Dancing with the Stars Season 18, Week 4 – Dancing by the Numbers!
Okay, after being out of town for a few days, I finally got to watch the whole show. My thoughts…in a bullet list. 🙂
- Geez, all that brouhaha over Julianne’s comments and that was it?? She qualified the crap out of it and said she loves Maks but…. Really, I was expecting harsher, after all the discussion here.
- Candace was TOTALLY hosed. And I mean totally. That was a very good dance and Tony did a good job with it. WTF is going on here?? Is she being sacrificed on the Meryl alter?
- Candace’s dance was about a thousand times better than Danica’s, thanks to Maks. Is he EVER going to stop putting all that non-dancing in his choreo? About time he was called on it.
- LOVED Drew’s dance – Witney got it just right. I’m liking this girl a lot.
- Cody is still pretty loosey goosey, but he did pretty well. I think his scores were right on target.
- My favorite thing about Charlie? “giggle giggle…Let’s Rumba.” Crack me up. 🙂 He doesn’t take himself too seriously. I’ve said several times that I think he got hosed – it could definitely have been more rumba-y, but there was more content than Meryl’s foxtrot. The producers definitely have a plan in mind.
- The whole time I was watching Meryl’s dance all I could think of was that she was KILLING it with Maks’ brother. LOL. Will we ever see her dance that incredibly again? I have my doubts. And Court, did you notice that Maks mentioned their mother after Val’s dance? LOL.
- Val, don’t try to use big words. Working at showing intelligence backfires when you make up words. Just BE. Insecure people need to use big words to sound smart. Oh…
- I’ve had my issues with Mark in the past, but THIS is why I wanted Amy with him. He took care of her, listened to her, talked to Derek. He took the challenge and the dance very seriously. The dance seemed a bit small, but I don’t think there’s any way to avoid that. Listening to some of the recent interviews with Amy, it’s clear that she’s making being a double amputee look far easier than it actually is. The balance and the core strength needed for her to dance away from Mark or Derek is just incredible. She’s an incredible woman. And more of an athlete than anyone else on the show. No one has ever danced this well with this sort of challenge. Hell, no one’s danced with a challenge like this, period.
- Totally bummed that the band screwed NeNe…I’m very curious to see the complete dance. Two big band screw ups in one night? Fire them. Jesus, it’s kind of important that you get the music right. In any case, she handled it like a champ. I could see Derek yelling “Just go! Just go!” And she did. I am just bummed that we didn’t get to see the dance in its original form.
- James. Yum. He’s really good and he’s not even a ringer. I think this guy is a contender…I just hope like hell he’s getting the votes and isn’t getting lost in the Meryl/Charlie hype.
- Macy’s Stars of Dance? Holy god. That was almost too much for me. Katherine is a beast and all that man flesh was amazing. Derek’s best shot for an Emmy nomination so far this cycle, I’m thinking.
Okay, on with the show. The scoring is seriously annoying me. I think they are underscoring some (Charlie, Candace) in order to protect another (Meryl) – and they are over scoring Meryl as well. Neither is particularly horrific – but the combo puts Meryl WAY out in front of everyone else and I have to ask – what are they afraid of?? Is she not getting the votes? Are you seriously going to try to tell me that Candace was a whole 18 points below Meryl?? *18*?? And how in the hell are Drew and NeNe both doing better than her in the combined score?? Worse yet, are you going to claim that Charlie is, in fact, NINE points below Meryl?? What is going on here? Don’t get me wrong, both of Meryl’s dances were beautiful, especially the AT. But Charlie got hosed for a non-rumba, while Meryl was praised for a non-foxtrot. And honestly, to me, Charlie’s rumba was more rumba than Meryl’s foxtrot was a foxtrot. This is one big huge storyboard. I fully expect that Charlie will be back in first place either this week or next. But Candace?? Are they sacrificing her or is she killing it in votes so they are trying to engineer a shocking elimination of someone else? I guess we’ll have to wait and see. We are certainly in the right place for a shocking elimination.
But first, a little re-examination of what two weeks worth of points does. Take a look at Week 3’s scores:
You’ll see that Drew and NeNe are both below Candace in terms of points. But, very little has to be done for both Drew and NeNe to be safe. See below:
In this situation, with only 1 weeks worth of scores, I’m guessing NeNe would have been gone. Drew needed only 3300 more votes per million votes cast in order to pass her, and she would have needed the same amount to pass Candace. I think Drew could do it easily and NeNe couldn’t. I think Candace is more well known and loved than NeNe is, as is Drew – I don’t know that she could muster the votes to stay over either of them. Now, NeNe had a good dance with Derek in week 4, and Drew’s dance was great as well….but so was Candace’s. So how in the hell does this happen (see below)?
Candace is now in last place by three whole points? I’m sorry, but at worst she should be tied with NeNe and Drew. Not that they were overscored, but that Candace was underscored by at least that much this week. What in the hell is the deal here? How did she get all 7s?? I guess when we see who actually goes home, we’ll have a better idea of what they were trying to accomplish. Maybe.
Anyway, what does Candace need to be safe this week? See below.
Now, Candace needs nearly 5k votes per million votes cast to stay over either Drew or NeNe. Luckily for her, the large number of points handed out narrowed the margin. If she was three points below Drew and NeNe with only one set of scores she would have needed more like 13k votes per million votes cast. But still. Do I think Candace can do it? I think maybe she can get those votes to get past NeNe. It all depends on Derek fans. They SHOULD have voted for Amy, knowing the switch was only for one week, but some of them can’t help themselves when it comes to voting for Derek. If they only threw a third of their votes to NeNe, Candace could be history. I would be worried about Amy because of this, but looking at what NeNe, Candace and Drew need to get for Amy to be eliminated, I’m not too worried.
For that matter, you can see just from the table above that Meryl is VERY safe. I would say the same about James, but I’m just not sure of his fanbase. And really, I’m not sure of Cody’s either.
But I jump ahead. We’ve talked about what Candace needs, but what do NeNe and Drew need to be safe, besides Candace not getting those 5k votes? They each need to get 5k votes more than Cody or 8.2k more votes than Danica. I don’t see it happening with Cody just yet. He may not be getting the votes we think he is, but I bet he’s doing well enough for neither NeNe nor Drew to knock him out of the competition.
I can’t imagine them getting the votes to get past Cody, but how well is Danica doing? For a big ole ringer, she’s kinda fading into the woodwork and I think Candace wins the nostalgia vote. What do Candace, NeNe and Drew all need for Danica to be eliminated? Candace needs more than 13k votes, but NeNe and Drew both need nearly 9k votes. For Danica to be eliminated, ALL THREE would have to get those kinda votes and while Drew and Candace might be able to do it, I don’t really see NeNe managing it. But I reflect on those Derek fans again. Hmmmm….nah. Surely not.
Sidebar: Look at Table 4 above and Table 5 below and see all the vote margins.
