Louis Van Amstel, Sherri Shepherd, and Val Chmerkovskiy Review Dancing With The Stars Week 9
In our second media posting today, let’s get Louis Van Amstel’s take on the last night’s dances at ABC. Surprisingly, Louis didn’t think any of the dances last night deserved a “10″. WHA?? Below is his overall opinion. For his individual takes, be sure to visit the link.
Overall: Even though I appreciate Len’s words tonight about this Jive lacking content yet him loving it anyway, in past weeks when people were entertaining but lacked content he would tear them part. That is not fair. I’ve never said this before but tonight all performances were “9s,” in my opinion. Everyone did a good job tonight, but no “10s” for me tonight. The video packages are so heartfelt that it is difficult to criticize the celebrities knowing how much hard work they put into tonight. But honestly it was no one’s best performance. BUT it is fun to know that the mirrorball trophy can be anyone’s this season. And your votes really count this season! With all of these “9s” and “10s,” the viewers’ votes will make the decision.
What do you think? I have to disagree. I thought William’s 2nd dance, Maria’s 1st dance, and both of Donald’s deserved 10′s? He’s spot on about Len and his scoring though. Sometimes he nitpicks and sometimes he doesn’t….or is it favoritism or manipulation?
Next up, Val Chmerkovskiy and Sherri Shepherd were guests on Good Morning America today to review the show and reveal their favorites. I haven’t watched this interview yet since I’m having some connection issues today, but you can watch it here.
Here’s to the results tonight. Prepare for it to be a painful elimination as they are all so good. 
NY Daily News’ dance experts reviews and scores the dances: http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/television/dancing-stars-pros-grade-katherine-jenkins-donald-driver-maria-menounos-william-levy-dwts-article-1.1078396
One of them says the fight for the MBT should be between Donald and Maria and I agree
Just last week, Len was shredding Maria for a samba that supposedly lacked content (which upon rewatching I have to disagree with), this week it’s okay. So one can hardly claim favoritism when he’s schizophrenic with a given dancer.
If Maria’s argentine tango (basically a B version of Derek’s 2010 argentine tango with Nicole) deserved a 30, then Katherine’s argentine tango a couple weeks ago deserved a 35. Maria has been overscored since that Rumba where she sat on the floor for five full seconds of the dance. I think the judges have been propping her up cause Derek’s been pretty hard on her.
oops. I meant Maria/Derek’s paso doble. Their Rumba was awesome.
All I have to say is that if Maria is doing a good job with these dances on injured tootsies, think of her with no injuries!
Maria deserves to go to finals! She and Derek were off the chain last night and with injuries.
Hmm…Sherri turns to Val and says something like, “Why didn’t you have me do a jive like that(Maria). Why did you have my jumping all around.” Val replies, “Because you can dance. I wanted to showcase that.”
I faintly heard a cat meow…
Well I said a little while ago that I liked Val, but after that catty comment, I see the true Val coming out! He does share Maks’ genes after all! You know, even if you think it, as a pro you should have enough confidence in your own talents to NOT say it especially when you’re all on the same show! Shame on you Val! I thought you were a better man than that!!
And BTW, that doesn’t mean that I agree with Val at all. Maria is 10 times the dancer that Sherri is!
I thought it was completely crazy that Maria got almost a perfect score on a jive with no jive content and Donald was way underscored on his and he actually did a jive and danced.To me it should be Donald,Katherine in final 2 with Donald winning I dont really care about Maria and William so either one of those two could go i wouldnt care jmo
Eh, Val gets a pass on that one, Sheery – he’s also the one that was swearing at the camera when Maria got hosed last week. I think Val is also petting Sherri – girlfriend is not a better dancer than Maria and everyone knows that, I think.
Well I haven’t seen the interview yet but based on your comments it sounds like Val was taking more of a dig at Derek than Maria. I think Derek choreographed around Maria’s foot issues, however I still think they should have been penalized for lack of content, should have been given all 9′s, no tens. Agree with Louis for the most part, no one really stood out for me, and a ten here or there would be ok but at times they were passing them out like water. The uneven scoring is a pain and annoying to watch, I almost don’t want to watch anymore at all, but I keep watching and hoping things will change. It’s a shame that I really don’t care if they give Donald a ten whether he was great or not because of how many times they’ve underscored him in the past, the jive being at the top of my list. One minute they’re ripping them apart for lack of content, the next they’re telling them it had no content but I loved it!! Huh? Here’s hoping the blinders will be off next season *sigh*
Very telling to me, as far as insight into the judges, was the comment that Tony D. made about the dances and content. He said something like, everyone, even the judges know this is more about entertainment than dance. Sometimes if they choreo something more fun or to appeal to the audience more, the judges end up enjoying it too, and they score accordingly….and sometimes the judges don’t get it at all, hate it, but the audience loves it. It’s all very subjective. And the pros, if they are given music they can’t change (like the Indian-sitar filled Bollywood thing), they have to figure out a way to use it believably and so their celeb can try to do the required dance.
