DWTS Season 19, Week 8: Dancing by the Numbers!

So…

Where to start?

Yes, I do think that the scores were determined in advance by the judges because they wanted to keep Janel safe for another two weeks. Did they know it was necessary? Does it matter? I’m not sure the judges know, but at the end of the day, they underscored Sadie, in particular, relative to Janel. Janel’s dance was good, but if it was a dance worthy of a perfect score, so was Sadie’s and Alfonso’s – and Bethany’s for that matter.  But perhaps those three don’t need the help, eh?

By giving Janel 43 points last week, they’ve essentially sent her all the way to the semi-finals based on one less than perfect dance. Saved her for last week AND this coming week. This way, it is likely they get their preferred finale of Alfonso, Sadie, Bethany and Janel – sucks to be Lea and Tommy, barring someone not getting the votes we think they are. The semi-final scoring will tell the tale. If Janel suddenly isn’t all that great, it means she ain’t getting the vote (like we suspect) – after all, the judges want to be RIGHT. They want their preferred finale, but in the end they want their scores to be close to how the votes are going. Pride.

Anyway, I can’t even work up any righteous indignation about this anymore. It’s so predictable. Young actress works for ABC = Semi-final, whether she deserves it or not. And really, she is dancing better than Lea right now – I just don’t *LIKE* her. Not only do I get stealth mean girl vibe, but that gross showmance she had going on with Val was just annoying after a season centered on an over the top showmance.  Yuck.

But, on to the scores. Who’s got what and how much damage did the judges do this past week? Read more..

DWTS Season 19, Week 7: Dancing by the Numbers!

Well, it’s really interesting how the team dances make an already screwed up leader board even MORE screwed up. In what universe is Sadie below both Lea and Janel?? Cray cray universe, that’s which one. I can’t figure out what they have against that girl – and why they are so high on Lea. They have Lea as 4 points higher than Sadie in her individual dance – it’s’ times like this when I think that perhaps giving your celeb very simple choreo is an advantage. I’m not sure it should be. Mark went with a production and harder choreo and wasn’t rewarded at all for challenging Sadie AND teaching her to dance. Was she a little wobbly in spots? Sure – but she also had harder choreo.

I dunno. Don’t get me wrong – I love Lea too, but these oddities make me scratch my head.  Because in the past, one of the requirements from the judges certainly seemed to be upping the challenge each week, if they were a good dancer. But, as usual, the rule that applies to some pros/celebs doesn’t apply to all.  I was ready to be super pissed at Len, for example, when he started talking about production to Derek on a HALLOWEEN themed episode – but instead of giving Derek his usual 7, he gave him a 9. Shocker. But then we found out that Len was saving his true ire for Mark and Sadie. Granted, they had MORE production and the dance wasn’t quite as strong – but NINE points difference?? Lord have mercy, whose cheerios did Mark pee in? (Note to Mark fans: you should focus your silly hate on the people actually handing out scores…and here’s an idea, instead of trying to pull Beth’s score DOWN, you should be bitching to get Sadie’s score UP. Always, the focus on Derek when he had nothing to do with it. Stupid.).

As we have often speculated in the past, the one reason to low ball someone is for the storyline. Often a storyline that includes the lowballed celeb getting a shit ton of votes. This way, when they are safe…or even end up WINNING…everyone will be shocked. The audience will look at each other in wonder and say, “but she got low scores all the way up to week __ – that’s amazing she won!!” Because, folks, not everyone is really paying attention and some of the audience ain’t actually too bright (see: shippers).  Where this becomes a problem is the other side of the stupid audience coin – sometimes constant lowballing leads the sheeple…I mean, audience to believe that that person is not as good a dancer as they actually are. There are people out there who actually believe the judges know what they’re talking about (gasp), when in reality, there is more that goes into their scores than actual dancing a lot of the time. Read more..