Note how they’re all relatively small margins in the grand scheme of things. These kinds of margins lead to shocking eliminations. With the exception of Candace, the majority of margins are below 10k, in some cases WELL below 10k. That’s not many votes, and if we’re off just a little on the size of the various fanbases, then we could be in for a surprise come Monday night. Now, look at the margin between Meryl and EVERYONE else – then look at it compared to all the other margins. So, are the producers worried about something?? Sure looks like it. I mean, she was great and all, but not that much greater than everyone else. I don’t remember a disparity this large in week 5. I went back and looked at Season 14 and the top 2 (Katherine and William) were tied and the next two (Donald and Maria) were tied with each other and were only two points down from the leaders. This season, Meryl is 7 points ahead of the next person and is all alone at the top. In season 16, the top four were all within three points of each other in week 4. Is Meryl REALLY that far ahead of Charlie and James?? Or is this a case of the dances, the switch up? I guess we’ll find out when she dances Samba and Charlie dances Jazz while James tackles Contemporary. For that matter, Amy is doing a waltz as Cinderella with Derek as Prince Charming. I sense a potential leaderboard shake up. Depending on how the dances look, we should have a better idea if this is simple storyboarding or if Meryl is being sheltered.
Anyway, I think that Meryl, Charlie and James are safe. Cody and Amy are LIKELY safe. Cody I’m uncertain about but for this week, I think he’s good.
Danica is an unknown. Because Candace needs more than 13k votes per million votes cast to pass Danica, I figure Danica is PROBABLY safe. Which leaves Candace, NeNe and Drew in the bottom three. I think Drew is safe. He’s endearing and his dance with Witney was charming as hell. So….
I think it comes down to NeNe and Candace and NeNe goes home. The opposite of that is my second choice.
What say you??
I think Candace is going home because we’ve already seen in a lot of Mark’s partners that they din’t have huge fanbases at the time and Mark’s fanbase is dwindling. I mean Shannen Doherty, Christina Milian, Kristen Cavallari, Kim Kardashian, and Aly Raisman to an extent (she definately didn’t deserve 4th Place) are examples of how Mark and his partners are losing their popularity.
Fantastic. 😀 I couldn’t wait for this post to go up to get all the numbers from these past several weeks. And I agree. I think it’s Nene or Candace to go home…and I’m leaning towards it being Candace. Though I’d rather it be Nene and TONY to go.
And lol Loved your blow by blow review of the contestants last week. You said it on them all.
#Fran – I disagree about Mark’s fanbase. The people you mentioned didn’t have a fan base. Mark blew out his knee when he danced w Shannon and wouldn’t have been able to continue. Kristen & Kim didn’t have a fan base that voted either. Aly (yes she did deserve to be there) had a great fan base and Mark’s fans rallied to keep here there. Christina, I never heard of her and she never promoted the voting. She had a bit of an attitude and that is what turned people off.
Candace I do believe has a bigger fan base than any that you have mentioned of Mark’s partners. She got screwed big time last week with the scores.
I love reading your Dancing By the Numbers post Heidi. It puts things in perspective. I do think that it is between Candace and Nene and I think Nene will be going home.
My hope is that it would be Cody going home because to me he really doesn’t want to be there but the numbers above show that he is probably safe this week.
Really great post! I love these!
One question. So let’s say that Drew and Nene both get the 8.2K to get past Danica, but they don’t get the 5K to get past Candace. Who goes home?
Also, I think Meryl’s tango was less overscored than her foxtrot, if that makes sense. Her tango was much more tango and much better, IMO, than her foxtrot.
@Aviva, if NeNe and Drew get past Danica then it would be her and Candace in the bottom 2 (Assuming that NeNe and Drew didn’t pass Cody). If NeNe and Drew can’t get past candace then that means danica goes home
My guess is Candace is history. I could be wrong but I kinda feel like all the hype about “DJ Tanner” being on DWTS has died down a bit by now and people are kinda over it. I can see her going home this week and next week being NeNe who gets the boot (unless she absolutely kills her Foxtrot).
I think if there is any “shock” elimination it will be either Cody or Danica; maybe even James but I really hope not because he, imo, is better than the other two. Cody is just vaguely improving for me and doesn’t seem all that invested and Danica is fading into the woodwork (I don’t even remember her TALKING last week since she kinda got drowned out in all the Maks vs. Julianne drama).
I think that the season is being engineered for Maks to get the MTB. He probably said he would not come back unless he won. We can see from last week that our votes didn’t matter because the producers made the switch up selection.
As for the elimination, unfortunately I think they are trying to set up Candace for elimination. The only thing in Candace’s favor is the she will get the Born Again Christian vote which is what kept Bristol Palin in through to the finals during her season. Otherwise I think it will be Nene; Real Housewives have not done well vote wise in the past.
I agree with a lot of what you said Heidi. I feel pretty confident that Meryl, Charlie, James, and Amy are safe. I too think Cody isn’t getting as many votes as I thought he would but with his scores I feel pretty confident that he’ll make it through to week 6.
My gut is telling me Nene will go home. I think Candace is actually getting a lot more votes than people think. Obviously she has to overcome her scores (and I don’t expect them to improve much with Samba this week) but if people like Drew and Cody slip down to around the same level as her I could see her making it through a few more weeks.
Looking at just votes alone I think Danica and Nene are probably getting the fewest. Danica didn’t come in with a huge fan base to begin with and while I’m sure she’s picked some people up she keeps getting lost in the mix IMO. While Val does have his fan base I think a lot of the votes he was getting the last two seasons are going to Maks this season. Her scores are her saving grace and the fact that she’s partnered with Val, who the show probably has a lot invested in (especially after the choreography he gave Meryl). I think that’s why they are underscoring Candace, they would rather Val than Mark around.
So my pick is Nene going home. My second option…I guess Candace only because of her scores. If she was higher I would say Danica is my second choice.
Considering that this season elimination will not be only based on last week’s votes, but last weeks scores, so no matter how good Candance does this week it won’t save her. I’m mostly upset by this because not only did she get screwed with scores but also there are many other couples I would rather see leave before her.
Whoah! Those margins have shrunk! I agree that Candace was underscored. I was shocked when the all the judges handed out 7s. Just hope that her fans, along with Mark’s, voted for her like crazy. NeNe has lots of Twitter followers but we all know that that does not automatically translate to votes, so I’m leaning towards her being eliminated.
Oops! Forgot to add that I’d rather have Cody go even if I’m starting to like Witney as a pro.
Glad you’re back PH. I don’t always agree with you, but you make me laugh and your no nonsense, be gone fools approach to the show and this blog keeps me eagerly waiting to see what you’ve written.
There’s a very strange vibe to this season. A couple of things I just don’t understand.
Of course they always seem to pick on at least one celeb and hose them thoroughly but it I swear they’re hitting on Candace extra hard. I don’t understand why either.
Danica is almost a non-entity on the show. She’s really made no impact at all.
Charlie, while adorable, really hasn’t had his wow moment. I can’t believe I’m saying this but he actually shown brighter with Peta as his partner. The Rumba, while flawed a bit, had intensity and passion.
I feel privileged to be able to watch Amy push and extend herself in ways she never dreamed possible. What an inspiration she is .Maybe we can get her to run for president! lol!
Thank you so much for this post every week. It helps me make sense out of it all.
Loved your comment on Val and using big words! Made me laugh.
In the beginning, I wasn’t a fan of James at all, but I’m really starting to like him. He’s working hard, he’s improving and he wants to be there. The last dance he did with Peta was surprisingly good considering it was Peta. If she can keep doing that, he could find himself in the finals.
