Private Members Area – DWTS Season 23 Season Week 8 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.
Halloween night on DWTS. What did you think? Did you like the dance-offs? Was this a good way to celebrate Halloween?
How about the elimination? I wonder if the ratings will spike now that he’s gone since so many people complained about him being on the show. My guess is they won’t spike.
Really stinks that Sharna’s injured. Although, it’s actually quite amazing that we haven’t had more injuries over all these seasons. Says a lot about the pros.
I have to admit, …I’m kind of tired of the Dance-Offs. Why not mix things up and have a Marathon instead? With that said, I loved Halloween Night. Though I think I might have been the only fan who thought Val’s tears were for real? Oh well….a girl can hope I guess. lol
Vogue, I agree! I didn’t even watch all of the dance-offs. I liked the Halloween themed night too.
I actually thought Val’s tears were sincere. I only say this because watching him, he kept doing something with his mouth (like keeping it shut lol). He kept moving it around, almost like a nervous twitch. But seriously, I wonder if he hasn’t read some of the backlash about him and feared that maybe some of what people have said could be true. I don’t know, the package was edited weirdly but I think he had some legit emotion there. Even Erin noticed him visibly shaking.
Thanks. So true about Val’s mouth which I hadn’t noticed before.
I’m sad that Marilu hasn’t lived up to expectations…she should be slaying but I think she gets in her head too much during live performances. 🙁 I power voted though? Never Underestimate Dereks fan base!
I agree on Marilu, Kelly. *prays that she can really let loose Monday night. And so true….one must never underestimate the power voting of the Derek fanbase. 🙂
And you can throw in the voting of a Mark fan returning the favor to the Derek fans who voted for Paige and Mark last season. ?
Thanks Christine. 😉 Wish we could have gotten her farther.
And thank you, Princess Heidi. That means a lot to me.
I am in the 65 and above range and I voted for Derek. I don’t really like Marilu. I don’t have anything against her but she is just annoying to me. I was just so angry at the way those packages portrayed them, I flung my slipper at the TV. This show has proven once again it has no loyalty and will send anyone down the river. Is it just me or is this show just getting worse? They better remember what happened to DWTS in Australia. All ABC has to do is schedule Monday night football again and they are toast! I doubt if that will happen but they need for Rob Wade to go!!! I’m not even going to mention Val’s fake tears. Seriously!
I have a question for Heidi that I’m posting here because I don’t want it to become “a thing”. You mentioned a couple of weeks ago that you are dreading the possibility of Derek and Hayley ever breaking up because of how some of his fans would react and compared it to his breakup with Shannon. Correct me if I’m wrong or misinterpreting, but I think you’ve said in the past that a significant part of why that breakup was so bad on the fan side was because of some of her behaviour while they were together (posts on message boards, etc.). With that being said, do you think Hayley is fanning the crazy like Shannon did, or is most of what you’re seeing just driven by the fans? I don’t pay enough attention to her interactions on social media to have any idea if she is.
No, Sonic, Hayley is playing it MUCH lower key than Shannon ever did (from what I can see – keep in mind that I don’t actively look for the shipper stuff). By miles. Shannon did a lot of interaction with Derek fans and some of them really grew to like her a lot – people who were a good bit older, too, not kids like what I’m seeing now. So, they all considered themselves friends of Shannon’s so when they broke up, it was like Derek broke up with THEM – one trolls him to this day (and she’s quite sick, so I try to warn ppl to not interact with her at all). Of course, there were a few extenuating circumstances – Derek and a couple playboy bunnies, which enraged Shannon’s Derek fans. What they don’t understand is that they were likely already broken up by then and just hadn’t announced it. Because Derek doesn’t announce shit. 🙂
Anyway, Hayley hasn’t been interacting with fans that I’ve seen – not on social media. She seems to have joined the Derek school of “My private life is none of yo business”. Hayley seems to have far less a need to have people know she’s with Derek than what Shannon did – she’s just not needy, period, from what I can see and the same can’t be said for Shannon. However, I’ve heard things about Hayley’s mom interacting and being friends with fans that make me concerned. I’ve not seen it for myself – I don’t care to search it out – but I don’t like the sound of it. In any case, if they ever break up it will still be bad because the fans involved are a lot younger and more…shippery. Just ugh. I don’t think it will be quite the shitstorm that Derek/Shannon’s break up was, though. Hopefully. And honestly, Derek hangs all over her at times in the red room knowing there are cameras there – that’s so not him and makes me wonder if this is more serious.
