Private Members Area – DWTS Season 23 Season Week 4 Discussion
It’s time again for Dancing with the Stars chatter! You know the deal. Share your thoughts and insights on this week’s episode of Dancing with the Stars. If you’re not a Pure DWTS Insider yet, you can do so here. If you are, then I look forward to the discussion in the comments.
This week everyone was doing an unlearned dance as part of Cirque du Soleil night. What did you think of adding a Cirque element to each dance? Who integrated it well? Who deserves the Len GrumpyPants award for doing too much Cirque and not enough dance?
At this point, we should start talking about who is setting themselves apart and who will be gone early? Any predictions on who will be the final 4 and who will win?
We look forward to seeing your comments.
This is my first season here so this is probably been discussed in length, but do the judges have an agenda that the producers encourage them to follow? Or are they honestly judging? Because they are supposed to be experts and they are so critical to some people but seem to play favorites toward others like Val. It is so frustrating to watch this show sometimes.
Heart,
There’s a lot of different views on this. I haven’t seen anything definitive about how much the producers tell the judges to say. I personally don’t think they make specific demands of the judges to say certain things about certain people. However, I believe that each judge has writers that gives them ideas of things to say about the various couples. For example, I don’t think Bruno comes up with all these phrases on his own. However, I think each judge can choose to use them or not. I imagine the producers work with the writers to accentuate a storyline they’re telling in the packages and things like that.
So, I’d say that the judges have ultimate control over what they say, but the producers do influence the judges in what they say.
I think the producers use the packages a lot more than the judges to influence a person’s time on the show. A lot can be done with the packages to make a star and their pro endearing or hated. I personally think the producers are mostly trying to tell a good story and create an arc over the season for each star as opposed to propping up one star or another. However, there are likely some occasions where they see the voting numbers and so they likely want to keep certain couples around for ratings. That has backfired on them before though when their packages didn’t do the trick of keeping someone popular around. I know some people disagree with me on this and think the producers influence the show way too much.
At the end of the day, I think there are two keys to the choices producers make on the show. 1. They have to follow strict laws about the competition and the rules for the competition that they have to file. 2. They do whatever they can within those laws and rules to improve ratings.
That’s my 2 cents, but of course the producers don’t really like to talk about how the sausage is made too much.
Thanks so much, John, for the info. It doesn’t make sense to me why, for instance, Julianne would give a 7 score to Calvin when he was so much better than many others who got a 7 or more. Yet she didn’t say anything really negative. Same with Marilu with a 7 score, yet Julianne seemed critical and not as much a positive critique.
Anyway, whatever the judges and producer’s agenda, it appears that they are trying to influence the voters that only Laurie and Val are perfection. I certainly hope that it backfires on them and the news of the finale will be that Calvin or James beats Laurie.
Im glad that Tom made a point to say that the majority of the general public asks about Calvin and James! That’s a good sign!
Sometimes they do play bad cop, good cop. So, if one judge focuses on the negative, then the next judge will focus on the positive to keep both sides being discussed. So, it’s possible that Julianne was talking the positive, but had negative comments but not enough time to share them. That’s often why their scores don’t connect with their comments. The judges have shared as much after the show on occasion. 1 time Len even said sorry for scoring someone too low after because his comments didn’t match his score.
Laurie is really good. So, there’s that in play too. I hate the perfect score this early though. I wrote about it before in this post: https://www.puredwts.com/2013/09/18/the-dwts-overscore-express/ It leaves her no where to go. Same with James and Sharna really. It’s too bad because now they’ll be given lower scores while the rest of the stars with far less talent will get the same as them.
Yeah…Laurie is good…as one would expect for a 16yr old Olympic gold medal winning gymnast. And it’s painstakingly obvious what the agenda is…that VAL MUST WIN! Hence the reason why they gifted him with Laurie. It’s too bad that he’s not challenging her with difficult choreography. This past week’s theme was tailor made to Laurie’s skill set and VAL BLEW IT BIG TIME!!!
THEN they went ahead and gave Val Jazz for which to choreo a show-stopping number and he STILL BLEW IT!!!! No flips and tricks just walk, walk pose. Gyrate on a rotating bench like she was in an 80’s WhiteSnake video!! Hell, *I* could’ve done that routine that Val choreoed for Laurie and I’ve never had any kind of dance class in my whole life! Definitely NOT worthy of a perfect score. She BETTER not be given Contemporary for MMY week.
