DWTS 15, Week 5 – “Guilty Pleasures Week” Schedule
Ok, I was getting hit with a lot of questions about this on Twitter last night, and as many times as I repeated myself – there still seemed to be the same questions over and over again…apparently people don’t know how to navigate Twitter and look back on my timeline. And you guys know how I just LOVE to repeat myself ad infinitum < /sarcasm>. So here it is, all in one place, and the next person that asks me about next week’s schedule on Twitter is going to get a link to this post along with the message “Read this, asshat.” 
First, here’s why next week is funky: the 3rd and final presidential debate is scheduled for Monday night between 9-10:30 PM EST…which basically kills the prospect of our usual 2-hour performance show Monday. They can’t possibly cram 8 individual dances and 2 team dances into 1 hour, so instead of one 2-hour performance show next week – we’re getting TWO 1-hour performance shows, on Monday & Tuesday. Consequently, there is no results show – and thus no elimination next week. Yippee hooray, we get two weeks of everyone who made it through last night’s elimination! Good for some, not so much for others. But I digress…
From what I’ve been told, there’s going to be 4 individual dances and 1 team dance each night – and each couple will be dancing both nights. However, they’re going to alternate what nights the team dances are done, and what nights the individual dances are done. Let me explain. Let’s say that Team Shawn does their team dance on Monday night – then the couples on Team Shawn will be doing their individual dances on Tuesday night. Likewise, if the couples on Team Gilles do their individual dances on Monday night, they will be doing their team dance on Tuesday night. Make sense? I kind of wish we could see the team dances on the same night (because I think seeing them back-to-back tends to deter the judges from lowballing/overscoring each team relative to one another), but I understand why they’ve done it this way – it ensures that we get to see ALL of the couples dance each night, and probably eliminates the need to rush, rush, rush to get everyone’s costume changed after their individual dance. Remember, they’ve only got one hour – and they were cutting it AWFULLY close with the team dance picks on the results show last night (I blame Gilles, who felt the need to give a grandiose speech as to why he was picking each couple.) And before you ask – no, I don’t know which team is dancing what night…yet. I have a feeling that will be determined after TPTB have had a chance to look at how the rehearsals are going, and determine which one fits better with what night, in terms of logistics (props, how much the judges will likely comment on a dance, how “buzzworthy” each dance is). We should know for sure on Sunday, after camera blocking. And please, don’t ask me to speculate as to whether going first or second is better for the team dance – I’d normally say 2nd, but with the schedule being as funky as it is, I don’t know that that’s necessarily the case this time.
And now here’s the big question I keep getting – and it’s unfortunately the one I don’t have a lot of information on yet: the voting. I don’t know if there’s still going to be voting or not, and if there is, what time the voting is going to start/end and how it’s going to get tabulated into week 6′s results – which, by the way, will be another double elimination. And “country week”. 
I know the scores given in week 5 will just get added to the scores given in week 6, and the percentage of points share will be calculated using the combined total points awarded in weeks 5 & 6. If you’re thinking “Wow, that’s a lot of points!” you are correct – and we all know that more points = tighter margins. So I daresay week 6′s double elimination will ultimately come down to fanbase more than any other elimination, and we’re going to get a good idea of who’s really getting the votes and who isn’t. And as for the voting – I’m guessing there will indeed be voting, and like the points from week 5, the votes will just get carried over and combined with week 6′s. Not sure what the voting window will be - if it were up to me, voting would commence at the beginning on Monday night’s show, and continue all day Tuesday, and then end at 11 AM EST on Wednesday morning. I think that would be the fairest thing, because it wouldn’t give preference to either night – if there happens to be more viewers on Tuesday and we only see the members of Team Shawn doing their team dance on Tuesday, then I think voting that only happens on Tuesday would give an unfair advantage to the couples who danced individually that night, since they’d have more screen time. Make sense?