Thanks for your answer, Heidi. That all makes a lot of sense. I wasn’t around during the Shannon days and hadn’t realized that the people involved were that much older than your standard shippers. The little bit I’ve seen of stuff with Hayley’s mom seemed like, at least some of the time, she was trying to stop the spread of misinformation. It wouldn’t surprise me though if there’s more than that, and I can definitely see how it could exacerbate things if Derek and Hayley ever breakup.
My husband is 9 years older than me…same age difference between my Father and Mother and also coincidentally the same age difference between Derek and Hayley! My parents have been married 45 years, me for 17…so who knows. I’m with you PH in thinking that this is serious. He JUST started showing PDA towards her THIS season after dating her for over a year already so hmm……he’s not getting younger either.He’s said in many an interview how he wants kids. 30 is the new 20. and so on and so forth.
I am so frustrated with the producer manipulations! Are the judges’ scores lower because the negative package (subliminaly?) reflects how they feel about the performance? Or if the judges are told what to say and score beforehand. Doesn’t Deep Throat know?
The favoritism is just so blatant that I just can’t enjoy the show as much as I would like to.
Why can’t they just judge fairly? And show packages that show everyone in a good light? And let the people vote?
I used to follow American Idol and there appeared to be major producer manipulations to mess up performances, in things like performance order, song choice (say their song didn’t get cleared last minute), lighting problems, in ear mic problems, band problems (speeding up or slowing down songs), negative packages, etc. Seems like some of the same with DWTS.
But the main difference is that AI judges didn’t give out scores to help decide who goes home. And AI signed the winner so they have an invested stake on who they wanted to win. Granted DWTS has a pro tour but by not respecting Derek who is their best pro seems like shooting yourself in the foot. I wish he would grab the mic and speak up when he’s standing by Tom or Erin.
#heart – I think you might be on to something.
Derek doesn’t do the tours with dwts – he does his own thing. That could possibly be part of the reason they have made him somewhat expendable. As in – they need him around to keep interest in the show, but they can’t have him win. That would hurt tour sales. Why would ppl pay top dollar to see non-winning pros, if they have the option to go see the winner doing some other tour?
Never thought of it this way before – but that sure would make sense about how they have treated him, and why they are desperate to have one of the “tour” pros win again. Lindsay, Sharna, Val, and Gleb are all left in the running. Coincidence? Maybe not.
If Sharna and Gleb are hurt bad enough to miss the tour – they really need both Val and Lindsay. Mods – what do you think about this possible tour connection?
We’ve discussed the tour’s role in Derek’s treatment for quite some time now – not a new thing.
They don’t want Derek to win because he’s won 6 times and they listen to the squeaky wheels. It’s just not a good look for the show that one guy keeps winning. They want ONE OF THE PROS GOING ON TOUR to win because it’s good for the tour. Derek winning doesn’t “hurt” the tour, it just doesn’t help it like a Sharna, Lindsay or Val win would. None of this is a coincidence – at all.
As I’ve said numerous times, Derek is their big conundrum. They very much want him around because (as illustrated this season in particular) his fanbase is quite large compared to other pros. They want him around because he has a tendency to get Emmy nominations for choreography – this helps the show as much as it does Derek. Maybe more. But they can’t have him win because there’s no money in it for them. It makes segments of the audience mad (not big segments, IMO, but they listen), and their tour does better when it has the “winner” as one of the headliners. Tough spot for them, being so greedy and wanting it all – I think it will end up really hurting the show, all the manipulations and gyrations they go through to get everything they want.
I don’t think the producers manipulate it for the tour as much as you say since the producers of the TV show are only tangentially connected to the tour. They’re owned by the same company, but run by different people.
The bigger issue is the impression that Derek “wins all the time.” The producers want better ratings and so they want the appearance that anyone can win. Having Derek win all the time is likely an issue in their minds when it comes to good ratings.