I wouldn’t mind seeing Danica, Cody or NeNe go this week. Danica just irritates me and I can’t get beyond her pretending all of this is hard for her, Cody is awkward and too worried about how he and his hair look and clearly has no interest in being there, and if NeNe goes, we get rid of Tony too and that would be a plus. Sadly, I think TPTB are aiming for Candace and that would be a shame. Like James, she’s working at it and gives 100% every week. I think she’s getting more votes than Danica and for some reason TPTB don’t want that. Probably because of Val. She doesn’t deserve to go. Danica needs to go first.
I’ve said it before, I’m afraid of a Val/Maks finals and I will vote for whoever as much as possible to make sure that doesn’t happen. I couldn’t even watch that.
I always suck at guessing who’s going home, so I won’t even try. I really don’t care who it is, either, as long as it isn’t Amy, which I don’t think it’s likely to be. I’ll bet she’s getting more votes than anyone because I know lots of people who are tuning in strictly for her. I myself stopped watching the show for years and only returned for Amy. I will say one thing about Candace. She and her husband lived in Canada while he was playing for a Canadian hockey team, and she’s not exactly as she’s portraying herself on television. Maybe there’s a reason why they’re not anxious to keep her around (if there is another reason for her scores). I think her scores might be on the lower side because she doesn’t seem to be improving. Everyone else seems to be growing, including NeNe who did great with Derek. Just my two cents.
Yeah, I have to agree with Kae, regarding Mark’s fanbase. I don’t think his early departures have much to do with Mark himself. He may not have as big a fanbase as Derek does, but this show is not won and lost by the pros power voters, it’s by the general viewer and the celebs fanbase. Kim K was not nearly the powerhouse she is now when she was on DWTS and she was a horrible dancer. Kristen? Not sure what the problem was there except she was a good dancer on a season that had a few of those and she blended into the background. Aly? Come on, the girl got to fourth place – hardly shabby and she was up against great dancers. Christina = beyotch, and you could see it a mile away and she didn’t have much of a fanbase either.
If Aly didn’t belong up there, then who did??
Not quite, Fran. If Drew and NeNe are getting a ton of votes to get past Danica, it does mean Candace and Danica in the bottom two UNLESS Danica is beating Cody or someone else. And unless Candace is beating someone else in votes. It’s never quite so cut and dried when you think about it.
Love these posts! 🙂 I voted for Drew and James so hopefully they are both safe.
Unfortunately, Maria, if Candace does go home I will be forced to agree with you, depending on how the scoring goes on the remaining couples. I just don’t get how Candace got 7s when what they critiqued her on didn’t seem any worse than the things they critiqued others on who got 8s and 9s. I just don’t get it. They are working way too hard to get rid of her.
This is what I don’t understand with the producers…I know they have their own agendas but with so many desperate attempts to pick up ratings wouldn’t they want to keep people around that are actually GETTING the votes? While we don’t really know how many votes Candace is actually getting because there hasn’t been a real elimination since the second week I’m going to assume she’s doing well with the way they hosed her. Or Bill last season, he clearly was a fan favorite, why try and push him but keep someone like Elizabeth around who the audience, overall, didn’t like?
I know I’m preaching to the chore and the producers will do whatever the hell they please but I’m feeling extra annoyed I guess!
Great post BTW!
I dunno, DLT – Mark has an Emmy nomination, Val doesn’t. There are a lot of stock in those things. I don’t think their issue has anything to do with Mark or Val – I think it has to do with whatever celebrity is pinging their radar in terms of audience impressions, etc. Maybe Candace is seen as expendable because she’s not as good a dancer as Danica, and both women don’t have the draw of teen hearthrobs (James/Cody), the Olympians (Meryl/Charlie/Amy) or the Comedian who is endearing (Drew) or the loud housewife (NeNe).
If Candace goes home and Danica starts getting hosed in scores then we’ll know. Or it could be NeNe that gets hosed next.
I’m not entirely sure that votes reflect whoever might be the draw on a given season. I think the vast majority of people watching the show don’t vote at all. I think they have quite a few metrics that tell them who might be important to the ratings and the PR for the show.
And another possibility is that she’s not getting the votes and they are taking the easy way out with the scores. But that doesn’t really make much sense. If she’s not getting the votes, why underscore her?
I don’t understand how Candace being slightly underscored this week has anything to do with Meryl or “being sacrificed” for Meryl. It’s not like it’s a choice between Candace or Meryl going home this week. Now if you said Candace is being sacrificed in favor of Danica or Nene, I’ll buy that.
All very good points Heidi…didn’t think about it that way. I’ll be interested to see what the scores are this week in relation to who goes home. Obviously the scores won’t effect the elimination tomorrow night but it will be indication maybe of the agenda of the producers.
as i see it U R Sooooo on it w/ the ” Is she being sacrificed on the Meryl alter?” cuse as i know pp voting for Candace like crazy and 4 now as i know she and Amy r in the lead in the voting chart and after those 2 it the top we have Meryl Danica and Charlie. as i see it Nene or Cody are going home this week.
Well, Lippy, think about it. HOW DO YOU KNOW that it isn’t a choice between Meryl and Candace?? And if it’s not, it’s because of the judges scoring – that counts, you know? If Meryl isn’t doing as well as everyone expects in votes, and Candace is KILLING it in votes what do you do to make sure, extra sure, that Meryl is safe and that Candance (nor anyone else) can’t knock her out of the competition?? You overscore Meryl (on the non-foxtrot, at least) and underscore Candace. By doing that you create a large margin that Candace, at least, can’t over come in votes. Meryl is thereby safe.
YOU don’t know that it’s not a choice between Candace or Meryl – you can’t be sure. We have seen the person with a huge margin get eliminated before – Audrina springs immediately to mind. Look at last season when the ringers were going home early left and right while Bill Engvall stuck around. You can’t be sure that Meryl is so safe. The judges may not be sure either and are capable of making extra sure that she is. Or perhaps they do know what they are doing. Meryl isn’t dancing in a vacuum. All the other dancers have an impact on her.
# Princess Heidi So true (-:
I said it even before the show started airing, Maks came back because they promised him a win… No matter what Meryl is winning and I am losing interest in the show because of that. I am not a Meryl fan, I’d much rather Charlie win. Charlie has am amazing personality. Meryl and Maks is just too much ego for my liking. This to me is the worst season I’ve watched in terms of judging/scoring.
Anna, I still have a tiny bit of faith that our votes will count in the end. Vote Charlie – if he’s in the final with Meryl and Danica, you may have a shot.
Geez these numbers make my head spin! So glad u explain what they all mean! Lol . I’m afraid Candace will go. Wld rather it be Cody or NeNe. At this point I enjoy Charlie’s dancing over Meryl’s. I like her but there’s something cold abt her dances.
Thanks Heidi for this post – love your comments – spot on.
I also can’t believe the difference in margin – IMO, TPTB are ensuring Meryl a spot in the final and it’s unfortunate, if true, that Maks came back b/c he was guaranteed a “ringer” and possibly a MBT.
