DWTS Executive Producer Conrad Green And Cast Comment On Dancing With The Stars Season 17
And the fun has just begun!!! USA Today has a cool piece up with quotes from the new cast of Dancing With The Stars and why they decided to dance, etc. Dancing With The Stars producer Conrad Green also comments on the cast. Below is a take.
“I feel like it’s one of the best (fields) we’ve had in years. Every single person justifies their place,” executive producer Conrad Green says of the new dancing dozen. “We wanted to get people with compelling stories. We wanted to get people who will be able to put on a show for us. We wanted something that would appeal to every age of the family and we’ve got that with this cast.”
A strong field could help the long-running dance competition as it shrinks from two shows a week to one, eliminating the Tuesday results show.
“It’s a critical season for us. We’re going to one night a week. We really want to make a bang with it and we know the single biggest determining factor in how well the show does is the cast,” Green says.
The new dancers are excited about the opportunity.
“I’ve always been a fan of the show and I am in the best shape of my life, so I feel if I can lose 50 pounds in six months, I can learn the waltz,” says Polizzi, who gave birth to son Lorenzo last year, in an e-mail.
Standing out among the stars is Harper, best known for playing Rhoda Morgenstern on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, who in March said her life expectancy was three months. However, she is close to remission, a doctor says in an upcoming NBC special.
“She’s feeling great at the moment. Her treatment is working out wonderfully. I think she’s very much seizing life and doing things she wants to do and trying to give a positive message to people who are suffering from some of these terrible illnesses, that you can still get out and do things and really make the most of the time you have,” Green says of the 74-year-old actress, who was a dancer in her 20s. “It’s an incredibly positive and quite moving story.”
So exciting! You can read the story in full at USA Today.
Interesting that there’s not going to be a skybox this season with Brooke.
I also wonder if they are shortening or eliminating the rehearsal packages since it says Tom will be interviewing the couples before they dance.
I find Conrad Green to be a loathesome schmuck, but I guess most executive producers are good at double speak, as it is probably part of their job description.
As great as Tom is, I’d rather see an abbreviated rehearsal package than have the couples interviewed both before and after they dance. Stick to once, after the performance (even though that means having to listen to Brooke’s inane banter).
Probably with the compressed one-night format, they don’t have time to waste waiting for couples to schlep themselves up the stairs to the skybox before they talk to Brooke.
Hope they at least keep the skybox as a place where the cast can watch their fellow cast members perform. I think it’s important to maintain some sense of camaraderie in the cast, and supporting the other couples by watching them dance is a key to that (in my opinion).
Cidra, totally agree on all points. Hopefully the compressed format will mean less Brooke. I think losing the rehearsal packages would be a big mistake.
Surely TPTB are not considering ditching the rehearsal packages – it’s been their biggest opportunity at manipulation to try and sway the voters.
Unless they don’t need to manipulate like this anymore – since they’ll know how the votes came in from the previous week, so they can “suggest” how the 3 stooges score in order to get the outcome they prefer ??
I especially love their first performance rehearsal packages when they first get to meet each other. I think you really get a feel for each contestant and their partner just from that alone on night 1.
I agree, Sandy. It’s interesting to see those first tentative steps toward developing a partnership and then see who makes it work and who doesn’t.