DWTS 12, Week 8 – Kirstie Alley & Maksim Chmerkovskiy Talk About The “Winner Takes All” Cha Cha and More
Wow, what a few days makes again for Kirstie. She continues to slim down. She looks so amazing. Check her and Maks out in this new ET Online footage. Maks explains the “winner takes all” Cha Cha. They tease each other as always, and more. Hoots as always.
I adore this couple!!!! Never a dull moment…and the way Kirstie reduces Maks to amused speechlessness is priceless.
Kirstie looks beautiful! She looks healthier in this clip than she did last week. Obviously she has makeup on in this, but she even sounds stronger this week. Way to go! Go Kirstie & Maks!!!
LOVE HER SO FRIGGIN’ MUCH. Everytime I see her I’m transported back to all the best movies of my youth. 😉
And if Maks could win a MBT? Ahhhhhh….
Love her impression of Maks!! This competition would have been so dull without them.
What are the DWTS producers trying to achieve with the Cha Cha danceoff? It’s pretty hard on the body to dance 4 times one evening. The older the star, the harder it will be to recover between dances (all athletes know this). I think that the quality of the performances will suffer. More mistakes.
Maybe the teams are so close, they have to make it more challenging to separate the three who will go on to the final from the one who will go home.
I hope to see Kirstie and Maks in the final. They have and are doing a phenomenal job!
@Claudia – What are the producers trying to do? I think they’re trying to make sure a certain couple makes it to the final. There’s been a lot of speculation as to which couple, but this seems to me to stack the deck against Kirstie and Ralph.
I haven’t seen any evidence during the season that the judges have favorites out of the remaining couples–at least not egregiously so. I know Carrie Ann loves Hines and Bruno loves Chelsea–but I think they all adore both Ralph and Kirstie. So it’s difficult to tell.
tbh, I just think they’re trying to keep the show “fresh” and viewers on their toes, so they try new things each season. I imagine the producers get bored and want to experiment. Easy to do when your ratings are so high and there’s little chance of cancellation. Low risk, high reward, you know?
beth – I have to respectfully disagree with your comment. I’ve seen quite a few instances of judges having favorites – as you mention, CAI LOVES Hines (to the point of “overlooking” a MASSIVE lift during their Rumba). All three of the judges seem to have their “punching bags” – Romeo, for instance, got clocked on a “lift”, while Petra and Dmitry could seem to do no wrong. And add three, IMO, were quite harsh on Ralph & Karina, who did the best they could with what practice time they had on the Cha-cha.
But I could write off the judges behavior as “phase of the moon; size of the tides; or really good Maui-Wowy”. The main issues I have with the “winner take all” crapola are
1. It takes away the voice of the fans. DWTS has always been a 50/50 deal – the judges score, and the viewers vote. I have a voice. With this little rule change, not so much.
2. It seems to be structured in a way that specifically benefits some (well, 2) of the contestants. As Maks said in the video, it amounts to 4 dances in the same night. For example, if you’re a 60 year-old woman, 4 dances in a single night is a problem. On the other hand, if you’re a 35 year-old NFL professional wide receiver that’s just been in the Super Bowl, again – not so much.
I’m upset that this wonky “bonus dance” seems less like an entertaining *dance*, and more like running an obstacle course. If it’s just a case of the producers trying to keep things fresh, then (IMO) they need to think of something else.
indeed, i noted that they often have favorites–but that at this time it doesn’t seem to be an issue, what with the four we have left (hence my “not egregiously so” comment). And I expect judges to have favorites. They are all human after all. 🙂
And I’m withholding judgment until I see what the “bonus” dance actually is. I fear that, as with many watchers/fans of shows, we can get all up in arms about changes in rules/format (or storylines for fictional shows) before we give them a chance. I welcome the producers introducing new components into the mix and I don’t think it’s right to jump to the conspiracy route (as some are wont to do) right away. I think it’s more likely that the producers, as I said before, are just trying to experiment and see what sticks. If it doesn’t go well, they won’t do it next time. What’s the harm, really? At least that’s my attitude.
Heck, we could get something really awesome out of this, after all. Probably not, but you never know until we see what becomes of it. 🙂
… I guess it all depends on where you draw the “egregious line”. 😉
Seems to me that lately, our 3 intrepid judges have placed the bulls-eye squarely on Ralph’s back.
I understand your position, and I hope you’re right – this is all an innocent “Hey, I wonder what would happen if..” kind of thing. However (and maybe my tin-foil hat is a little too tight today), I don’t think so… 😉
Sally’s right Beth – and in my opinion they are egregiously biased against Ralph.
As for your comment about low risk high reward – yeah, if the producers have the brains of 12 year old boys. The ratings are what they are for a REASON. You tinker too much with the formula and your show goes into the toilet. Anyone who looks at those numbers should be able to clearly see they are stacking the deck in favor of one couple – most likely either Hines or Chelsea. Now, if you are a Hines or Chelsea fan, you might think you can be more blase about it – but if your favorite doesn’t end up getting the 15 points, your odds of going home have increased substantially. From one in four to one in three.
Not sure it’s going to work that way? How many ways can YOU read “winner-takes-all”?? It’s in the ABC press release.
Heidi, thank you! You just made it even more clear for me. 🙂
Both Kirstie and Ralph have been pulled through by their fan bases, when they were at the bottom of the judges scoreboard. I don’t think that Chelsea has ever been at the bottom of the judges scores, even though she and Mark have been placed in the faux bottom two a couple of times (Bad Mark! Bad! No more floor crawling! 😉 ), and I know that Hines hasn’t.
So, if you’re a Hines or Chelsea fan, and your favorite DOESN’T get the 15 points, they now have a 1 in 3 chance of going home, and they’re going up against two ALREADY PROVEN fan bases… it looks worser and worser, doesn’t it?
Heidi, yourcomment about the prodcers having the brains of 12 year old boys cracked me up!! Sometimes I wonder.
Sally, I agree that they have been extra hard on Ralph all season, and for the life of me, I don’t understand why.
I really hate the idea of this winner take all dance/the judgees having more power. It really does put some a of the pairs at a huge disadvantage.
*sigh*
Winner take all, I say yes, if their judging on dance, if it’s just to make sure a certain team gets into the finals, then no.