If I get any further information, I’ll update this post in RED - so you might want to bookmark it, because I don’t know how long I’m going to keep it stickied to the front page. I would advise everyone to go ahead and take a look at your DVR’s now, though, and make sure you’re set up to record for 1 hour from 8 – 9 PM on both Monday & Tuesday. I have AT&T U-Verse as my cable provider, and my DVR made the time adjustment and captured last night’s show without a problem; but I’ve heard that those with Brighthouse have been having some issues recording the show this season, so some of you may have to manually go in and program your DVR to pick up the show. Just a friendly PSA from the folks here at Pure…cause PureDWTS cares 
ETA #1: Next week’s arrangement just got a lot fairer for everyone 
The show will only be live on Monday – Tuesday’s show will be pre-taped. The way I had it explained to me, the couples from Team A will do their 4 individual dances, Team B will do their team dance, they’ll roll the credits, keep the audience where they are, take a short break for Team A to change into their team dance costumes and Team B to change into their individual dance costumes, and then shoot Tuesday night’s show ahead of time. That way, everyone has the same amount of time to rehearse, and the judges will be seeing the team dances the same night – which (god willing) will keep the judges (semi)honest. Another update? Double elim moved to week 8.
Questions?
Thanks, Courtney! Great explanation!
We care? Um. Okay.
Thanks C.! This reallys helps! Country Week?? Sheesh! Oh boy!
Thanks for this post Courtney!
And may I just say that, even though I have only recently become a reglar DWTS viewer, this season is the first one that I have actually YELLED at my TV because of Gilles and his diatribes while picking his team last night. He would be a lot prettier with some duct tape over his mouth. Hope their team dance is a train wreck.
And I believe he and Shawn are both doing the Rumba next week, so that should be an interesting comparison.
We can’t have country week… Did they clear it with Cheryl? Remember Cheryl owns all Country songs and routines… Just kidding, Just remembering people (mostly Willy’s fans) in a tizzy because Donald was doing a Country freestyle.
I will be glad when the double eliminations are over.
Oh, Apolo and Karina have the Samba.
I don’t think there is any advantage to which team dance is which night. They aren’t going to be able to directly compare the team dances this year.
But it could benefit the couples who their individual dance Mon night because Mon generally gets more viewers than Tuesday, and people are used to voting on Mon night and not Tues night.
Country week? Yuck. Country music does not mesh well with many of the styles of dance. I really wanted a non-theme week. Some of the couples are really going to get screwed depending on what style they have to do to country music….
anyone know what the other celeb are dancing in their individual numbers? Can’t wait for Apollo’s samba…
Agree with EPmusic about some couples possibly getting screwed. Samba to Sweet Home Alabama comes to mind. I didn’t think it was a bad samba per se, but Len couldn’t rap his head around the country flavor.
Maybe the couples will only be doing country-western styles of dance too. For what it’s worth (which admittedly may not be much) from Wikipedia:
“Many different dances are done to country-western music. These dances include: Two Step, Waltz, Cowboy or Traveling Cha Cha, Polka, Ten Step (also known as Ten Step Polka), Schottische, and other Western promenade dances, East Coast Swing, West Coast Swing, and Nightclub Two Step.”
Court, we may get our polkas after all!
Country week?! :screams in agony
#5 Sandy- I just want you to know that the 1st part of your comment made me laugh.
Country music world for a lot o dances, jive, quickstep, Waltz, rumbas. I could see Shawn dancing a Waltz ou v. Waltz To some taylor swiff song, the pro dance To lovestory was actually Really good.
Maybe They will have a Country marathon too, like the mowntown and the rock and roll
Ugh, Country Week? Great, now I’ll have to mute the tv when the music is playing, not just when Gilles and Brooke are talking.
I can’t decide which night is better to dance – the night with the debates and Monday night football (GO BEARS) but the regularly scheduled voting, or Tuesday night with less conflict elsewhere but an unusual voting night? All I gotta say is if you really care about a certain celeb or pro, don’t split your votes.
