Pure Dancing With The Stars 2016 Emmy Nomination Predictions

Coming up on Thursday, July 14th, is the nominations for the 2016 Emmy Awards. Question: Which dances or performances from Dancing With The Stars do you think should be nominated? Keep in mind that ALL of Dancing With The Stars Season 21 and Season 22 are eligible for an Emmy Award (May 2nd was the deadline, but, we think there are exceptions to the rule for shows and performances that take place until May 31st). So, we’re assuming all of season 22 is eligible, but we could be wrong?). If you’d like to read the rules and procedures for the 2016 Emmy Awards, you can do so at Emmys.com. So, with all that said, let us know in comments for which dances you think should be nominated. You can also include dances and performances from other TV shows or specials if you like. Below are our predictions:

Vogue:

1.) The Trio dance with Derek, Bindi Irwin, and Mark Ballas – I thought this dance was off the hook. It was so creative, unique and original. Derek and Mark were masterful with their choreography. As for Bindi, it was like she was a Pro with them. Just excellent.

2.) The Halloween Argentine Tango with Bindi Irwin and Derek – This dance left my jaw on the floor. It was full of unstoppable fierceness and creativity. The costumes and their facial expressions were so haunting. They out their all into and then some. Watching this over again, I still can’t believe what I saw out there. Unbelievable.

3.) The Fox Trot with Bindi and Derek – Once again, I was amazed. I loved the sleek and cool moves. I loved the classy and elegant fashion with Fedoras. Once more, Derek found this way to incorporate Michael Jackson moves and feel to it all. Just magnificent.

4. Mark Ballas and Paige VanZant’s Paso Doble – How awesome was this? Leave it to Mark to come up with a fighting scene for a Paso Doble. There was so much power and they told her story so well. Such cool costumes too.

5.) Lindsey Arnold and Alek Skarlatos Contemporary – What a beauty this was and told in such a “heroic” way. I loved all the amazing lifts. Lindsey just amazes me with what she comes up with.

6.) Nick Carter and Sharna Burgess “Downton Abbey” Waltz – I thought this dance was their very best last season. I loved how theatrical it was. They were so into their parts. So lovely…

7.) Peta Murgatroyd and Nyle DiMarco’s Freestyle – I’m not sure on the choreographer for this dance, but, wow, I was mystified with the complete performance. I hadn’t been this moved since Derek Hough was on Dancing With The Stars the season before.

Heidi: I love how kind Vogue is. 🙂 I think, at MOST, two nominations will come out of DWTS. While I would love to see Derek get a solo nomination this time around (and several of his dances with Bindi are worthy, IMO), I don’t think it will happen. As much as I love the Foxtrot, Quickstep and the Charleston, the Academy doesn’t like ballroom very much. Ever since SYTYCD has been around, Derek, Mark and Julianne (and one for Witney) are the only ones to get nominations, and half of those are contemporary/Jazz dances. I think that Derek and Mark will get a nomination for the Jazz Trio that Vogue listed above. IF Derek snags a solo nomination, the week 4 contemporary, foxtrot and quickstep are the three in his package that I would guess. But I don’t think it’s going to happen. 🙂

I also agree that whoever choreographed Peta and Nyle’s dance may get the second nomination. The only question for me is if they’ll include Peta. That decision was likely made by the producers and I would guess yes.

BUT, as per usual, DWTS has to compete with the totally sans ballroom SYTYCD. And they are still competition. I would be shocked if Travis Wall and Mandy Moore aren’t up there for their contemporary routines, but I think the Emmy just might go to Phoenix and Pharside for routines like this one:

Since this is a DWTS site – and I couldn’t begin to guess what else they might have in their three dance package, I’ll leave it at that. I will also add that after watching Mandy Moore’s contemporary for Gaby and Robert, I’m no longer so sure that Nyle and Peta’s will gain a nomination (or Derek/Mark won’t, but I can’t believe they would go that Contemporary heavy). This is certainly a harder dance:

Then there’s Travis Wall. He did a good contemporary with Jenna Dewan Tatum last season. And that was just one dance. Every year there is one nomination from outside either DWTS or SYTYCD and this year I have to wonder if Travis will get one for the Disneyland 60 work he did. Very possible. It’s also very possible that it could be a Derek/Travis nomination for this:

There was no one credited for the choreography for that dance in the show credits – believe me I looked. The only choreo credit I saw was for Travis in an earlier part of the show. Weird. But someone choreographed this and it was awesome. If anything from that show gets a nom, it should be this one.

