Heidi’s been doing an amazing job as usual finding all the leaks as to who will be the cast on Dancing with the Stars 2010. I find the most recent rumor of Paula Abdul on Dancing with the Stars especially interesting.

While we wait to find out the official DWTS 2010 cast, I was thinking about what could make the show REALLY exciting. Plus, I think I was influenced by the Survivor 20: Heroes vs Villains where they’re brining back a bunch of old contestants. Similar to that, what if Dancing with the Stars did a special season called Dancing with the Stars All Stars?

Of course, the hard part of doing a Dancing with the Stars All Stars would be selecting the stars to return to the show. Here’s the list of celebrities I’d be interested in seeing back on the show (in no particular order):

Donny Osmond – Better bring the ringer back so that he can compete against all the other ringers. Then, it would be really interesting.

Mya – I’d like to see her dance with someone besides Dmitry. I might change my mind about her then.

Shawn Johnson – Maybe it would be even more fun with her if we gave her 10 years to actually grow up. However, seeing her fan base against a Donny Osmond fan base would be interesting.

Ty Murray – I know I should have Gilles here, but I’m not a huge fan. I’d rather see Ty dance again. He’s just so lovable.

Brooke Burke – Let’s partner her with someone other than Derek and see how she does. She had such a natural ability to dance. I’m pretty sure she’d look great regardless of partner.

Lance Bass – I really enjoyed the effect he had on Lacey. Lacey was more exciting with Lance as a partner. I think Lance would have a similar effect on some of our other favorite female DWTS pros.

Kristi Yamaguchi – I wonder if there are more ice skating fans or gymnastic fans. This would be interesting to find out. My bets on Kristi as cute as Shawn is.

Mel B – She was great on DWTS and I’d love to see her again. Her and Maks were great, but I think Mel B would be entertaining with almost any partner. Well, except maybe the stone faced Dmitry or Alec.

Sabrina Bryan – I’d like to see her get another shot. I bet her fans would go crazy voting for her if they had another chance.

Apolo Anton Ohno – It would be odd to see him dancing with anyone, but Julianne. In fact, a whole group of fans would likely revolt. However, Apolo would be fun to watch again on DWTS.

Emmitt Smith – Emmitt was just downright smooth. I’m not sure about how he did technically, but he definitely had a gift for making his movement look silky and smooth. It was amazing to watch.

Mario Lopez – Him and Karina were great together and it would be weird to see him with another pro. However, imagine Mario dancing with Ashly DelGrosso (who they’d have to bring back as well). That would be nice to watch.

Joey Lawrence – I loved all of the top 3 from this season. Edyta definitely made Joey look good. I think a part of me sees Joey as a skinny nerdy kid dancing with someone as beautiful as Edyta and that makes me happy.

Drew Lachey – I don’t remember many standouts from season 3, but I did see Drew on tour and he was a good dancer.

Kelly Monaco – The first season barely even counts, but Kelly was the first to win and deserves to be on a DWTS with some actual competition.

Can you imagine a season of Dancing with the Stars with even half of these dancers? You’d barely have any idea each week who was going home. Plus, the dancing would be to such an amazing level. Every dance would be a pleasure to watch. I’m sure the judges would get a little crabby and anal about little things, but we could deal with that for the chance to see these people again.

Ok, so it probably won’t happen, but it’s fun to think about a Dancing with the Stars All Stars, no? Who would you include in your All Star cast and why?

Where were we?  Oh yeah – what would happen to DWTS if we made it more like SCD?  Well, I think a lot. Kind of.  :-)

Of the differences I outlined in my previous post on the subject, there were a few BIG ones:

• The scoring difference;
• The voting duration difference;
• The voting style difference;
• The number of judges.

The number of judges on the two shows isn’t as huge, IMO, as the other three.  By having four judges (or five) instead of three, the only effect is the slight watering down of the impact of a rogue judge.  Similar to how having two or three dances in a week softens the result of one bad dance, for example.  You have one bad dance, followed by one great dance, and you can still end up in second or third place – like Derek and Joanna in Week 9.  The same thing happens with four or five judges – you have one mean judge that scores you badly but the other three score you high, that one judge’s score isn’t a huge of an impact on your total.

