DWTS Season 14, Week 7 – Who’s Dancing What…and when?

Well, another week, another set of dances.  I’ll be curious to see the running order this week, even though I don’t believe it means as much at this stage of the competition. Especially since the two team dances will either be first or last.  If they put them first and continue their trend of having certain celebrities in the last half of the show, I’ll cry foul again.  They are certainly doing everything they can for certain couples, while others dance in the first hour most of the time.  Maria, Melissa, Roshon and Jaleel have jumped all over the place, with Maria, Melissa and Roshon more heavily in the first hour. Donald has been in the second hour or the middle of the pack except for week 1. Jaleel made it to the second hour again last week likely due to having one of the better dances I’ve seen on this season so far. And that includes anything done by William or Katherine.

And that brings us back to our two favored children, William and Katherine.  The Royal couple. :::snicker:::  I do wonder if the British producers of this show see those two names and unconsciously pimp them or if they are just totally overt in wanting them to win and doing what they can to make it happen. 🙂 Katherine has actually danced in the first hour and has spent MOST of her time dancing at the top of the hour, which is also a good spot. William has never danced in the first hour. He’s the only celeb to get the pimp spot THREE times (and in 6 weeks, that’s pretty good).  I actually like Katherine, and William seems like an okay dude – but I can’t root for anyone who is so heavily favored at the expense of everyone else. Roshon got seriously hosed last week and Donald has yet to get a score that he deserves, relative to others – both are better dancers than William, IMO.  Never has this show felt more manipulative than it does right now. And why?

Maybe the ratings grabbers are going in the second hour??  Well, how do they know a particular person is grabbing ratings??  I don’t think they do, for sure, plus they MADE William into the ratings grabber – they pimped him heavily so that he got news, then that generated more news and hype – till he got the cover of People magazine.  I have to wonder if that was their goal all along.  Just the hype and “DWTS” on the cover of People magazine.  Actually, they did the exact same thing last season with JR – who was a very likable guy with a great backstory.  But not the amazing dancer that everyone claimed.  I’m starting to think that the producers see guys like JR and William and see people they can hype right on to the cover of magazines – which garners free PR for the show.  Yep, I’m cynical. 🙂 How can one not be with all the over scoring and dance duels and the double elimination coming soon?? And really, how long till it backfires and everyone sees the man behind the curtain?? This play for ratings is a plan with diminishing returns, IMO.

But I have to wonder…will they give William the first spot and put the team dances at the end of the show?? Because really, dancing the last individual dance isn’t going to be that good of a spot in the running order if they do the team dances last.  I will have to laugh, as I can hear it now – “William finally goes in the first hour!!”  Um, yeah, because he might get lost in the fun of the team dances….and we can’t have that. 🙂 I think I might even make that my guess…

ETA: SCORE!! Both William and Katherine in the first half of the show with the Team dances at the end…Team Paso going last. Gee, I’m so surprised. :-)

ETA 2: And after I hypothesize that going towards the end of the individual dances might not be good….we find Maria and Derek in the second to last position. At least Derek is excited about both dances….

Katherine and Mark – Rumba; Dancing 1st
Voting # 1-800-868-3410

Roshon and Chelsie – Argentine Tango
Voting # 1-800-868-3405

William and Cheryl – V. Waltz; Dancing 3rd
Voting # 1-800-868-3408

Melissa and Maks – Argentine Tango;
Voting # 1-800-868-3407

Donald and Peta – V. Waltz; Dancing 5th
Voting # 1-800-868-3403

Maria and Derek – Paso Doble; Dancing 6th
Voting # 1-800-868-3401

Jaleel and Kym – V. Waltz;
Voting # 1-800-868-3412

Team Tango:
Katherine/Mark
Maria/Derek
Roshon/Chelsie
Jaleel/Kym

Team Paso:
William/Cheryl
Melissa/Maks
Donald/Peta

If the running order ends up being something like that, above, then my money is on the team dances going last. If William is in the second half, again, then my money is on the team dances going first. They’ve only been first one other time, as I recall – Season 10?? Someone look it up for me. 🙂

I predict right now that Katherine gets a 30 this week – whether she deserves it or not. 🙂  William is tough. He’s doing the V. Waltz and Cheryl can’t sex it up.  Someone in the comments on another post predicted that the judges are going to start scoring him more realistically, and that they’ve shown signs of it already. I tend to agree with that. It will be interesting to see. I don’t think that the judges scoring always corresponds to the producer pimpage. The team dances?? Just on the face of it, Team Tango looks stronger. Not just because they have Derek, but because that team seems to have the better over all dancers. But they are handicapped by having four couples instead of three. Maria’s injuries also appear to be getting worse, so she might be an issue. Frankly, I wonder how much longer she can go on.

I’ve read that the dance duel this week (spare me the agony of another of these horrendous things, please) is rumba, although Wiki says Salsa. Either way, it’s guaranteed to suck, big time. No matter who’s doing it.