I, like most, feel Candace was underscored and I think b/c of that may be going home, which is unfortunate, because she deserves a few more weeks. If not here than Nene.
I am an Amy fan, love her story, her courage and the fact that people forget what strength it takes to do what she is doing. In my mind she deserves to be where she is and I also think she is bringing back viewers
I have often wondered if Meryl isn’t getting the fan votes they need so she is getting “extra help” from the judges to make up for it.
There are several celebs on this show with large & voting fanbases that makes it hard for me to believe that Candance is getting more than them. Therefore, agree with the theory but I think it includes several others not just Candance. Maybe she is just the scarificing lamb they are focusing on for now…….
Grew up with Full House myself but not really enough of a draw for me to vote for her strickly on that (actually always found her character annoying)….now if we were talking John Stamos….maybe 🙂 lol
Could you just see how upset someone’s fans would be if Amy and James knocked them out of the finals!! Come on people lets make it happen!! Amy deserves that MB just sayen!!
I hear ya shannon! Creating such an upset is about the only thing that will make the finale worth watching! Tough to watch some celebs working so hard and growing knowing it is all in vain.
At this point the writing is on the wall which will create a very underwhelming finale.
Oh, and I agree about the fuss over Julianne’s comments. You’d think they never heard the judges be harsh or make personal references to the pros before. Guess no one can say anything negative about Maks this season since we are supposed to be thanking our lucky stars he’s back AND been given a contender so he can finally win. In a Meryl/Charlie final I would vote for Charlie anyway. He’s been more enjoyable to watch.
Love this post! Such great insight. I agree with your theory that Meryl may not be getting the votes. Ice dancing is about two skaters and I bet their fan base is heavily female so voting for Charlie would make sense. Now, TPTB starts over scoring Meryl to ‘help’ with the discrepancy in votes, but it may be backfiring as Charlie’s getting more ice dancing fan votes as he is seen in more need of votes(because Meryl leads the judges voting) and is likely picking up some general fan votes cause he’s so likeable. With the exception if last week’s awesome dance with val, she’s been pretty blah. Good dancer yes, but no compelling story. I think viewers like to vote for the story as much as the dance. She’s missing that. Charlie, thanks to the judges, especially last week, has that too. Interesting……..
I have not voted since season 15 for various reasons. Last week, my votes went to Amy.
I don’t think Meryl is in the bottom two of viewer votes, I would say she’s probably right around the middle of the pack.
Now with this scenario, if the producers are pushing for Meryl/Maks to be in the finals or even to win, then they must be starting to sweat a bit right now. They see that they’re not connecting with the audience for whatever reason and they’re trying to figure out how to keep them in the game.
They look at who is expendable and try to steer the bus in that direction.
I don’t take any of this out on Meryl. This is all producer and judge shenanigans. I actually think Maks is the problem. His lackluster choreography and tendency to control the spotlight is hurting Meryl. I do still support them as a couple however the rose glasses have come off. It’s a wonky partnership for sure.
Mark has redeemed himself in my eyes with his care and attention of Amy during the switch-up. He also seems more relaxed and easygoing than in previous seasons. For these reasons a Meryl and Mark partnership would have been so much better.
It seems that a lot of times, voters will rally for the lowest-scored dancer, so that may save Candace. I think it puts Nene at risk.
“Candace I do believe has a bigger fan base than any that you have mentioned of Mark’s partners”
Plus I find her much more likable than Christina, Kristen, Kim, etc. I’m hoping Candace, Nene and Drew can all pull out another week or two because I don’t want to see them go just yet. That’s the problem now is that I kind of would like to keep most all of the celebs around at this point. If I had to chose, I’d rather see Cody then Danica exit (wishful thinking she could take Maks and leave Val for Meryl) though I know that’s unlikely but I expect a shocking elim or two and more funny business in the coming weeks.
#Sueb – The figure skating fanbase is generally all female, but the female skaters are the ones they fan over. Male singles skaters get much less attention than female singles skaters, and the male half of any pairs or dance team is generally overshadowed by the female. I wouldn’t venture to get too much into the psychology of it, but I think it has to do with fans identifying or wanting to be the females rather than crushing on the males, who are quite likely to be gay. Charlie’s popular among figure skating fans, but I wouldn’t assume that female figure skating fans are automatically inclined to throw their votes his way.
I’m not convinced that the figure skating fans are going to be a big factor anyway. Their numbers are pretty miniscule these days. If Meryl & Charlie get votes, I think it’s mostly going to be from people who got to know them via DWTS.
Where do I begin? There’s so much that happens on that show that we’ll never know about… I hope Candace is safe. I enjoy watching her a lot more than I enjoy watching Nene or Danica, although I LOVE Val. Nene can perform but she’s not being challenged enough, and her attitude reminds me of Leah Remini…
Carrie Ann was right in her comment about Meryl and Val being untouchable, and they would definitely be IF Val was her partner, but she got Maks instead. Maks is not a brilliant choreographer in my opinion and I don’t think he can get the best out of Meryl and challenge her like Val did. So we’ll see what happens on Monday. Is Maks going to feel the pressure and feel the need to step up with choreography after last week? Will Meryl be overscored? Is anyone ever going to call Nene out for not wearing dance shoes?
I think Meryl is amazing, but I think Charlie is a better dancer than Meryl. So far, he’s had more challenging dances than her, more challenging choreography and he delivers amazing performances every week! I don’t think he’s getting the credit he deserves.
There’s just something special about him that moves me, and I love his personality too. He and Sharna are my favorites to win and they are the ones I’ve been voting for. I’ve also voted for Candace and Cody, because I see a lot of potential in them; it’s too soon for either of them to go.
In the end, if Charlie and Meryl get to perform a freestyle, I don’t think Maks can come up with better choreography than Sharna, so…
Personally, I would like the shocking elimination to be Cody. ABC got what they wanted by having
younger viewers tune in (maybe?) and Cody got to dance to his new single so they both served a purpose. I guess it depends on whether or not his fans actually voted for him.
My second choice would be Danica.
Jane–I’m right there with you! I have no problem with the lure of the younger viewers IF we see a young person trying and growing, which is minimal with him. Have yet to see something out of his comfort zone–which I put on him not his partners–Sharna tried. He seems to be here for self promotion and job done move on!
Danica is my two also–not sure why just not connecting or being blown away by her..She does very nice dances but are forgettable —just not clicking with me.
Maina’s comments in #41 got me thinking (never a good thing, lol!). Even if Maks were capable of coming up with and dancing the exact same choreo (doubtful on both counts), that AT still wouldn’t have looked as good had Meryl danced it with him. That’s a bit of a double sword. One on count that runs the risk that she may’ve peaked too soon and can not again meet that high bar/expectations. OTOH, it may inadvertently leave more of an improvement journey for her with Maks who, as has been alluded, may be more about getting her to emotionally invest in a performance than getting bogged down in technical details. Of course, that may just be due to the different pathos of an AT she was doing with the brother of her supposed storyboarded showmance v a Contemportrot dedicated to her longtime ice partner she seems to harbor a bit of a crush on.