The scoring difference is a different story.  Remember my “Shocking Elimination” post and the explanation of the scoring and the math?  Remember in Week 9, when the Judges scores were worked out we had the following:

Judges Scores:
Mya = 87
Joanna = 81
Kelly = 78
Donny = 72

Add up the total points given = 318
Now figure the percentage of total points each celeb got:
Mya = 27.36
Joanna = 25.47
Kelly = 24.53
Donny = 22.64

If they were on SCD, they would be ranked as follows:

Mya = 4
Joanna = 3
Kelly = 2
Donny = 1

So instead of a 4.72 point difference between Donny and Mya, it shrinks to 3 points. It may not seem like a lot, but it could be.  Not only that, but Mya’s lead over both Joanna and Kelly shrinks as well.  Mya had a nearly two point lead over Joanna – it shrinks to 1.

What happens when you add in viewer votes?  What if Kelly, for example, actually had just a bit more viewer votes that Mya, putting her second behind Donny.  Quite conceivable, really. On DWTS it might not be big enough to beat Mya’s judges scores, but on SCD? That makes the viewer ranking the following:

Donny = 4
Kelly = 3
Mya = 2
Joanna = 1

When you add them together, you have:

Donny = 5
Mya = 6
Kelly = 5
Joanna = 4

Which is presumably how it turned out. But what if Joanna had more votes than Mya? What if, using the DWTS system it wasn’t enough to beat the difference in the judges scores, but it was still more actual votes?  That would give you SCD viewer ranks of:

Donny = 4
Mya = 1
Kelly = 3
Joanna = 2

When you add the judges rank and the viewer rank together:

Donny = 1 + 4 = 5
Mya 4 + 1 = 5
Kelly 2 + 3 = 5
Joanna 3 + 2 = 5

What happens in a four way tie? Viewer votes win, Mya goes home over Joanna.  Of course, we didn’t have the dance off in the final four, did SCD? I don’t think they did, but that *might* have saved Mya – but no guarantee.  And this doesn’t hold true in the Final because the judges scores don’t actually count – it’s all viewers votes. Mya still loses.  But think about the lack of Judges scores in the final tally!! There is no storyboarding – no judges manipulation in favor of who they consider the best dancer! That’s pretty significant too, although I wager some voters listen to the judges.

At the end of the day, if Joanna had gone to the final instead of Mya – Donny still wins. But I would have had Derek for one more week. And it’s all about me. I think this difference in scoring has the potential to be huge – think about early on when Donny was way down in the ranks but way up in viewer votes? Would his chances of going home have been higher? I think so. But how do the other differences work in concert with this one? Do they even the playing field once again?

I’ll attempt to discuss the rest of it in Part III.

Thanks to the wonders of technology, I watched the “Grand Final” of Strictly Come Dancing live yesterday. It was quite the interesting experience, to say the least. Most people know that the two are sister shows, with SCD being the predecessor of DWTS. That said, there are quite a few differences between the two shows – and a few similarities. Now, I’ve only seen three episodes, at most, and I’ll be going mainly on memory so let me know if I leave anything out.

The Similarities:

• The theme song – it was strange, to say the least, to hear that music pop up followed by all the British accents and the just different enough to be noticeable set.
• Len and Bruno – yep, Len and Bruno are ever present…but they are different too.  Or so it seems.
• The Live Band.
• The best dancer doesn’t always win…and that person’s fans claim they will never watch SCD ‘ever again’.  :-)
• Two host, one male and one female (although the male, Brucie, sang and dance on the final with one of the judges).
• Celebrities dance with professional partners.
• This season, the final two teams did a side-by-side Lindy Hop, similar to what our final three did but less complicated – one style instead of several.
• Pro-dances.

Here is one of the best (the best, in Len’s opinion) couples from this “series” (aka season in USA speak) – Ricky Whittle and his professional partner Natalie Lowe do the Quickstep during the final:

Here’s the guy who actually won (and I found him very enjoyable) – Chris Hollins and his professional partner Ola Fortuna (any relation to Brian?) doing the Charleston during the Final:

The Result?

There are quite a number of differences, some huge, between the two shows, including:

