Kelly Monaco Reviews Dancing With The Stars On Good Morning America

Good Morning America reviewed last night’s dances on Dancing With The Stars. Then Kelly Monaco joined in. She thinks her former partner Val and Zendaya will be the couple to watch. The surprises for her were Ingo Rademacher. She also thought Andy Dick was amazing. She loves his back story. Kelly also thought Kellie and Derek were “on fire” and her moves were “insane. They are in her top three. Kelly also talks of Wynonna and how cool it was seeing her family rooting her on which is so important. Lots more at Good Morning America.

PureDWTS 16 Week 1 – Interviews After The First Dance, Learn Dances For Next Week

Wow, what a great first night of dancing and entertainment on Dancing With The Stars Season 16. Let’s get right to the interviews afterwards with George Pennacchio of On The Red Carpet, but, first, if you haven’t given your reviews and rankings of the couples, be sure you do so HERE!! With that said, onto the interviews after the show, but, note that there aren’t any intertiews so far with Jacoby and Karina. Did they go straight to rehearsals? Also, for all the new interviews with Derek and Kellie, visit Pure Derek Hough as Heidi will be gathering up everything on them there. Ok, let’s get started….

First up, Zendaya and Val!! Zendaya had no idea she would get such high scores last night, but, she just wants to push to do better. Val tells George she looks “promising”. They have the Jive next week. It’s not about the scores for Val, but, about “the dance” and doing the best they can.

Ingo and Kym!! George starts off by commending them for such a great first dance. Kym says he’s fearless in his ability and she was so proud of the moves and lifts he did. Ingo is nervous about having only 5 days to learn the Quickstep, but, Kym has total confidence in him. He tells George to ask him about his confidence level next week after he does the Quickstep.

Dorothy is encouraged and warmed by all the love and positive compliments she heard last night, but, she’s nervous and wants to keep improving and giving her best. Shes gracious and humble. Tristan says they are going to stay focused and work hard.

George starts out telling Andy and Sharna that they had the most applause in the press room after their dance. They are both warmed and thankful. Andy said last night was a big high for him. Next they have the Jive (or did Sharna say “Jazz”?). Sharna says they plan to keep working hard and she will let Andy have artistic freedom to do his comedic thing. The dance will also be “darker”. He’s glad the first dance is over and they can’t wait to move forward.

Aly says she’s so excited and she had so much fun last night. Mark says there is a such a good vibe every where which seemed to be missing last season (I agree! I’m feeling that vibe too! Are you?). Read more..

GMA Goes Into DWTS Stage Rehearsals, ABC Releases Season 16 Pre-Party, Parking Lot Coverage

Check out this piece from GMA today!! Melissa Rycroft commentates on the first rehearsals on stage this weekend. You can watch it here or see the video below thanks to Codebear. He tells me that the video below is longer than what was shown on GMA.

Countdown To “Dancing” – Inside The Final Rehearsal from Elena Grinenko on Vimeo.

ABC has also released a 5 part Dancing With The Stars Pre-party video series to get us ready even more for tonight’s premiere. I haven’t watched these all in full yet, but, for what I’ve seen of Part 1, this is fun!!

Read more..

Executive Producer Speaks Out About Building DWTS Long Time Future, New Themes, And More

Dancing With The Stars Executive Producer Conrad Green spoke to TV Guide about the All Stars last season and how he thinks listeners ended up wanting to see “new” stars and not “old” stars. For Season 16, it’s about bringing in new faces to see new stories happen and bulding Dancing With The Stars long time future. He also talks of the new pros added in this take and why they made some changes…

“New blood is so important,” Green says. “The people who are your favorites now are only your favorites because they were introduced years ago. As always, that doesn’t mean our old pros won’t be considered in the future, but we want to be bring people through and we’ve been looking at Lindsay, Gleb and Sharna for a while. We want them to be your favorites years from now. They all bring something unique to the table.”

I totally support Mr. Green on this idea. I love some of the old pros, but, “change” is also important to keep things refreshing and new.

Mr. Green also talks of the what kind of dances and themes we’ll see this season and those we won’t see. Note how Week 3 will be “Prom Night”. There will also be a “Best Year of Your Life Week”.

“The more outlandish stuff probably won’t be back,” Green says. “The picking [dances] for each other will be. I don’t think there’s an issue with that. … Some of the things we did last season was because it was All-Stars and some of those people had done the whole show, so we had to keep them guessing. I don’t think we’ll be pushing as far and wide with the challenges now because I don’t think we need to. A lot of the joy is seeing if someone can do a paso.”

The Dancing staple, theme weeks, will be back as usual, with some new ones. Week 3 will be Prom Night, inspired by the stars’ own proms and for which fans will be able to vote to crown the Prom King and Queen. “Maybe the celebrities will do some version of their prom outfits,” Green says with a laugh. “There will probably be some campy music. We’re looking at some other special performance nights. One will probably be Latin. We’ll do The Best Year of Your Life Week. It’s small tweaks like that that are vital. Nothing radical.”

I’m not a fan to theme nights unless the music matches the style of dances, but, we’ll see. You can more at TV Guide. After you read it, let us know what you think of everything he says?

Heidi: Yes, let’s take a show that already is seen by cheesy even by it’s fans and see if we can make it the ULTIMATE in cheesy and add a prom theme night. Ya know, I generally think theme nights are CRAP but this one is the ultimate in CRAP.  Another excuse for stupid outfits, stupid props and cranky ass Len who will dock someone (either Derek or Mark, is my guess) for having too many balloons at their prom. Oh, and Mark will wear horn rimmed glasses with his short pants. Again.   At least he’s admitting up front to tweaks – but nothing radical?? Yeah, we’ll see about that.

I woke up on the wrong side of the bed. Obviously.