Fantastic job at covering the bases on this topic, Court. You made it so clear.
Pure cares ** happy sigh **
Thanks Courtney!
Country week could be okay if it’s not full of two-steps.
There are country songs that would work well for some of the dances and have probably been used before on the show. I’d love for them to just get back to “normal” ballroom though.
I’m curious what their “guilty pleasure” songs are. Last time they did this, that week was full of songs I like and am not even guilty about!
As for which night is better to dance – there’s pros and cons to both. As several have mentioned, there is less competition with other shows on Tuesday night – but it’s also a night on which regular viewers are not used to voting. People are creatures of habit. If the average viewer (that doesn’t go out of their way to vote) is used to only voting on Monday, I’m going to venture a guess that they’re probably only going to vote on Monday – unless Tom keeps reminding them to tune in on Tuesday, and makes a compelling argument to vote then, as well. You also have to remember that you still get only 8 votes per voting method this week – and so if you use up all of your votes on Monday, it’s not going to matter that the voting lines are still open on Tuesday. We’re also at the point in the season that I feel most viewers have already decided on a favorite – so they’re going to be less swayed by when a couple dances/how they dance. I think the bulk of the voting is still going to occur on Monday, and then just some stragglers on Tuesday. As for the team dances, I would almost think it would be better to get your team dance out of the way Monday, and then have an extra day to practice your individual dance for Tuesday – as someone mentioned in another thread, the judges tend to score the team dances pretty closely together (even if they’re worlds apart in terms of quality), and everyone on your team gets the same score. Thus, I think the individual dances are going to be the separating factor this coming week – so the better the individual dances turn out, the greater the likelihood that it separates the pack. I’d personally rather have Team Shawn do their team dance Monday, then give stronger individual dances on Tuesday. But that’s just me.
Court #17- I wouldn’t be surprised if you put more thought into all the ramifications than the producers do.
Here’s a silly idea: On Monday, run both team dances and all the packages. Then on Tuesday, run all 8 dances – should be time without the packages?
Have all the voting on Tuesday.
This seasons seems to be a hodgepodge of dances. I wonder if it will all even out at the end?
In my opinion, there are too many freestyle dances this season.
Heh. Good one Sandy.
Wow, never thought about people using up their votes on Monday. I guess I was thinking people would get 4 votes each night to vote for people dancing their individual dances that night, but I can see why that wouldn’t work, if you didn’t want to vote for anyone that night. Never good when people have to learn new rules. People are still figuring out “in jeopardy”
Since Gilles got to pick first, Shawn should be able to pick which night they to it on. That’s what you’d do in sports. But…There’s no one on Shawn’s team that’s been getting seriously pimped, is there. Although…the pimpage of Emmitt seems to have fallen off rather dramatically, which makes me wonder.
Please, I beg you, don’t tell me this country week is true. For God’s sake.
I can’t shake the feeling that Peta has had it up to her eyebrows with Gilles – she seems quite fed up already. Sheesh, what the hell happened to our sweet humble Gilles from season 8 – this surely must be the ugly clone!
and could they have been more transparent in choosing their team. I know it won’t happen, but really …. I’m ready for Gilles to be the next elimination!
Court #17 makes a lot of sense.
OMG I just can’t tell you how frustrate and upset I am with this country week… =/
Look, I do think that we can have good country songs to samba, quickstep, waltz to. I really do. The problem is the characterization… I can’t accept that bristol’s quickstep yet. But I could get the Ralph’s samba if it wasn’t that stylized… The song is a song, not follow at minimmum details. my opinion.
It’s true, Carlos.
Vogue’s back, Vogue’s back, Hip Hip HOorayyyyyyy!!!! She’s working on a post – yay!!!
*throws glitter, sparkles AND confetti*
Whoo hoooo!
Welcome back Vogue!!