• They normally have *four* judges, and by the end of the season they had added a fifth, and controversial, judge.  That’s right – 50 possible points per dance! We could discuss how this waters down the impact of any single judge, but that’s a much longer, math-related, post.
• Len and Bruno are a similarity, but also a difference.  Bruno is still wild – it’s Len that is a bit different. He lets it rip with the British lingo much more than he does on DWTS. But, he’s also not the “mean” judge on SCD, as far as I could tell – the other guy, whose name I don’t remember, seemed to be worse.
• I haven’t done a ton or research on this, but I gathered from the message board ecstasy over the possibility of them getting Derek Hough (he says no), that the male pros ALWAYS wear tails for ballroom. The commentary on the message boards was that the dress and manner of the SCD pros is much more formal than that of DWTS – our guys almost never wear tails, whereas their guys always do.  Derek visited the show and his main comment on it was the “feel” of the show – very different.
• The scoring is COMPLETELY different on SCD than it is on DWTS.  On DWTS, they use a formula to give each couple percentages of the vote cast and percentages of the total judges points given out on a given night, then those two percentages are added together.  On SCD, each couple is simply given a rank based on the judges scoring and viewer votes. For example, if seven couples are dancing, the couple with the highest judges score is given a seven, and so on down the line.  The couple with the highest number of viewer votes is given a seven and so on down the line. Those two numbers are added together and the two couples with the lowest combined number do a dance off. As in DWTS, the judges decide who stay. In the event of a tie somewhere in the lineup, the couple with the higher viewer votes takes the higher position. Keep in mind, this is the standard, not just something they use during Mambo Marathons, etc.
• Voting is by telephone ONLY for SCD – this is a huge difference with, I would guess, a huge impact on the results. And it appears, from my limited research, that you have a relatively short period of time to vote. On the order of two hours.
• I don’t know if this is par for the course, but yesterday they aired the performance show live at 6:40 local time.  Each couple danced two dances. They open the phone lines at some point late in the show, and then have an hour break where they air another show. Then, at 8:40 they air the results show. The phone lines have been open the whole time. The couples dance two more dances, including a “show dance” (aka Freestyle in USA speak).  Then, about 15 minutes before the show is over, they close the phone lines and tally the results. And get this – the judges scores don’t count.

Now, I’m sure there are many more differences, large and small, between the two shows.  But I’ve outlined a few differences that I’m sure everyone can see would have a huge impact on DWTS if they changed to be the same as SCD.  Which is the biggest; the short voting period, phone only voting or the scoring…or the fact that in the final the judges scores don’t count? Good grief, they all seem huge to me.

I’ll let you guys thing about that for a few hours, while I come up with my thoughts on the impact on DWTS if we made it more like SCD. Would we still have a Donny Osmond? Would Gilles have won instead of Shawn?

I see by the comments that this is a timely article. I highly recommend clicking the link and reading the entire article. Some excerpts from Variety:

Live band gives ‘Dancing’ lift

It’s 9:15 a.m. on a Monday morning on Stage 46 at CBS Television City. Harold Wheeler, music director for ABC’s hit “Dancing With the Stars,” is already well into rehearsal with his 17-piece band and quartet of singers for that night’s live, two-hour show.
He calls out the 3/4-time, country-flavored “Only One Road.” Standing at his keyboard, headphones on, he conducts sans baton while actress Melissa Joan Hart and her pro partner Mark Ballas waltz around the floor while the stage’s mirrored ball spins slowly, showering the room with points of light.

This is the first time that Hart and Ballas have heard what the band will play. For the previous five days, they’ve been rehearsing to a cut-down version of the original 1994 Celine Dion track.

I guess I didn’t realize they were rehearsing with cut downs right up until Monday morning. That would be…stressful for the dancers, I think. The non-pros anyway. The entire article talks about Donny talking to Harold and getting the speed adjusted – and he’s a pro! That would be pretty darn difficult for non-musicians to do, I would think. Make communicating with Harold Wheeler more challenging.

“Music is the essence of everything,” says “Dancing With the Stars” head judge Len Goodman during a break. “Without good music you will never get good dancing. Harold Wheeler and our band are unsung heroes, and the singers are fantastic. Whatever is thrown at them, they can do. Lindy hop, hip-hop, swing, every genre of music, they cope brilliantly.”

In fact, the band consists of some of L.A.’s top studio musicians and singers. Trumpeters Rick Baptist and Warren Luening, saxophonist Dan Higgins, keyboard player Tom Ranier and drummer Ralph Humphrey are among the town’s first-call players. Vocalists Darryl Phinnessee (veteran of multiple Michael Jackson Jackson tours), Carmen Carter, Beverley Staunton and Antonio Sol are not just good singers, says Wheeler, “they’re great singers.”

I think the band is great – but from time to time the singers really butcher a song, sad to say. Of course, everyone has an off night or an off performance. I guess I also never really gave them (and the band as a whole) credit for having to perform multiple genres in a given week – that is challenging.

Senior producer Erin O’Brien creates a list of “well over 1,000 songs” that the staff attempts to clear with music publishers. “And out of every 100 songs,” she says, “I may not even hear back on half. Of the rest, I may end up getting denials on half. Some artists don’t agree to the fee, some prefer that their versions get heard, and some simply don’t do business with reality shows, period.”

