DWTS Cheryl Burke Interviewed About New Partner, Goals For The Season, The New Promo, and More
Cheryl Burke tells Parade.com it’s “nice and refreshing” having DL Hughley as her new partner for Dancing With The Stars Season 16. Cheryl also talks about his dance ability, their rehearsals, and who is his biggest competition. She also discusses the cast’s goal for the new season in bringing back the fun….
On working and rehearsing with Hughley.
“We’ve only done two rehearsals so far, and it’s just been really fun. It’s my first time having a comedian on the show, so it’s nice and refreshing to not take things too seriously. But he definitely does want to go far in the competition and he says he wants to win, so he’s working hard. There’s a great balance.”On Hughley’s dancing ability.
“He’s doing good. He’s very rhythmic, which is a very good sign. It’s always too early to tell when you’ve just rehearsed a couple of days, but he’s just trying to get used to the dance shoes, and loosening his hips up, and coordinating everything together. It’s just those first baby steps. I will know more later if he has potential or not. Right now, we’re just focusing on learning how to walk. We’ll see what happens.”On who their biggest competition is.
“D.L. thinks his biggest competition is Andy Dick. You have the two comedians there and they’re probably going to be head-to-head.”On how this season will compare to past years.
“I think it’s fresher. We’re trying to bring the fun back into the show. I think past seasons have been a little too competitive, so I think people just want to bring back that fun and friendly family show that they’ve seen in the past. All Stars was a little too much. At the end of the day, this is an entertainment show, and there’s no need to be that competitive. We’re not on Survivor or anything!”
More at Parade.com including Cheryl’s thoughts about the pros who weren’t asked to come back to dance, the new Pitbull promo, and more.
For those who don’t speak Cheryl: “My partner is a terrible dancer. I think his humor will keep us in this about three weeks. At least I’ll have plenty of time to shill for Macy’s.”
LOL Steve!!!!!
#Steve – you hit the nail on the head, there LOL.
Steve, you read my mind and added Macy’s to the picture! lol
@Steve – That’s too funny. We all know Cheryl checked out seasons ago.
Cheryl can afford to feel “bad” for the pros who have not been “asked back” since she’s always been “asked back.” I agree Cheryl checked out seasons ago, but continues to be “asked back” when she could really use a break to recharge and work on her sponsorships.
Tnx for posting. What a great and positive interview from Cheryl. Great job and attitude . More success to her!
Steve – That’s right!!! ahahahha
I can talk for me, I loved Season 15 and think is one of the best of DwtS.
LOL, Steve!! Thats so true. Gosh that was about as funny as Cidra’s Noah’s ark joke. That was Cidra right. 🙂 Speaking of funny, anyone remember the old ” Caption That! ” posts Courtney use to do? Those were funny. 🙂 Anyway I do hope Cheryl doesn’t phone it in this season, I wanna see intense Cheryl like in season 10, she was great with Chad…and Rob for that matter.
Funny thing about Cheryl’s season with Rob, though, was that she didn’t really start hammering him hard in rehearsal until about halfway through the season – I remember Deep Throat saying their rehearsals those first few weeks were dreadfully boring, as they both were just kind of “whatever” about it at first and usually arrived to rehearsal tired and/or hungover from the night before. It wasn’t until week 4 or week 5 that they realized that Rob could actually dance, and stood a decent chance of making it to the finals…then they really started practicing hard. Guess it illustrates for me that Cheryl, like Mark, tends to phone it in if they don’t think they have a potential champion…
Thank you again for your info, Courtney! Love hearing the inside stuff and I can see that being the case with Cheryl. Just like Mark,
I do wish the show would point out it was not competitiveness in past seasons, particularly all stars, that ruined it. It was the drama and all those changes that just increased stress. If any season should have been a celebration of dwts, it should have been all stars. It seemed like some pros got that. Derek said it a few times but tptb decided to just ramp up drama and changes.