Well OMG stop the presses…go directly to twitter without passing go and announce that the big bad ugly puredwts mod PH said GOOD, NICE even things about Tony. Oh no, does this mean you guys aren’t the bad a$$es members of la familia try to say you are. I need smelling salts quick. Woo, okay okay I think I am okay now. For a minute I thought he** was freezing over, then I realized it is just another normal, average day when the mods tell the truth. 🙂
I always love the number posts. It just points out so many things…well as long as Heidi interprets it..lol. So the conspiracy theorist in me, which doesn’t raise it’s ugly head often wonders if what someone in TPTB wanted a competition between the Cherm bros. We have Meryl, a great dancer and then Danica, the dancer who isn’t a dancer or whatever. Maybe they thought the fireworks would be between Maks and Val. It makes sense when you consider they switched up their partners and one clearly did so much better than the other. It probably isn’t true at all, but something that just jumped up in my brain. Maybe I’m sleep deprived..lol.
Anyway…don’t forget to tweet your friends and haters about those “terrible” pure mods who took up for Tony…lol!!!
“I’m not convinced that the figure skating fans are going to be a big factor anyway”
I think, between the two, Charlie will legitimately have the edge with the core audience as he 1) is a cute male, 2) will be better showcased by his partner, 3) will have more of a struggle/journey than Meryl and 4) has a more naturally engaging personality than introverted Meryl. Of course “legitimately” being the operative word there…
I think, between the two, Charlie will legitimately have the edge with the core *DWTS* audience…
I am in the camp that believes Maks was promised a win. I do not believe Meryl is in jeopardy, however, I do believe the producers are covering themselves since they must be questioning her likability. Others like James, Charlie and Amy are proving to be very likable. Down the line this could present a problem for the chosen couple. Comments such as ” in a league of your own” send subliminal messages to the audience, as do the untouchable scores. I believe the agenda is longer-term vs. any jeopardy Meryl might or might not be in this week.
As for hosing Candace, I believe there is an attempt to save Danica. I thought so since Week 2. If, as some here have expressed, the producers are grooming Val to be Derek’s replacement as the premier pro, they want Danica in the finals. I agree, this week will be telling.
I hope Danica is safe…really like her & think she could go far as long as she has the votes…but she has Val who has a pretty big fanbase…I agree it will be Nene or Candace leaving unless there is a huge shocker coming…
If I were to pick between Charlie and Meryl, it would be Charlie. I like Meryl a lot, but, I agree with the person who said Charlie’s more expressive and not as serious as she is. I also agree that Meryl’s best and most stand out dance so far has been with Val ironically and not Maks. It’s going to be interesting to see if Maks can top that because I don’t think he can? I’ll be glad to eat my words on that.
Missed you, PH 🙂 (Hope it was fun not business that took you away from us.) I’ve been waiting with bated breath for your numbers post (I know that makes me pathetic).
Having read and digested your analysis, all I can say is…”Oh please, let it be NeNe going home over Candace on Monday!” I’ve got my fingers crossed that Candace’s hosing by the judges got viewers to vote like crazy for her. If we have a “shocking elim”, I’m seriously hoping for Danica or Cody.
I think Meryl’s being protected by TPTB because they want a Meryl vs. Charlie showdown in the finale. So if Charlie’s getting the votes and Meryl isn’t, they need to make sure she sticks around. I don’t think TPTB give a rat’s hind end whether or not Maks wins the MBT.
Which leads me to this question: PH, do you think there are enough viewers in the general audience who feel Maks “deserves a win” the way (I think) a lot of them felt Tony deserved a win? I always thought it was a combination of TPTB pimping Tony and Melissa and general viewer sentiment that Tony deserved a win that got him the bullshit win over Shawn and Derek in all-stars.
Great review on last week. I honestly thought the exact same with everything you mentioned.
I didn’t think Julianne was too harsh because in reality, it was true. Also, I think Val raised a level choreography wise with Meryl that I’m not sure if Maks can reach (hopefully he can because I’d love to see Meryl do more challenging choreography because she can handle it)
It sort of reminds me of Corbin last season, my favourite dances by him were the ones where he didn’t do any gimmicks and danced a traditional, full packed routine (lick his Paso and Rumba)
I agree with #Rose. I’m thinking Maks was promised a win with Meryl.I also think Charlie is MUCH more likable thank she. I’ve seen MANY people say on Twitter and Facebook that Maks is far overdue for a win because he’s never had an athlete or an Olympian or any other kind of ringer,etc. How they forget about Laila Ali and Hope Solo and Mel B and Brandy.lol I, then, nicely remind them that this ain’t peewee baseball where everyone gets a trophy for playing and if he wants to win he needs to earn it and so far he hasn’t proven that he deserves to win! Val choreographed an awesome routine for Maks’ partner and Maks’ choreographed a BAD routine for Vals’. If that’s the BEST Maks can do for a person like Danica who has the ability and talent then there’s NO WAY he deserves to win.
I gave ALL my online votes to Candace last week after she got HOSED on her scores and split my phone votes/facebook votes between her and Amy. If Amy is somehow NOT In the finals but James is, I’ll be voting for him. That Tango with Cheryl was VERY impressive. I’m hoping for a James,Amy, Meryl,Charlie final.
I also hope NeNe goes home over Candace!
Lynne, it will never happen. They only ever see the bad, never the good. Which says something about them, for sure. I’ve always called it like I see it – yet they only hear (and fear, and feel the need to stop) the bad. How sad.
Mya was in “a league of her own” too, Rose. And she’s not the only example of the “best dancer” of a given season not winning.
I dunno, Cidra. I think that Tony also constantly reminded the audience that of everyone at the end of that season, he was the only pro with no win. Maks hasn’t done that (yet). Tony was also dancing with someone who had a big, vengeful fanbase who might have thought she was robbed the first time – and who was also the only non-winner in the finale. She was the underdog. Maks, on the other hand, is dancing with a gold medal winning massive ringer. So is Sharna, but I have a hard time believing that Maks general attitude plays as well on TV as Sharna does. Neither Meryl nor Charlie are really underdogs, but if they’re both in the finale, Charlie has not been handled with kid gloves the way Meryl has been so far. That gives him the underdog edge. I also think it depends heavily on who is in the finale with them. If it’s Meryl, Charlie, James and Danica in the final four, Maks could be in trouble. Despite what the fangirls say, there will likely be some vote splitting going on. But you run that risk with Meryl and Charlie as well. James could come out on top in that scenario. I think if both Cbros are in the finale, they could have problems winning. And if Amy makes it that far…it could get ugly.
I was wondering if Danica might not be in “surprise elimination” territory. Especially after her interview on The Tonight Show. It is kind of funny that all the sudden it is ok for ABC to allow someone from one of their shows to go over to Jimmy Fallon after all the Kimmel vs Fallon hoopla. And not trying to start an argument but she’s over scored too. Maybe not on a Meryl level but enough to notice.
Candace totally got hosed. I smell fish and I don’t mean Flounder from the Little Mermaid either.
And then I wonder if, Julianne was TOLD to say something mean about Maks to get people to vote for them…hmmm.