When the celebrities are booked, “I ask all of my dancers for song ideas and suggestions,” she adds. “We tell them, ‘tell us anything you could ever possibly want to dance to.’ Not a lot of them end up working,” she concedes.

Once tunes are cleared for use, music editor Graham Jarvis – working in the U.K. and using the internet – decides whether they are appropriate for tangos or waltzes or any of the several categories, and then creates edited versions of the songs (anywhere from 60 to 100 seconds long). It is those versions that the dancers rehearse to, until the Monday morning sessions with the live band.

I find the whole “process” of making a list of songs through the final rehearsals with the live band to be absolutely fascinating. I guess I never thought about how much has to go into just the music portion of the program. Of course I knew the Pros gave ideas and they either got cleared for use or not, but the rest of it is new and interesting information!!

I think that I vote to keep the live band – it does add an element to the show that other shows don’t have – although I think American Idol how has live music (sometimes).

My oh my – we are barely done with Season 9 and the Season 10 speculation starts to crank up.

First up – Jermain Dupre is telling people he would be interested in doing Dancing with the Stars. I’ve seen this one for a couple days now and took it as just talk. I still think it’s “just talk”, but I figured I would post it in the “you just never know” category. From Access Hollywood via some site called DimeWars:

Any Amazing Race fans out there besides me and John? Well, one of the Globetrotters who just got eliminated from the race is saying HE wants to do DWTS – his nickname is Flight Time. Keep in mind that both Flight Time and Jermaine are likely just making it known they would do it if they were to be asked and I think we’re WAY too far out at this point to say this is anything more than wishful thinking on their parts. From the LA Times:

He may not have won the $1 million, but could “Amazing Race” also-ran Herbert “Flight Time” Lang be redirecting his competitive sights to a shiny Mirrorball trophy instead?

The just-eliminated Flight Time (pictured, left), of the “Race’s” popular Harlem Globetrotters team of Flight Time and Big Easy, cracked open the possibility of outfitting himself in glittery face decals and sequins when asked by EW.com if there was a chance that he could show up on another reality show. “I feel like I can do anything now,” he responded. “I enjoy watching ‘Dancing With the Stars’ and I think I’m a pretty good dancer.”

I would love it – these guys were the best sports, played a great game and they never got upset, or fought. They were very entertaining. I say yes.

Now, addressing the rumor that either Maks or Karina could be sitting in the audience next season, Maks, Karina and ABC all say it’s not true. According to Entertainment Weekly:

According to a source at ABC, “The casting of professionals is determined by the casting of the celebrities, which is still in progress.” Chmerkovskiy’s rep corroborated: “Maks has a contract that goes beyond season 10. As to if he’s coming back or not for next season, that always depends on casting.” Smirnoff’s rep called the one-or-the-other rumor “malicious,” and added, “Karina loves being on Dancing With the Stars and has a professional working relationship with Maksim. I can assure you that she has every intention of returning in the spring.”

Yeah, neither dancer is going anywhere. With each passing season, the pros are bigger stars (and bigger initial draws) than most of the celebrities. ABC will do anything to hold on to the top tier pros AND if they fight it just means better ratings and more attention. Controversy is cash. Derek is fond of saying “Well, if they cast all 6 foot tall women, then Mark and I are out.” While not necessarily true, it’s reasonably accurate – that said, I got 100 buck they make sure they have a couple shorter women in there. Although…Derek didn’t give that stock answer the most recent time he was asked….hmmmm….hold me, I’m getting scared.

Speaking of Derek – I just found out one of the things he’s doing in the off season. A pretty high profile choreography gig! He’s choreographing Cheryl Cole’s next single off her hit album in London. Cheryl Cole is a judge of the British show The X-Factor (created and also judged by Simon Cowell). She is also huge in England (and Europe?) as a recording artist and got started in a group called Girls Aloud on Pop Stars (English version of American Idol). Derek talks about his gig in this video I posted on PureDerekHough - he’s at the 10 minute mark.

Finally, I don’t know that I mentioned this before, but congratulations to Kym Johnson for her Broadway Debut in Burn the Floor!! Couldn’t have happened to a nicer girl! She’s dancing with Maks who returns to the show after a successful run in the late summer. From Theater Mania:

Kym Johnson isn’t exaggerating when she says the last week of November was “the craziest week of my life.” On Tuesday, November 24, she and her celebrity partner, Donny Osmond, were crowned champions of the ninth season of ABC’s Dancing with the Stars, and on Friday, November 27, she made her Broadway debut in the dance extravaganza Burn the Floor. TheaterMania recently spoke with Johnson about these significant events and her plans for the future.