Modification to Plan A in #18
Plan B: do Plan A in reverse, i.e., show the 8 individual dances without the packages on Monday. Do all voting Monday in the usual way – that way producers won’t gripe about losing revenue because viewers are knocked off course and forget to vote on Tues.
Then on Tuesday, run all the packages and the 2 team dances. Show team dance rehearsal fluff, also. Viewers are used to fluff and behind the scenes stuff on Tuesday. Maybe give viewers a chance to vote a 2nd night for either Shawn or Gilles’ team (1 vote per acct) Regular viewers aren’t expecting to vote om Tuesday, so in this option they wouldn’t lose out on the Monday vote.
Another added benefit would be, in the Monday show the couples would be allowed to dance without having to cope with the distraction of watching their packages just before they go on the dance floor. (And if time get to tight, we can always move BBC to Tuesdays …or someplace… as well.
)
“more glitter sparkles confetti” from me too.
Hope you had a great vacay, Vogue. C & PH did wonderfully in your absence, but your spirit was definitely missed by all.
(((hugs)))
Thanks so much Court. I needed this post after being away and trying to get caught up.
And thanks so much Guys!!!! (((Love you so much))) So good to see you again. Thanks Miss and Court for covering me and going out of your way like you have.xxxx
And I agree about Peta. Something seems off and I think it might be Gilles too. I’m not liking him either like I did when he danced the first time.
And Carlos, I agree about Country week. YUCKKK
Contry Week??!! Wow, I better take a nap and have lots of beer on hand! LOL
Great post Court. Thanks for all the details.
I wonder if the 3 Stooges will hold down scores on Monday night’s individual dances in case there’s a great dance on Tuesday? Of course that implies they’re actually judging the dancing instead of pimping TPTB’s favorites. So maybe that was a dum-a$$ question.
The only reason it even entered my head was I caught clips of the 2-night premiere of this year’s SCD. The judges were mean as snakes with their paddles on the 1st night and much more generous the 2nd night.
Vogue…*fist-pump*…Vogue…*fist-pump*…Vogue…woo-hoo! Welcome back, Vogue!!
PH and Court shouldered the load like mega-stars (and it was a heavy load) but each one of our major mods is essential to mixing the perfect Pure Cocktail. So the flavor was just a tad less piquant without Vogue.
Awww thanks Guys!!! xxx
And “Perfect Pure Cocktail” <
Country Week could be fun if they make them do dances that are appropriate to country music.
Welcome back, Vogue. I think Cidra is channeling The Situation for you… LOL
LOL, mmc! Good ol’ Mike
wish I had his abs.
Another fabulous, informative post Court, and welcome back Vogue!!
Just wondering, is it my computer, or does other people see the comments in italics suddenly? It starts after V’s post, #36…. Did some html coding get stuck somehow?
Yep, it sure did default to italics. I thought that was weird.
Gross… County Week!?! The only chance this has of being enjoyable is if they make Gilles dance the argentine tango to a country song. I think everyone (except Peta) would enjoy his stab at that one.
Linn- that would be great
…8 individual dances, each if them around 1 minute, 30 seconds… I get 12 minutes of dancing. It would fit if they’d just make the 3 stooges shut the heck up, & forego the video packages…
Sorry, couldn’t help myself…
LOL Sally – DWTS production needs you – you’re hired!
I still remember Karina and Ralph trying to dance a country samba. I wonder if it will be regular dances with a country song or two-step stuff?
Anyway, completely off-topic (sorry!) but as son as I read the story that Anna and Jonathan are divorcing I had to come to here and read what everything thinks. They were such a cute couple, they looked perfect together! It was sooo unexpected.
OMG… one beautiful couple… it’s a shame… =(
In regard to the Peta looking like she is “off”…let me first apologize to any Gilles fans, you might want to skip my post…but many of us are feeling the big yuck factor with him this season, so if you had to put up with his prima donna attitude day in and day out and now night time too…wouldn’t you feel “off”. But, then I heard Mark say he thought it could be Shawn and Gilles in the finals again…please Lord make him go away before that, he makes me feel slimy.