Thanks, PH. If Val and Maks are both in the finals, it would be interesting to see what the Chmercocky fans do, although I think they’d go with Maks. However, I just can’t picture Danica making it that far. Despite all her dance classes, she’s just not “all that” and she’s making zero impact on this season. If there’s any justice, it should be Amy, Meryl, Charlie and James in the finals. Any of those 4 would be legitimate winners for me. Although it’s way too early for serious predictions, if that’s the final 4, I can see Amy taking the MBT. Maks won’t be able give Meryl a freestyle worthy of her talent, Peta is a one-trick-pony choreographer with a darkhorse contender, and Sharna’s never made the finals and could miss the mark on her first freestyle with a celeb whose role on ice has been to present Meryl well rather than be the leading man. That leaves the door open for Amy (the most insipiring celeb on DWTS since JR Martinez, or ever) and Derek (our Emmy-winning, 5-time champion).
Kelly, somehow I don’t see Julianne playing those kinds of games. TPTB might suggest it, but she’d just look at them, smile, and then say whatever she wanted to say. They have nothing to hold over her to make her fall in line with their manipulative agenda.
Here is a thought – is it possible for Candace to make the finale? Bill did
I agree with mostly everyone that Candace got hosed. I hope Nene or Cody go home this Monday. I agree that Meryl was over scored on her Foxtrot. Val did an amazing job with the A.Tango, put his brother to shame. I am a Hugh Val fan, love his choreography, If Derek does leave I would love to see Val take over. James is doing great, hope to see him in finals
@Cidra re:#51 – I think it was more Melissa never having won, going up against Shawn and Kelly, both champions already, and both somewhat controversial winners of their respective seasons – there were lots of people who thought John O’Hurley should have won over Kelly (hence the dance-off), and there were many people who thought Gilles should have beaten Shawn. Plus you had Tony *constantly* reminding everyone that Melissa hadn’t won yet, and *he* hadn’t won yet either… One of the reasons I don’t think it was mostly “Tony deserves a win” is that Val was also in that final, and he hasn’t won either. Of course, he hasn’t been on since the second season, so there wasn’t as much “pathos” surrounding the fact he had yet to win.
As far as tomorrow’s elimination – I *think* that Candace will be safe…at least I’m *really* hoping so. The underscoring was blatant enough that the average viewer would notice, and I think Candace has a large enough fan base to pull her through this, especially given PH’s numbers above. The margins aren’t all that large, and despite NeNe’s dance being the best she’s done all season, I’m not sure she’s pulling in the votes. Also, Tony mentioned in at least one post-show interview that he hoped his fans helped Candace out – and if they did, then that not only pushes Candace up, but pulls NeNe down.
If it’s not NeNe (or Candace, as the obvious lowest scorer) going home, then I think it’s either Danica or Cody. As PH said, Drew has a big fanbase of his own, and Witney did a *great* job with that dance. It made me like her as a pro, which I was *not* so far, seeing her with Cody. And I think Amy, James, Meryl and Charlie will all be safe. I can’t see everyone else getting past one of them, which would need to happen for any one of them to be going home.
I agree that the margins with Meryl are looking really suspicious, which makes me think that she’s not getting the votes or having the impact that TPTB thought she would. And while I don’t think they promised Maks a win, they *may* have told him he would be a shoo-in for the finals, and are trying to make sure that happens. However, they seem to be shooting themselves in the foot – they’re giving Charlie the underdog edge in that rivalry, and giving him more of a journey on the show, and people will probably start to lose interest in Meryl before it gets to the end unless she has some amazing dances (which I can’t see Maks really delivering), or she connects with people more – and Maks doesn’t seem to be facilitating that either.
First, I want to say good for Julianne she called as she saw it as did most DWTS fan, Maks did not prepare a great dance. The producers should not have brought him back, he is not the knight in shining armor.
i would like to see either NeNe or Cody be eliminated. NeNe did fine with Derek, but it is going slow with Tony. Cody is just plain awkward and I do not see him improving much.
Candace should stay, after all isn’t this what DWTS is all about, bringing in a non – dancer and showing improvement and she is doing great. I hope she stays. Then I would like to see Danica go, she dances fine but no connection with her. Then the season will be great, top 4 should be Amy and Derek,Sharna and Charlie, James and Peta, Meryl and Maks.
Butterfly, good point about Melissa being the non-champion going up against two previous champions giving her the underdog status that a lot of folks are drawn to. Hopefully Maks won’t start mentioning that he’s never won. Of course, if he does, he’ll spin it to make it sound like he was robbed which might not get as much sympathy as Tony’s ploy. I suppose Maks could let Val and Tony talk up how much he deserves to win and how unfair it is that Derek has won so many times. Guess we’ll have to wait and see how La Familia decides to play it.
Another thing I see jeopardizing a Meryl or Charlie win is their craaaazyyy schedule. I mean they are doing the stars on Ice tour all over the country with various shows right up to the week of the dwts finals. I know they are pro, and fit and pick up the routines quick, but I can imagine them getting exhausted by such overload, especially with 2-3 dances/coreographies in the last few shows. They will hardly have physical time to learn all. Or maybe I dont give them enough credit?
Annie, I wouldn’t be very concerned about Meryl and Charlie. The switch up week was their toughest week in terms of the number of shows they had to do (every day either a show or rehearsal, including on Sunday so they missed blocking I believe), and Meryl did extremely well with Val and Charlie did well with Peta as well. They did that while having to learn 5 Stars on Ice routines, a DWTS routine for a new dance, and adjust to a new partner. No easy feat. From here on out, each SOI show will just be another show for them, and as they make their way towards LA, they probably won’t have to travel around as much and they also have fewer shows a week to do as the weeks go on. They’ll be fine, although it is totally a legitimate concern. If I were them, I would be so tired with all of that activity!
For James, I’m not concerned either. He has a massive fan base. To say he has no dance experience is not quite the whole truth though, because he, like Cody, has done some dance training (maybe not ballroom dance, but he can pick up choreography at the very least. Kind of like Amber Riley and her Glee experience I guess one can somewhat compare). He can also do some pretty cool tricks (hello, backflip! not even all the pros can do that!). Especially with the “hot guy” factor, I see James as a very strong finals contender.
Annie – the one helpful part about Charlie & Meryl’s schedule is that the last part of the tour is on the West Coast (Anaheim, san jose, san diego, etc.) so they won’t have to go far and they have the routines down so they just need to practice some.
KellyK(@RNCCRN9706) commented on April 13, 2014: “And then I wonder if, Julianne was TOLD to say something mean about Maks to get people to vote for them…hmmm.”
Last season, after Julianne guest-judged and started the brouhaha with her comments about Mark, Mark and Christina were eliminated the following week.
So, it’s definitely possible, but I don’t know if that idea necessarily works.
People say that Charlie is getting more votes than Meryl because of his personality, but I’m not too sure. Meryl has always had more Twitter, Instagram, other social media platform followers than Charlie has. That’s a measure or indication of popular votes in a sense. Furthermore, Sharna is a somewhat new pro, and although I love her a lot, she doesn’t have as many followers and fans as established pros like Derek, Mark, Maks, Karina, etc. Meryl and Charlie fans are pretty irked that Charlie’s girlfriend Tanith is getting shoved down their faces too if you look at figure skating discussion forums. I doubt Meryl is in the bottom in terms of popular votes. Some fans vote just for the pro and we can’t disregard that factor.