I keep reading about Mark checking out when he doesn’t have a good partner but I’ve personally only seen it happen last season. With whom have you seen him do it besides Bristol the second time around?
He wasn’t that engaged with Bristol the first time around, until they kept sticking around. Then Melissa Joan Hart and Shannen Doherty are the other two that spring to mind. He’s not nearly as bad as Cheryl though. I can’t remember how he was with Kim K, actually. Sometimes I think I prefer the checked out Mark to the Trophy Hungry version that we’re likely to see this season. If he could just hide it a bit better. I’m sure Derek wanted it (and certainly deserved it) last season, but you didn’t SEE it written all over everything he did. Quite the opposite – I started to sense that he thought perhaps they were getting screwed. But that could be me projecting. 😀
Shannen was the first one out in her season. Surely there wasn’t enough time to asses Mark’s engagement with her. Kim K. was also out very early, wasn’t she? MJH I’m ambiguous on, I should perhaps re-watch to draw some conclusions but that frankly sounds like too much of a hassle. I actually think Mark was quite engaged with Bristol from the start so I disagree there.
He does get very competitive occasionally but I think they all do, just some hide it better than others.
Like I did say – he should learn to hide it better. It can be unattractive.
He should also learn that impressions are formed VERY early and making a good first one is important.
@PH
To some, including yourself, it may appear unattractive. To me it’s a logical occurrence in a competitive arena and I don’t think it should be hidden. I know a lot of people dislike Mark and I’m certainly not some crazy fan of his (Anna and Kym are my favorites) but some things that get people to dislike him I find really strange.
For example, Donald was extremely competitive from the start. He didn’t shy away from it but delivered it with a smile. People found his competitiveness a positive trait even though he wasn’t modest with his ambitions at all (they had a “we want 10s” mantra going on for weeks). Jacoby is also very competitive from what we’ve seen. He also delivers it with a smile yet people find him cocky. The differences between the two guys are marginal in my mind yet the reactions are totally opposite. I don’t get it.
To each their own, Sasa. In some people, the “competitive” just comes off as a negative and in others it doesn’t. It’s not so much delivery as it is content of what is said combined with tone, for me at least. Most of the time, those who I find unattractive are those who make it about competing against people to the point that they talk badly about others in a way that seems serious, not a light-hearted spirit of competition. You know Derek is extremely competitive, but it always seems like he’s competing against himself, whereas I get the feeling that Mark (and Maks) would like to throw people under a literal bus in order to win. And both HAVE thrown people under the bus – Derek and Nicole, to be specific. That season was the very WORST in terms of nasty pro behavior and, oddly or not, it was all centered in Maks, Louis and to a lesser extent Mark. When competitive becomes childish and bitchy, I guess is what I call it and where I draw the line. And that seems to come out in those three men. I’ve never seen that in Donald…and I haven’t actually paid any attention to Jacoby yet, so I can’t say about him.
They say “tone is everything” and I guess that’s very true in terms of being competitive. I don’t think that word has to be negative in connotation. But in some it certainly turns negative. When it goes from “Oh, I want to beat her. I can totally beat her!” to a whine of “Well, that’s just so unfair, boo hoo. I can’t win because of blah blah blah” that’s when I’m going to say “Grow the F up.”
IMO competitiveness by definition involves comparing yourself with other people. When people say they are competitive with themselves they are only only trying to put a positive spin on it. My thing is that I don’t think something so natural should be sugar coated just for the sake of not offending sensitive souls.
As far as Nicole goes, her situation was similar to Bristol’s and K. Gosselin’s in the sense that they made a lot of people think “should she have been here in the first place?” It is totally not their fault that they got the call to participate and I don’t think taking the frustration out on them was the right thing to do (IMO Maks and Louis were both too harsh) but some of that criticism really had nothing to do with them personally, but with what they represented in the concept of the show. It’s unfair to play that part unwillingly but life is sometimes unfair. And when circumstances are unfair I lower my personal expectations regarding what I find to be fair behavior in the individuals involved in those circumstances. I guess I see a joint goal (in this case: figuring out the problems with the concept) so I tend to forgive more than I would otherwise.
