Pure DWTS 2011 – Tom Bergeron Rates Season 12, Dishes On Maksim Chmerkovskiy’s Return, & Announces Date For Season 13
I can’t embed this video or audio, but, Tom Bergeron was interviewed by Popwatch in his dressing room after the show Tuesday night (his dressing room is cool). In the audio, Tom talks about the Mirror Ball Trophy and the season as a whole. Overall, Tom was happy with Season 12 and how it had some of the highest ratings compared to other Seasons. He gave it an 8 1/2 rating. He dishes about some of the teasing between cast members and how much this cast will miss each other. He also mentions Maks and how he is retiring the pinch he gave Tom every week which alludes to how Maks might not be coming back next Season (please say it isn’t so. 
). In the interview, he also mentions how September 19th is the premiere date for Season 13. Mark that date on your Calendars. More in the video and audio >>>>>HERE. Don’t miss it!!
Special thanks to Figamentation for the Popwatch link.xx
I’m so glad I discovered you few...
Let’s see… Alec and Edyta, Jonathan, Julianne, Derek… Maks?
I hate losing our Pros! It’s a definite conundrum to be in… The show is GREAT at exposure, but it isn’t that good at allowing the pros to go out and LIVE and express themselves, and go in different directions, and explore their professional options.
A few months between seasons just isn’t enough time to go and DO!
As much as I hate to say this, but maybe they need a rotating pool of a LOT of pros… One pool for the Spring Seasons, and one pool for the Fall Seasons. And, enough pros that we don’t have the same pros each season… Give them exposure, and time to explore their talents. You work hard for 3-4 months, and then you are allowed out into the world on your own for a season or two, with time to rest, and also not have to plan projects around you making sure you are ready to work 24/7 again.
I do miss Derek, and Julianne, and Jonathan, and yes, Edyta…. And will miss Maks if he doesn’t come back, but they need to do what’s best for themselves emotionally, and professionally. And, being a DWTS can be emotionally draining without a break once in a while.
Excellent idea Lori!! I love them all the pros you mentioned too!
I’m afraid that if the show keeps losing the popular pros that a large part of the audience will start getting bored with the show’s formula and start drifting away looking for other sources of entertainment.
The draw for the show is the familar faces–both the pros/host/judges that we recognize and the old faces (stars from the past, etc) and the chance to meet a new “freinds.”
I think that the show can survive a few loses each season, but too many changes and the show can go bad quicky.
Re; the pros…..I think that even the popular pros can take a season off and not hurt the ratings, because there is hope that they’ll return by the next season. People are still wanting /waiting Julianne to come back (not likely), but there has to be a show for her to come back to–so some of ther fans continue to watch even without her on the show.
Add into the popularity of the show is that fact that most of us like mulitple pros–so if at least some of out favorites stay on the show we are happy–or at least will still tune in to watch.
But too many exits, show munipulation, etc and the audience wil leave. Gotta keep the balance.
Yeah, I agree with Cori. It’s a nice idea to increase the number or pros and rotate them, but a large percentage of the audience are fans of particular pros – they all have fanbases of their own. They are a DRAW. you only need to have two tweetdeck columns to see the amount of whining about Derek and, to a lesser extent since she’s been gone for a while, Julianne. LOTS and lots of tweets the first two nights of the season asking where he was and why he wasn’t there.
First of all, I’m very happy about Hines and Kym’s victory on DWTS!! Second, I haven’t been online in the last couple days due to power outage because of a severe thunderstorm but glad to have everything back so I’m back!
I agree about letting the pros go whenever they want to go and explore other things because many of our pros are still young or have been on the show since they were in their 20s (like Maks, Kym and Karina) and I know they have other things they’d like to do. I’m getting a feeling that maybe Mark should focus on his music than dancing. He’s always on about his music and I get the feeling he’s getting less creative or tired of following the rules of the show or ballroom. This is his second time in a row to be in third place and he’s considered by millions of people as one of the best choreographers! So to see him and Chelsea in third surprised me (thought Kirstie would be in third) and he seems to want to outshine himself rather than teach or try to make his partners look great.
Then there’s Maks. I guess I don’t blame him for wanting to leave. He’s a year older than me and he’s “stuck” on DWTS and I’m sure he wants to do other things and he’s getting frustrated with being stuck on the show without winning anything. I know he has a studio so maybe he wants to teach different people on a daily, weekly or monthly basis instead of just one partner for 3 months.
Kym… she took one season off after winning with Donny to explore other things and since I’m a huge fan of hers, I know she wants to do many other things. In fact, she’s one of the oldest pros on the show and she probably wants to do other things and get on with her life like get married and have kids and do other things she enjoys.
I’m getting a feeling that Julianne isn’t coming back at all and I do think Derek will return for season 13 even though he might be, in a way, wanting to “get off the hook.” He’s very multi-talented and can do so many things! Have you seen his drawings on twitter? More artwork is probably one of the things he wants to do.
So I kinda wish those pros would be allowed to leave anytime and not stuck on some contracts. Maybe the contracts are way too long. I don’t know how long they last or how much longer each pro’s contracts last.
I understand the ratings part though. If they let go too many pros at once, they can lose a lot of viewers. I hope they find a way to figure this out so that a lot of popular pros can leave and do what they wanted to do for a long time. Now that Kym is a two time winner (in my eyes, she’s a three-peat after two wins in America and one in Australia
), she’s probably a little more popular than she used to be and going to get more recognition soon so she’ll probably be one of the popular pros people would miss if she leaves.
Liz, I tend to doubt that Derek, maks and mark are actually signed to long term contracts at this point. Maybe others as well. I can’t believe they would sign another long term one, as opposed to options on old ones. There is no rule that says they have to, and I bet they are popular enough to go season to season. I don’t know for sure, obviously, but tv contracts used to be 5 seasons with 2 one year options – which means even Derek is out from under it.
Regardless of the length, it’s not indentured servitude – there has to be points at which they decide if they want to re-up or not. I also have a hart time believing that Derek would sign a very long contract, since he wasn’t sure he wanted to do the show at the beginning – and DID turn it down when they asked him to join at the same time as Julianne did. He was working steadily in the uk on the west end stage and tv when they asked that season.
I’ve said so repeatedly. That new pro contest was an interesting feature. Anna appeared one season and that was it. But that is the nature of most any endeavor-folks want to ride the horse until it tires. Cheryl could use a season off to freshen up, so could Louis, and each season let’s introduce a new pro and then let them, say, appear 3 of 4 of the next seasons. I wouldn’t mind new judges and I wouldn’t mind more pros. Others will have pros they would recommend for vacation, I imagine. On the other hand, I would love to see Ashley more often. So we each have our favorites. Without knowing the “real” story, I do admire Edyta for trying some new things; that’s a lot of change to pass up if you last 6-7 weeks.