Also, many people have been saying that the producers are “handing Meryl a mirrorball win”, but I don’t think enough credit is given to how good a dancer Meryl is proving herself to be though. Her Argentine Tango was great and her Swing was pretty authentic. Of course there are many good dancers this season (James, Charlie, to name a few), so nothing is certain. We’ll see how this season plays out in the coming weeks.
Sorry, I totally disagree. Candace is not the worst dancer, but she certainly IS 18 points below Meryl.
@Sarah, I just want to point out that on this show, the number of Social Media followers doesn’t always equate to the amounts of votes they get. There have been plenty of examples prior to this season that shows that. She may have more followers on social media, but are they voting?
@ann dash – Maybe in your eyes, but the rest of us think that Candace is getting shafted – she isn’t THAT much worse than Meryl, and Meryl isn’t THAT much better than her. An 18-point spread between them is downright ridiculous. I could understand if Candace was dancing at the same level as, oh, I don’t know, Billy Dee Williams – but this past week she actually did a pretty damn good quickstep, yet was hosed anyway. Explain.
@Sarah – Twitter, Instagram, and other social media follower counts mean next to nothing when it comes to DWTS – someone like Kim Kardashian (who had millions of followers when she did the show back in ’08) got sent home in week 3, while someone like Jennifer Grey (who only had a few thousand Twitter followers when she was on DWTS) went on to win her season. There’s really no clear correlation between Twitter/Instagram followers & votes on DWTS – it’s all about whether or not those followers you have are the type to tune in & vote on DWTS, and whether they can have a significant impact on the overall voting. How the average middle-aged housewife (the largest viewing demographic of DWTS) is voting is also a significant factor – I don’t care if someone has 2 million Twitter followers and at least half are voting; if they don’t have the middle-aged housewives on their side, they probably aren’t going to win. As for your argument about Sharna being a “new pro” – not really, considering she kinda built up her fanbase during her 3 seasons in the troupe and also managed to stick around far longer than expected with Andy in season 16. She also doesn’t have vote-splitting to contend with, unlike Maks – as much as some try to deny it, a good number of “La Familia” fans tend to divide their votes up amongst Maks, Val, & Tony. Sharna’s not a “package deal” like those three, which is an edge she has over Maks. As for those at the figure skating forums being upset about “having Tanith shoved down their faces” – they must be looking for things to get upset about, because there has been little to no mention of Tanith on DWTS. I know that Meryl gets worshiped like some sort of deity over there, so I’m guessing some are exaggerating the presence of Tanith on DWTS. And we’re well aware of fans “voting for a certain pro”, Sarah – we’ve kind of been doing this blogging thing for awhile. The problem is that your argument also works in reverse – fans also refuse to vote for certain couples due to who the pro is. And trust me when I say that there are a good number of fans that wouldn’t even vote for Maks even if he was paired with Mother Theresa. He’s put his foot in his mouth just a few too many times for some of us to ever consider throwing him a vote – while in the same token, Sharna is a relatively drama-free pro that has managed to avoid offending a large portion of the viewing audience so far.
And I don’t see where anyone is saying Meryl’s a bad dancer – I think everyone is acknowledging she’s a good dancer, but thinks she’s getting overscored RELATIVE to the other couples. As I said to ann dash – yes, Meryl’s better than Candace, but I don’t think she’s a full 18 points better. That’s a bit excessive.
I think Nene is in the same vein as Snooki last season (though Snooki was/is a better dancer). She has personality and she’s fun, etc, and she has a lot of social media followers that mostly follow her out of curiosity. Almost like watching a car crash…you can’t look away from it. That doesn’t mean they are all dedicated fans that are voting. She’s more likable than I thought she would be but I still don’t think she’ll have the votes.
I apologize if I’m posting this in the wrong place.
Is there a way to go back further than 2 pages and read articles on this site? As of right now, I can only see the articles on the front page and the second page….there is no Next button showing up for me on the bottom of the second page. I tried to look in the archives for April 2014 too but I encounter the same error. I read the site in Google Chrome and have cleared my cache/history, shutdown the browser, all that and still have the same problem. I also tried to view the site in Internet Explorer and have the same problems as well. Is there something I’m doing wrong?
Thanks!
Eh, James and Cody are ringers on my ringer scale, but they absolutely pale in comparison to Danica, Meryl and Charlie, so much so that they’re almost not worth discussing.
I was reading an American Idol site called What Not To Sing, and I found an article that I thought might relate to DWTS. The editorial talks about what they call the Mighty Mouse and the Sesame Street effects. I think they both kind of relate to tonight’s elim.
The Mighty Mouse effect happens when a contestant of any kind has a really bad performance. Their fans go all “I’m here to save the day!” and save said contestant from elimination by voting like madmen. This could be Candace in this case. Most people can tell that she got screwed, so they might just vote like crazy for her.
Next, we come to NeNe and Drew, or the Sesame Street effect, in which (on American Idol) two contestants basically fail epically in their performances. Contestant 1’s fans say, “OK, he was bad, but the other guy wasn’t any better, and so my contestant so deserves not to go home before the other guy!!” Contestant 2’s fans say the same thing. So both sets of fans go crazy voting. Each contestant doesn’t have to get more votes than any higher contestant. They only have to get more votes than the other. And that generally results in a shock elimination.
In NeNe and Drew’s case, they each only need to get more votes than the other. So if Mighty Mouse and Sesame Street both go into effect this week, we end up with a shock elimination.
What do you all think? PH, I can send you the link to the editorial that I took this from, if you’d like.
Grace, we recently updated the site – it’s possible something got messed up like it did on my other blog. I’ll check it out.
You don’t need to do that, Aviva, but thanks. Yes, it could happen and in my Jeopardy theory post that I did a couple weeks ago kind of illustrates that very thing. But it was more about someone who was in the bottom two getting a boost for a week or two. It could certainly work for Candace and that’s why I’m not so sure she’s the one that’s going to go tonight. If I were Danica I might be worried. Or Amy, since some Derek fans have this thing about Mark.
PH, agreed in terms of Danica. Cody, even though he is not a ringer, has the fan votes, and everyone above Danica has more stability both in terms of scores and votes. I’m just hoping that Derek’s fans are smart enough to realize that Amy needs them.
Here’s the other question. So if the judges scores and viewer votes from last week are combined with those from this week, does that mean that each counts for a quarter? So, could a lack of votes from the switch week be compensated by the votes from the preceding week? IE, if Amy’s fans didn’t vote enough this past week, could the votes from the preceding week make up the deficit?
I read a tweet from a Maks’ fan that there were problems with voting. She even got an email from abc. I wonder if it will count for anything.
I’ve not heard of any other people getting emails from ABC, Jennifer.
Why is it always Maks’s most “dedicated” fans that have problems with the voting? I’ve never seen any other group of fans claim so much they couldn’t vote, their votes were going to the wrong person, etc.
ABC sending out emails about voting issues? I’ll believe that when I see it. Not really in this show’s DNA, when you see them basically trying to sweep all snafus under the rug and acting like there’s no problems whatsoever. “Voting issues? What voting issues? There were no voting issues…this is the result of your votes! Don’t be silly!!!” *discreetly kicking voting issue internal memo underneath the couch*
Here it is, Courtney.
http://twitpic.com/e0vpsz
That looks like somebody typed it up on their iPhone notes app. Find it funny that the to & from fields are absent, as well as the date and time it was sent. Looks like a hoax to me, especially given the source.