Courtney: Admittedly, I did not watch SYTYCD last season (or the season before…and I think I checked out pretty early in the season before that, too), so I have really little to no clue what the climate is for possible Emmy noms for DWTS this season – but I’m going to be optimistic and say that we might eke out two, like we did last year.  More likely, we’ll get one (as has usually been the pattern), but for the sake of this post, I’m gonna operate under the assumption that we COULD get two. So based on that, I think our best shot lies with Bindi, Derek, & Mark’s jazz trio – that’s the only dance from the past two seasons that I think might be able to hang with some of the contemporary & jazz routines that are bound to get nominated from SYTYCD. I don’t know that it has a hope & a prayer of winning, but it could get a nom for Derek & Mark.  My other “outside chance” picks? Some of Mark’s routines for Paige this season – remember how we’ve explained that it’s really, really hard to get nominated on DWTS for a dance that is not done with a fantastic dancer? I think Paige is the only other contestant (besides Bindi) in the past two seasons that had a high enough level of technically-skilled choreography and performance quality to make the Academy sit up and take notice.  If I had to guess, I think Paige’s paso, Viennese waltz, and Argentine tango are probably the strongest, choreography-wise and performance-wise – but whether or not they actually get a nod will depend on how many spots are realistically left after SYTYCD gets their usual 4-5 noms.  And as for my “outside-outside-only-might-happen-if-SYTYCD’s-submissions-are-particularly-weak-and-the-Academy-is-in-a-generous-mood” pick – I’m actually going to go with Lindsay’s quickstep for Carlos in season 21 and possibly her Charleston for Wanya this past season.  She’s not at Derek and Mark’s level – yet – but I think she’s on her way there.  Both routines were pretty solid – maybe a tad safe for an Emmy nod, but certainly progress.  Problem is, I’m not sure how much of those two routines was actually her choreography – Lindsay’s been pretty open about using an outside choreographer. I doubt anyone wants a repeat of last summer’s Emmygate surrounding Witney’s nomination…so we may see that becoming a bigger and bigger obstacle for DWTS nominations in the coming years.  As for any routines with Nyle – I actually think the chances for any of those getting nominated are slim to none, for a lot of the same reasons I explained about Sharna’s routines for Noah in the post I linked to: the appeal of most of Nyle’s routines was that it was incredible that he was able to do them so well, despite his disability – but if you take that away, the routines are not particularly innovative or ground-breaking, and the Academy is able to remove the emotional aspect of Nyle’s deafness from their decision when picking Emmy-worthy routines.  And that’s fine – not every routine we see on DWTS needs to be Emmy-worthy.  A routine can absolutely be enjoyable and worthwhile to watch and not necessarily be Emmy material.  His freestyle? Eh, maybe – but I’ve got an inkling that the routine may have had multiple choreographers that could muddy the water a bit, and I don’t think it could stand up to most of the contemporary routines we’ve seen from Travis Wall or Mia Michaels in the past.  Once again, I’m left using the “if he wasn’t deaf, would I still be as wowed by the routine?” litmus test here – and the bulk of his routines just aren’t holding up.  And just as one more “food for thought” side note – is it possible that we may see a nomination out of Grease: Live? I actually didn’t watch, so I don’t know how good (or bad) the choreography was, but that production just seemed so buzzed-about that I wouldn’t be terribly shocked to see one of the dance numbers from it on the list of nominees.