I used to think Apolo was the one to beat… think now it is going to come down to Shawn and Gilles, with Apolo in third.
>. Let’s see if this makes the italics go away…
/i> Maybe? *crosses fingers*
Sally, our HTML skills seem to be a tad lacking. *LOL*
#’s 23, 29 and 7……Ditto.
i just watched the afterbuzz from week 4…it appears that they are really only taping live on Monday and they will just play the second hour on tuesday pretending it is live but it really isn’t…everything is from Monday night…the troupe has off and they confirmed it…so technically the judges will see everything all in one night..just a quick fyi:)
HEY VOGUE!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sorry for shouting…. But, wanted your attention….
I THINK I FIGURED OUT WHY THE HTML IS WONKY IN THE COMMENTS!!!!!!!!!!!
Can you go into the comments, and in yours, #36, fix the tag that is there? I noticed that it’s after that, that all the comments are italicized, and it looks like you have part of an html tag, and that’s making everything wonky!
And I did this here, instead of email, sorry.
Yes Joey, I know – just updating.
I love Anna, think I have a shot?
Re: Update – That makes a lot of sense. Now… the voting. *LOL* And I find it kind of interesting that they’ve moved the double elimination. A point to ponder, I guess.
Thanks Court!
Having them perform the same night is fair. But what about the voting? Perhaps, start the voting on Tuesday night instead of Monday. This way if people try to call on Monday, they will get a message to vote on Tuesday. Same with website and Facebook. Otherwise, are we voting both nights with 8 votes each night? Since they aren’t going to eliminate anyone this week, why not just do a live show on Tuesday?
Not known for the knowledge in country music!! is “Under the same moon” class as country?, if so, it would be good for Derek to dance to that!
Strike 1 – complaining about other posters.
Strike 2 – spamming support for a certain couple
Strike 3 – hashtagging when it’s not necessary.
Go away, Maria.
I don’t don’t like Gilles. I preffer the others couples.
Are they doing an elimination in Week 7 on election night (11/6)? If not, I think they’ll need a 3rd double elimination to finish in the usual 10 weeks, won’t they?
Elim during election week will happen at end of Monday night’s performance show. And no, I don’t know how the voting will work.
@Linz – As I said in a previous post, people are creatures of habit. The average viewer is also not the type to go out of their way to vote. If they are used to voting on Monday and are told to come back Tuesday, I see the bulk of them saying “screw it” and not voting. They aren’t going to double the amount of votes we have and have us vote Monday & Tuesday – it’s unecessary. It’s no different than voting at the beginning of the show vs. the end – I’d think most people already have a favorite, anyway, and are going to vote for them regardless of what night they’re dancing. And having a live show both Monday AND Tuesday? HUGE waste of money, time, and resources to set up the same thing for two separate nights.
Hmm. Not sure if a Monday elimination is better or worse than a double elimination. Guess we’ll have to wait and see how they do it.
PureDwtS guys, Do you have any tip if we’ll have guest singers as the motown week?
I’m thinking about Julianne… =p (all stars appeal)
I’m almost sure we are going to see Rascal Flats and Taylor Swift…
Courtney,
I meant to have the live 2 hour show on Tuesday, no show on Monday.
Evaine – LOL!
oh well, we tried!
Gals to hear all of the dancing is on the same night. Not do glad to hear about country night.
I’m trying to envision a “Country & Western Argentine Tango”…. Ewwwww.
Too much monkeying with the schedule, Linz. They’d have to find something else to put in the Monday night slot (and it wouldn’t likely stand a chance against The Voice or How I Met Your Mother. Then they’d be pitted against not one, but TWO hours of NCIS (the most watched primetime drama on television right now) on Tuesday and would likely get slaughtered in the ratings. It’d be a waste of ratings Monday AND Tuesday…whereas with this arrangement at least gives some degree of normalcy and gives them a better chance in the ratings. Remember: people are creatures of habit. If you mess around with the schedule of their favorite shows too much, you just end up losing viewers.