An issue that is disproven by their own ratings, actually. And the fact that Derek’s the most popular pro – he wins a lot because people VOTE for him and his partners. It’s still having their cake and eating it too – Derek giveth and Derek winning taketh away. I don’t see it actually working both ways – it has to be one or the other. And they get far more from him being on the show, than the lose from him winning. But I don’t think they’re the sharpest knives in the drawer…I also think that manipulation is a habit that gets ingrained. They don’t know how to not do it.
If the tour and the show are owned by the same company, then that’s all the connection that is needed. Just like they have to take some direction from the network, they probably have to work hand in hand with the tour. PROFITS.
It does go both ways. Derek certainly brings his fan base to the show. However, it also alienates other viewers of the show if he wins all the time. That’s what makes producing a hit show so hard. We could certainly argue about whether he brings more fans than he alienates when he wins, but both happen.
I think their culture is far less about manipulation and far more about “telling a story” for each person on the show. I think in their producers’ mind they think that their job is to create a story arc for each character on the show. So, they manipulate the packages, order, etc in order to tell that story that they think will interest viewers. In their culture, they think that good stories get good headlines, retains viewers, creates good entertainment, etc which leads to better ratings.
The problem in reality tv is that it often gets taken too far and once people catch on to too much manipulation in order to tell a story, it turns against them. That’s why you hear reality TV producers so happy to say things like “the story just told itself” or “We couldn’t make this stuff up.”
PH – yes, I know it has been discussed before. Guess I just had an AHA! moment. It all makes sense now. And conundrum – perfect description.
And one other piece to the puzzle – if Derek was the favorite to win every season, then what about the celebs? I think more females would say they would only dance with him. And where would that leave the show?
While I appreciate Johns comment about the tour being small potatoes compared to the show, I think from an audience perspective they are much more equal. As in ppl would be more committed to the show after they saw the tour and live performances. But in order to get the ppl to those tour shows, they have to have the pros that draw audiences. And Derek missing from the tour is a big factor to many. So they have to start pimping/developing other stars of the show – for show ratings which are impacted by tour ratings.
So I totally agree PH – they need Derek there, at least for the majority of weeks, but they don’t actually want him to win. In fact – it looks like they want to make sure at least two of the final pros go on tour. I’m really starting to see the Gleb push too. With Maks/Mark gone – Derek not as useful to them, and Val making a mess of everything he touches – they need a strong male to headline. I’m seeing Gleb prepped for that.
I also object to the characterization of “all the time”. He’s won 6 times in 17 seasons. That’s slightly more than one-third of the time.
But people get to whining on the internet and “all the time” is on par with “all his partners are ringers” and “all his partners are young and skinny” – none of those things are actually true. Not even really close when compared to other pros such as Val (nearly all ringers) or Mark (predominantly young).
We’re at the “too far” stage right now. And I don’t think it’s a coincidence that this started happening after Conrad left the show. Last week’s package – Marilu told me on the phone that it was her and Derek’s best week ever. Derek says she’s been injured for two weeks now, and that they had long, deep conversations and are doing better than ever – NONE of it is shown. None. Pretty sure they won’t have Derek’s fan base to worry about much longer. And we’ll see how much the whiners actually count.
The thing about tours is, they make big money, particularly in merchandise. I don’t think it should be discounted. Of course, the pros likely don’t see as much from the DWTS tour that Derek and Jules do from their own tour – but the tour owner sure does.
Of course, another symptom of their greed was their insistence on doing two tours a year – milk that cow dry right away.
“All of the time” is a perception issue and not necessarily that it’s all the time. Given there are 12 pros/couples, 1/3 of the time is basically all of the time from a perception stand point.
I think manipulation based on that is a bad call for the show and the ratings. The Patriots win all the time and bring great ratings. Same for the Yankees, Duke, etc. America loves the underdog/David and Goliath story, so having Derek win all the time could be a great thing for ratings. I just don’t think the producers get that and they want to avoid the perception of him winning all the time. Probably makes contract negotiations with the pros easier too.
Well, even though a lot of us are voting for Derek right now, I don’t think Marilu deserves to win it all unless she dances the lights out over James or Calvin at the finals. I am voting for her right now to make through as long as possible. Hopefully to the finals.
Anyway, I appreciate all the feedback from you all. I just wish the judges could just be more positive with Derek and Marilu. They don’t have to gush. I guess, we will see what happens tonight. Crossing fingers they will be safe!
Conversely, I would bet that Derek is making good coin on this show.