze me always for what he can do and come out on top even being sick or hurt with something.
Great post again Heidi!! Loves everyone’s comments again!
Great post, Heidi! You put so much thought and analysis into your posts. Very interesting to read! Season 6 was actually the first season of DWTS that I’ve ever watched. Looking back, it’s also my least favorite season. Like, I never go back and watch videos of that season. I love Kristi, though. I just knew that she was going to win since her name was announced as part of the cast on Oprah. LOL! But i do remember being impressed with Marlee Matlin and Marissa. I loved their journeys. In regards, to the quality of Kristi’s dances versus some of the more recent champions. . . the quality and caliber of dancing has definitely stepped up since season 6. I think Derek has led the way with his choreography and the other pros had to step up their choreography as well. Mind you, I am biased towards Derek, though! He did say that it was very important to him to create “memorable dances”. So even if he and his partner weren’t in the finals, you could say that you remember lil kim’s jailhouse rock jive or joanna’s futuristic paso doble. Oh yah, I do remember one more thing about season 6!! Mark’s fish faces!!!! Omg, he couldn’t stop doing his fish faces when dancing with Kristi and it was sooooo distracting…. and yet hilarious at the same time!
Heidi, I may be mistaken, but….. I don’t think they EVER did a true Bottom 2 announcement last season, did they? They just did the “still in jeopardy” bit…. I think.
No, I don’t think they did, Lori. I’m wondering when they stopped. I think the last two seasons at least didn’t have a bottom two.
I got really distracted by Mark’s faces, Elmari – he hasn’t been as bad about that lately, which I think it part of the reason I see him as “checked out” of DWTS – or until he got close to the end with Bristol last season, anyway.
Echoing Heidi’s sentiments, now that I look back at most of Kristi’s dances, they seemed amazing at the time – but they don’t seem as impressive now, since the level of conpetition has gone up so much. One thing that Kristi’s performances always seemed to lack for me was emotion – she could do the dances well, without any huge mistakes, but she just seemed to smile for each & every one of them. And if she tried to be serious, it just looked like she was about to start giggling. I doubt the routines Kristi did back then would hold up in competition today – they’re just good compared to some of the great stuff we’ve seen from Nicole & Jennifer, and I even think Evan was better than Kristi.
Season six was definitely one of the least memorable seasons for me – and I think Kristi’s routines were pretty blah compared to what she could possibly have done (in retrospect). I mean, I always love the show but I almost never go back and watch anything from this season. I’m afraid of Mark getting another olympian – his routines are so similar sometimes that I don’t even care and I just feel like anything we’d see out of Nastia we’ve already seen with a combo of Shawn and Kristi. Could he surprise me? Sure! Not counting on it though. However, I actually really liked his choreography for Shannon – it was a shame that she didn’t connect with the audiences. He was definitely “check-out” Mark throughout most of season 11 until he realized he had a shot with Bristol because of the judges scoring and a small contingent of zealous voters.
Yeah, I think Evan would have beaten Kristi, if they had gone head to head.
I agree with Fig. “Season six was definitely one of the least memorable seasons”.
All stars had such a good potential, but don’t really grew.
I loved the giggling of Marissa, but she didn’t did perfect.
Mario and Jason were good, but something was missing…
I liked Christian, but don’t think he wasn’t very good until he “lost” his arm.
I really liked Kristi. For real. And think it’s not fair compare the level from the recent seasons to the formers.
The fact is that every new season the stars have to compete not just against each other, but the former stars.
(same thing happen with the brazilian soccer team. we always compare the team to the one that competed on 1982, 1970…)