As I’ve said, I’m Team Hennergy BUT if Marilu doesn’t make the finals, then all my votes will be going to James and Sharna!! She is actually producing good choreo for her partner this season! Unlike the C-bros who seem to be content with phoning it in. Even Maks gipped Amber…that Tango was bland. Amber was weak in her leg work…yet she got a 24….smh. SO tired of the favoritism towards Val and Maks.
I just loved Cirque week. Then again, I’ve always loved big theatrical productions. I thought the show and pros really stepped it up. If I had to choose between Disney week and Cirque Week, I choose Cirque week. I hope they keep doing it in the future.
I’ll take Disney week over Cirque week. I’ve never seen a Cirque production because well, I can’t afford it.However, I have seen just about every single Disney movie at one time or another in my life. Even Frozen and I’ve got a boy child. No girls. lol
I’d think Cirque week would be very costly. ABC and DIsney are parent companies so there wouldn’t be as much to pay in the way of licensing, as opposed to paying Cirque du Soleil for using their acrobats, etc.
I saw the Michael Jackson Cirque show in Vegas. It was awesome. I just looked at the site, tickets start out at $69. If and when I go back, I will definitely go again (they constantly update the show to make it new for those who visit Vegas a lot). At the time, we were told the Beatles Love show was really good too.
The best option is to live in Vegas and have a friend that can hook you up with free Cirque tickets. I’m quite sure that Disney was more expensive than Cirque. My guess is that they might have had to pay rights to Disney to use them and the animations that they incorporated. I could see Cirque paying for DWTS to use them. It’s advertising for them. When Cirque does a performance on a show like this, they often pay for their performers to be there and perform as a way to promote Cirque. So, I’d be surprised if the show paid anything to do a Cirque show.
I bet you are right about them paying DWTS, John, and it’s working. I want to see ALL the Cirque shows now. lol
I enjoy Disney night and would love to see them try Cirque night again. Over 20 years ago(wow, I know) I got to see Mystere in Vegas and several years ago I saw La Nouba at Disney (x2). Yes, it is expensive. But, I can honestly say it is worth the money. And I am cheap! The shows are a circus without animals. Nonstop action. When there is a set change, there is no “down time”. A performer/distraction is always keeping you entertained. The music and performances are high energy and you leave the show pumped.
I know there sometimes is a touring show throughout the year and when it comes to our area the local PBS station will do donation/fundraising ticket sales for their shows while airing some of Cirques shows. Might be a way for some people to check it out on tv for free 🙂 I think Target had a inexpensive dvd too.
I can’t afford to live in Vegas John. It’s TOO HOT there! LOL! It gets hot too where I live with a high humidity as well and I can’t bear to go outside when it’s in the 80’s with 60% humidity or higher. It’s just miserable! LOL
I’d rather have the latest iPhone every year than spend money on tickets to a show. But I’m cheap like that. Now if DEREK were in Cirque du Soleil? HELL YEAH I’d buy a ticket!!! lol
Vegas isn’t quite as bad in the heat because of no humidity. Plus, everywhere has air conditioning. That said, I’m basically a snow bird, so I get your point.
If you’d just switch from iPhone to Android, then you’d have even more features on your phone and enough money to buy tickets to Cirque.
Oh heck NO to Android! I don’t wanna start my house on fire because of a defective battery! lol
Oh KellyK. That was one device from one manufacturer. I guess you better not use any laptops either. Or use a stove. Or use a bbq. Or…you get the point. It’s all good though. Keep using your iPhone and miss out on the tour 😉
What tour? I’ll go to Move Live on Tour next summer if it happens again. Heh…we each spend our monies as we choose. You live in Vegas and have easy access to these kinds of events. I don’t. Nor do I like to travel 2 hours one way to see a show.
KellyK,
The DWTS Live Tour. No worries my friend. I was just messing with you. You can certainly spend money any way you want.
Surprisingly, the tours often skip Vegas. I think it’s because there are so many shows (ie. competition). I often have to go somewhere else to see the tours.
Ohh….hey I’ve seen the DWTS Tour in Jan 2015, when they came to the Cleveland Hard Rock Rocksino! I won $63 on the slots, tripling my money 😉 I stop when I’m ahead :p