Can’t resist playing the html tag game.
Amazing, TPTB actually made a sensible decision. I’m sure it was cost-driven, but the “why” is irrelevant. I’m just glad the judges will see and score all the dances on the same night.
I’m still concerned over how the voting is going to work out, but nothing to do but wait and see.
With the massive upheaval in the schedule this week, the combining of Week 5 and Week 6 scores, and the Monday night elimination in Week 7, I think postponing the double-elim until week 8 is a darn good idea.
*humph* my html tag attempt wasn’t even worthy of making it to the post. It got zapped by the system.
OK, after re-reading my last post… I’ve given my iPhone (and auto-correct) a time-out…
does anyone know when the season finale is?
LOL, Sally, you go girl — take control! After a very embarrassing email auto-correct several years ago, I turn off auto-correct on absolutely every tech device and ap I can. If I’m going to misspell or mis-state something, it’s going to be by my own doing not some machine trying to be helpful. So all my many typos here are all on me.
Unless I have done the math wrong, will the final 3 couples not have performed all 12 Ballroom and Latin dances?
Cidra – LOL! I should take your advice & turn the silly thing off….. Bad iPhone! BAD!
I wonder if they haven’t given out voting details because they don’t know what the hell they’re doing. What a mess.
@Trent – You brought up something similar that I was wondering.
I was wondering if the Ballroom and Latin dances will be evenly distributed to each celebrity like in the previous seasons. This season it seems like whatever goes, goes this season.
Sandy- I think so, the only thing that I’m curios now is that normally team dances are at week 7, and next week will be week 5, so that probably mean that from now on they will be dancing two dances a week, maybe a marathon on week 6 and dancing trio week 7.
Question- I posted a comment on Cheryl Burke it was nothing bad but a compliment and it never got posted.
What gives?
I don’t see the comment anywhere, Donna. Not even in the spam filter.
I do, however, see that there’s been a ton of different names posting from your IP address…and many of them have been trolling this site, accusing everyone of hating Cheryl.
Okay y’all my surgeon now thinks I am officially cookoo…but I think you will understand…I need to have surgery…he said I could have it Monday or Tuesday…I explained I had a previous engagement…he pressed and pressed me and I explained that being home bound my “guilty pleasure” is DWTS and I needed to be able to vote for Derek and Shawn…he looked at me in disbelief…but really I can’t miss this week for heaven’s sake…so it looks like it is two weeks until surgery….it’s not life threatening just life enhancing. Maybe I am cookoo…given the fact my next question was would I have internet connection while recuperating….again don’t want to miss the girls here at puredwts….lol…Oh well…just thought I would share…
Proud of you, Lynne – you’ve got your priorities straight!
Thanks for sharing.
How does the elimination on a Monday night occur? Is it just going to be based on the judges’ scores?
IrisandLilies, as I said in an earlier comment – we don’t know yet. All I know is that during election week, the elimination will be at the end of Monday night’s performance show.
They should just extend the length of the season
Forget these double eliminations and Monday eliminations…so confusing!
Welcome back, Vogue!!!! So sorry i’m late I feel like the distant relative that doesn’t send your bithday card till, ya know, the next month.
Hope you had a good vacation though. This post has things has made things very lucid about next week so much appreciated. Not sure how I feel about Country Week but maybe like a Hoe-down group dance would be fun, ” Spin your partner rouund and round now pick her right up off the ground “. Freakin’ yehaw. 
You’re right, Lynne, he might not understand, but we do!
Hope all goes well with your surgery when it takes place in a couple weeks.
You’re not the least bit cuckoo for needing to have internet access while recuperating. Being able to enjoy Pure will speed your recovery. After all, laughter is the best medicine!
#48 HAHAHAHA!! Thumbz up…way to go. Couple weeks back I did somthing very similar !!