and #7 and #8. What I find SO pathetic is that you only hear those kind of comments made against Derek. I reminds me of a saying”it’s always good to have some enemies, it means you have stood up for something, sometime in your life” In Derek’s case, it is doing the best job possible and mostly always with a positive attitude and NOT bashing others.
I can’t believe all these guys are all so insecure that they can’t skip the digs and just blow their own horns if they are so great. Jealousy is an ugly thing.
I want William in the finals and I think he deserves to be there just like the other three. I want badly to see his and Cheryl freestyle! Go William!
*sigh* And if Maria and Derek go home tonight, then the complaint will go back to “He always gets girls that go far/He has never had a challenge/He has never had a dud”. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t. Excuse my language.
Donald, William and Maria are headed to the finals.
Well, I have to agree with Val. Because some contestants(including Sherri and especially Donald) working really hard. And then Maria or William gets high scores. I know she’s injured, but they have to score the dance not the potential they see.
@Nutcracker (#18): That might be a fair statement if William and Maria were slacking off, but they’re each putting in at least as much as Sherri did (Queen of overscoring) did.
*That first statement of effort. The second on overscoring is true, but that’s been the theme of the season.
So now Maria isn’t working hard enough! Really sick of these sour grapes. Her A. Tango was flawless, exquisite, I really don’t think she was overscored at all.
Nutcracker, I took exception to Val saying that Maria couldn’t dance – read comments # 7 & 8. I didn’t say anything about over scoring. And … I don’t think anybody works harder than Maria and that includes Sherri and Donald.
@Nutcracker.. The judges DON’T necessarily score the dance. Sometimes they score the potential, and sometimes they score the choreography, and sometimes they score what they feel is missing, sometimes they score on content, sometimes they score on hormonal imbalances, and sometimes they actually score THE DANCE!
Unfortunately, none of the 3 are good AT ALL about scoring everyone with the same criteria. And we end up with what we have this season…..
It’s funny… In any other season, DONALD would be CAI’s pet, and people would be complaining about her overscoring him…. Instead, (in my opinion) she overscores William, and compensates by underscoring Donald.
@Wynn, I don’t think Sherri was overscored. Well, I don’t remember every single dance but I think her jive was better than Maria’s.
@Meggie, perhaps she’s working hard but because of her injuries(or because she doesn’t have much talent), even if she’s working harder than anyone, the outcome is not satisfying for me.
@Lori, I understand that they don’t always score the dancing. Like, Lil Kim’s jive didn’t had much jive in it but it was entertaining, it was harder than what Maria did and the woman had the control, the attack… So, this season probably has the most overscored dances.
LOL – Sherri was the queen of overscoring. How quickly they forget. Girlfriend was not a dancer and she was healthy, unlike Maria.
I agree with louis…i didnt think any of the dances this week were worthy of 10s because i didnt think either of the two dances were that particular couple’s best by far
I’m basing my comments below on deserved/not ideally. The standard of this season/last night is just so wonky what’s deserved and not deserved, I don’t understand anymore.
Katherine’s quickstep deserved a 10, except for that tiny slip near the beginning.
Donald deserved 10 for the waltz, for sure. It was gorgeous and very smooth. The samba was very good, and I loved how good it was. It just shows that Donald is way above the other three. But I think it didn’t give a strong impression that’d make it 10-worthy.
Maria and William’s dances didn’t deserve 10s. In my opinion, Maria’s AT, her feet were just not sharp; not snappy. William’s samba, it was entertaining I guess, but to my eyes it’s not a quality samba. Like, he was copying samba moves, not exactly doing it correctly. It has a lot of samba contents though.
I completely agree with louis.
There is no way d Eric and Marie ,should Have been elimanated to say it was the call in votes inf it was why did they boo
Judging will always be a subjective process but some consistency would make for a better show. In the end, taking into account everything we’ve seen over the years, the best thing we can say about the judging on DWTS is, I’m afraid … “It’s all show biz!”