Sensitive souls?? Cut it out with that shit, sasa. You are moving the goal posts because I’m not agreeing with you. Of course competitiveness involves comparing yourself with other people – thanks so much for that. LIKE I SAID, you can do that without being an asshole to other people, WITHOUT sugar coating it for “sensitive souls”. Just don’t be an asshole – that should not be considered “sugar coating it” unless you ARE an asshole by nature. By saying “putting a positive spin” on it, followed by saying some “sugar coat it” you reveal your true thoughts about it – that it’s normal, but a negative emotion. And anyone who isn’t acting like an asshole about it is just lying. I personally don’t think (for the 500th time) that you have to be a complete asshole when expressing this “natural” (not negative) emotion. Hence, my thoughts on Mark, Louis and Maks, which is where this all started – a REALITY based conversation.
So what if they think Nicole shouldn’t have been there in the first place?? It’s is extremely unprofessional (and ASSHOLISH) to say so in the way that they did – and it was ugly. Even when said about Kate and Bristol. They work on the show and are employees. If you forgive that bullshit – good for you. But don’t expect everyone to react the same way or pretend that you are in some way superior for your reaction. Your whole post says to me, “Hey, it’s normal to be a complete ass about being competitive and anyone who isn’t acting like an ass is just a liar. But I’m cool because I forgive people for being assholes because that’s,like, normal and I’m not so cool about people lying about being competitive.” Since I doubt you’d agree with that characterization of your words, then perhaps you should quit twisting yourself into knots to continue to argue with me when it’s VERY clear I won’t agree with you.
Just for the record, I didn’t imply YOU to be a sensitive soul. And no, I don’t think competitiveness is a normal but negative emotion. If something isn’t positive it doesn’t mean it is automatically negative. It is what it is- normal.
And I’m also cool with people trying to not appear competitive as much as I’m cool with people occasionally being assholes, I just don’t agree that it is something that SHOULD be done. There is no “it should be done like this” in my view. That’s it.
an ass is an ass is an ass and is gonna act like an ass. you can put stripes on it, doesn’t make it a zebra. you can put a long neck on it, doesn’t make it a giraffe. you can be extremely competitive and extremely successful and never once show your ass. or you can show your ass all the time. has nothing to do with competitiveness, everything to do with character. IMHO.
like D.L. said ….. you don’t have to blow out someone else’s candle to make yours shine brighter.
@Linde
That candle stuff is just playing with words. He said he wants everyone to do well but at the same time he wants to do a little better. That’s the definition of competitive- striving to be better than others. The word “better” implies that someone else is comparatively “worse”. You can describe it with candles, rainbows and unicorns, it’s still the gist of it.
Of course “worse” doesn’t have to mean “bad”. But I also don’t think any of the pros in question really wanted Nicole to do overall badly. They probably did however want her to have some sort of a weakness so that they could exercise their competitiveness. Which is also what DL wants. If everyone does perfectly you can’t do better. They have to have a weakness.
I am of the opinion that everyone is an ass occasionally. Some people just more frequently than others. But it also entirely depends on the circumstances. When people are uncertain about their superior’s decisions and question the wisdom behind it, they sometimes act like assholes. Luckily so, because sometimes they are also right to doubt the higher decisions. That’s how we humans do it, we don’t shut down critical thinking even when we’re asked to. People who are assholes too often (my personal example is Maks) have their view on reality skewed and think they are threatened when if fact they are not nearly as often. That comes from thinking that everything is always about you which can’t be a very pleasant (or better said: relaxed) way to live so I actually feel sorry for Maks and folks like him.
Yea, this turned out far too long. Sorry.
I don’t care if you were talking about me or not, Sasa…it’s still a cop out argument and if you don’t think what I claimed, then you need to choose your words better.
Amen, Linde – exactly what I was talking about. In far fewer words.