TM: Is this your first time doing Burn the Floor?
KJ: I was in the original workshop in 1998, and then I toured with it for six years — we even did Radio City Music Hall. But it’s definitely changed a lot; it was more of an arena-style show in the past. Now, it’s much more intimate. I also had to learn all new choreography; but since I am really familiar with Jason Gilikson’s style, it wasn’t so hard.

TM: You’re appearing in the show with your Dancing with the Stars co-star Maksim Chmerkovskiy. What is that like?
KJ: We’re good friends, so it’s nice to be dancing with him every night. And no offense, but on Dancing, you don’t dance fully with another professional, so I am really enjoying this. Plus, on the show, I had to choreograph all the numbers and come up with songs, costumes, and all that. It’s nice that I don’t have to keep thinking every minute and I can just dance.

TM: What was your reaction when you found out your partner was going to be Donny Osmond?
KJ: The dancers are always playing guessing games before they tell us who our partners are, and I think everyone was jealous. I had a good feeling from the beginning; I knew he was dedicated and would give everything. His work ethic is so professional.

TM: What was your off-stage relationship like?
KJ: Donny is the nicest man; he had a smile on his face every day. He used to give me singing lessons on our lunch break, which was a real role reversal. He would bully me into singing, and I’d bully him into dancing. He thinks I have a good voice. He tells me I should do it professionally. We’ll see.

While waiting on the breakfast to be ready (Champagne Brunch – Yay!!), I took a stroll around twitter and found the celebs and pros have been tweeting fools. Enjoying their time off. I won’t post all their tweets, but some of them and their twit pics were fun. If you want to follow them and see what they have to say, you can find all their twitter accounts on a previous post!

Aww, Tony, so sweet. And the Ballas men – strange. Lacey and Lance at the Dizzy Feet Gala!! And Natalie Jinxes herself.

Mark has a hot cousin, ya’ll.

Joanna is talking about her new Peta Ad campaign. Jonathan cracks me up, as does Louie Vito.

Natalie – word to the wise, never talk about how good traffic is, because then it WON’T be. Derek being a good uncle, taking the kids to Miley Cyrus with Julianne and his sisters. They apparently hit a local honky tonk after – I assume someone took the children home.

For those who didn’t know, Carrieann had some sort of surgery yesterday – it appears she pulled through nicely. Apparently it was minor and related to her neck/back. I could look it up, but dudes it’s Thanksgiving and I’m stuffing myself.

Natalie tweeted two of her favorite pictures from Finale night:

Kym J. finally gets some sleep.

Huge thanks to Codebear on Youtube – he/she got a ton of media with just makes my job easier.

Good Morning America!

Mya and Dmitry on Entertainment Tonight

Donny and Kym on Entertainment Tonight

Kelly and Louis on Entertainment Tonight

Kelly and Louis on TV Guide Network

Final three on The View

The View exit interview

…Donny Osmond and Kym Johnson.

I can’t believe I’m saying this, but the best person won out of that final three. I never thought, at the beginning of this season, that I would be so ecstatic that an Osmond won the competition. But, while not the best dancer, Donny had heart, humility and passion for this show that was required to win. Sans the massive fanbase and ringer status, he still deserved to win over Mya and Kelly. The man got it done.

Why? Well, for me, it boiled down to Donny and Kelly. The two of them made me FEEL their dances – I cried when Kelly and Louis cried. Donny just plain entertained during his freestyle which Mya, with all her technical perfection, just couldn’t do. And, tonight, Donny made me feel all mushy and happy – yeah, he’s got too much of a mouth at times, but tonight when he was genuinely shocked that Kelly took third, and then he was over joyed when he won….well, he showed more excitement and heart than Mya showed all season. And that, my friends, is the key to winning Dancing with the Stars.

Congratulations again, to Donny and Kym.

We did 2 polls after last week’s show to predict the winner of Dancing with the Stars Season 9. Here’s a link to see the results of those polls and their prediction of Mya as winner of Dancing with Stars season 9. Of course, that voting was done without knowing the scores from tonight’s show. So, let’s vote for the winner of Dancing with the Stars Season 9 now that we know the following scores:
Mya and Dmitry – 87
Donny and Kym – 85
Kelly and Louis – 76

Tomorrow, we’ll know the official winner of Dancing with the Stars season 9. The wait is over.