Either a hoax or a form letter.
If there was a real problem, they will say so at the opening of the show. And if it’s online voting, I think you can count on them tossing them all and going with phones only.
I remember seeing someone tweeted a video of them voting online for Meryl and getting a message that said “thanks for voting for Drew”. Maybe DWTSGossip re-tweeted it? I don’t remember exactly…I’d have to go back and look.
Part of me did wonder if they’ll do what they did last season and do no elimination like when the phone numbers messed up but it doesn’t seem to have been as big of a deal or talked about as much among the fans.
The online voting has been messed up like that for years – you might click to vote for Jacoby & Karina, but it might tell you “Thanks for voting for Sean & Peta!” It’s not a new development, and the fact that they’ve never addressed it before makes me doubtful that they would do it now. The phone votes have also acted up from time to time – I remember calling to vote for Jennifer & Derek in the finale and getting the message “Thanks for voting for The Situation & Karina!” who had been voted out several weeks prior. *shrug* It is what it is – the funny part to me is that instead of getting better over the years, the voting seems to have gotten WORSE. I don’t remember ever having problems like this back in season 4, 5, or 6…
It may not be the voting that’s messed up – it may be the messaging that goes with the voting. Because the times that it was seriously bad – like the whole east coast couldn’t vote – they either didn’t have an elimination, or they just didn’t count the online votes.
Another example is the phone telling you you’ve already used your votes when you know it’s not true. If you keep trying, it will let you vote again. That’s a glitch that pops up when the phone voting system is overloaded.
So somebody just smack me a good one if this is old news (and off topic to boot)
I rarely read those WetPaint feeds that stream on my FB page. For me they are quite like National Enquirer “headlines”. But I opened one that teased about someone was leaving the show at the end of this season. So I opened it—Conrad’s out of here and moving on to another show?
Dare we hope Derek would get a co-producer spot?
This may be a dumb thing I noticed but I am pretty sure the “With” should be with a lower case “w” and I would think whoever is in charge of sending emails from ABC would revise and make sure there aren’t any errors. Then again, maybe I am paranoid and it isn’t like the “with” is the reason why this looks pretty freaking fake. (Just my brain that likes to find grammatical/orthographic errors).
Vogue posted about Conrad a few days ago. As for Derek, I don’t know how he could have the time, but you never know.
…and I rewatched the show last night. I now find Julianne’s comment, “I may have messed up” when she raised her “8” paddle for __________ (who was it)…clearly indicates for me that the guest judges are prompted by the Executive Muppets on how to score our fearless competitors. Because we “know” the real judges would never do that!
When Julianne said she “may have messed up”, I thought she meant that had she known the band had screwed up the music she would not have reduced the score on that couple. She thought the dancers messed up, when in fact they covered very well for the band messing up. I thought she meant she would have given a higher score if she had known the mistake was the bands fault.
Julianne made her “I may have messed up comment” when giving her score for Amy and Mark. I don’t think there were any band problems with that performance, I think she just was having second thoughts about being conservative with her score for that dance.
I wonder if the whole “ringer” thing is hurting both Meryl and Charlie in votes. I don’t see a lot of hate out there about them, although I have seen a lot of interviewers wondering why they are on the show when talking to other contestants. Meryl and Charlie both seem to be very nice people and I don’t think they are turning people off, but I do wonder if people just aren’t bothering to vote for them. People might just be enjoying their routines and not picking up the phone. People assume they should be good, they are good and that might be the end of it. Add in the skating fans dividing their votes between the two of them and I could see both of them falling in the middle of the pack as far as votes.
Great post PH…and I can’t wait to see what we learn about the “storyboard” after tonight’s elimination…gotta say, “I wish it were Cody” just because he seems the least vested in the process…and until the Finale, I would always rather watch folks that are willing to immerse themselves in the process.
I haven’t been a huge Danica fan…but was very frustrated on her behalf last week. Not only did she only have a half hearted dance choreographed for her…she got totally kicked to the curb by her pro (whose focus was on doing right by his brother and as he said, “the precious Meryl” as opposed to giving his brother the eye and telling him to take care of his Danica). Val didn’t say anything bad…he just left her to fend for herself. I think that was probably some of the source of Julianne’s comments as well…she felt like the person she was judging (Danica) had been lost and needed the pro to step up and do right by her. In a sense, it was something similar that prompted her comment to Mark last season…she was empathizing with Christina that as Mark’s partner, you sometimes have to “step in front of him” to be noticed. I guess in both instances I really don’t have any problem with WHAT she was saying because she was advocating for the celebrity and reminding the pro that THEIR job is to make their partner look good…and in her estimation they hadn’t done that. I appreciate that stance actually!
So – I also want to say that I really like Meryl…and really enjoyed Val’s dance for her – and am hopeful that Maks will stop talking about how wonderful Meryl is…and give her some choreography to showcase it…she is up to the challenge for sure.
I also am hoping that Candace is safe this week…She and Tony did get hosed and there just isn’t any explanation for it other than the low scores were needed to keep some “yet to be revealed” storyline alive. She really impressed me week one…and has struggled a bit the next couple of weeks…but I felt like she came back into her own with the Quickstep.
Looking further down the road, the four I would LIKE to see in the final would be Amy, Charlie, Meryl and James.
Thanks Deidre & Cidra.
Lori, Courtney, I totally agree that having followers don’t always translate to votes. Of course there is no good way to judge the amount of popular votes, but I was saying one such possible indication is the number of social media followers. Meryl has around 25k more than Charlie does, even though they practically share the same fan base. It’s not always an accurate measure and such for sure though I agree.
I just wanted to point out that it may not be the case that Charlie is getting more votes than Meryl as some people are saying. The two of them are probably getting around the same number of votes actually because most skating fans are splitting their votes between the two of them from what I have heard. We as the audience will never know how the voting really breaks down but we can speculate!
Sarah, 13 million people watch this show. Meryl only has 105k followers. Maks and Derek have more followers than her and clearly, since Maks hasn’t won, neither his nor Derek’s fanbases dictate who wins. If they did, Maks would have won by now.
My point is that Meryl having 25k more followers on twitter is chump change when compared to the number of people who actually watch the show.
Dear PH: you are an analytical goddess! Wow, thanks for your fabulous & always educational numbers post. I’m not a natural numbers person so I am in awe of what you do. I think maybe NeNe will go this week and I hope for the final four of Amy, Charlie, Meryl and James
Who else would have been able to carry Charlie’s dance at such speed ?
No one! Cane or no cane, he should have had tens. Kudos to Amy for her amazing accomplishments, but what about the even playing field? She’s being judged by a different standard.
I do not like the changes you had a good thing going and you have
messed it up. the only change from the original I would like to see
is that there are no eliminations till the last show. One contestant
might not do to good on one of the dances and get kicked off but may
be really good at the other ones. Come on a Jive being judged against
a waltz etc. You want to change things keep them all doing all the dances
till the last show.
@PH #101 Case in point, Cody Simpson.