Dancing With The Stars Season 24, Week 8 – Dancing by the Numbers!

Every week I have to ask myself, how low will the producers/judges go? Every week. It didn’t used to be like this. This show has become a POS, nearly unbearable to watch. I find that sad, honestly. Are they going to find anyone who wants to do it besides the desperate celebs, Pro dancers who need jobs and other pros who have nothing better to do? I suppose there’s always a chance Derek could come back for a season if he’s down to four projects at one time – he seems determined to never have a spare moment. I hope not. I hope he’s gone for good – he might like the teaching, but I don’t think most of his fans want to see him in that fake, manipulated situation any more. Not to mention that whoever he gets as a celeb is going to get beat up to make sure they don’t win.

Lots of talk this week about the judges’ comments. You know, this isn’t the first time that Len has been horribly cruel, beyond the pale. He’s done it before. What’s different now is that instead of a one-off Len temper tantrum, it’s part of a much larger campaign to make sure the chosen one gets to the finale. And others don’t. Everywhere you turn, the show has changed in ways to attempt to get one specific person to the finale. Everything they are doing now, has been done before…but never all at the same time. And why? So Val stays to the end? If Val was all that big a deal, he wouldn’t need the help. Derek, the one that Val appears to obsesses over more than any fan does, never needed this sort of help. Hell, MAKS never needed this sort of help – he may not have won but one time, but he was legit popular without the pimping and over blown fawning. Derek and Maks have both had partners who couldn’t dance. Derek has WON with partners who had no training at all. In his 18 seasons on the show, they’ve tried to give him duds (tried hard, at times) but still never finished lower than 6th (twice) – most of the time cracking the top 4. With NON-dancers and dancers alike. Because he’s good and he works HARD.

Here’s an idea, producers – go find a LEGIT popular and talented BALLROOM dancer and then let the show go back to developing organically. How did Derek (and Maks) become so popular? Well, I think it was because they were great dancers. After that their paths took very divergent turns: Derek was the cute blonde who was the goofy and fun teacher, and Maks was the hot bad boy, strict teacher – between the two of them, there was something for everyone. One was clearly more successful at DWTS, but both became famous in a rather organic sort of way. Remember, the show was about the celebs at first? Val is like 5th Harmony itself – a producer created product that will be a bit popular for a while but will flame out eventually like all inorganically created fads. Harsh? Maybe – but this is what the show now feels like to me. It ain’t no One Direction. Oh, wait…

What about Sasha, Artem, and Gleb? All attractive, all talented. Why spend so much effort on one pro when logic dictates that the more popular pros you have, the better the show? And what about the women? Emma, Sharna, Lindsay, Witney, Kym…looking back, Julianne seems to have a pretty fine career these days, as does Cheryl Burke. They didn’t get the pimping that one male pro is getting. Why not? That is almost certainly where the future Emmy choreographer is – in that group of women. This all out promotion makes no sense to me at all – it seems counterproductive. Maybe this is what happens when Derek turns down your “incentives” to come back? Desperation? Well, it’s ruining the show, so congrats. I can barely stand to watch it.

Okay, rant over. I will write my opinion and wait for the hate mail. 😉  So, how big a cushion did they feel that Normani needed this week? A fairly big one. This season kinda smells like Donald Driver’s, with Rashad in the role of Donald and Normani in the role of Katherine…or better still, William. Let’s hope it turns out that way, eh? Although I sure have my doubts now. Sure would be nice if someone won who hadn’t won before (tm A Chmerkovskiy or minion). That might have been the start of the downgrading of one celeb at the end to try to get the other farther along. As I was saying in the comments, it used to be that all the celebs were judged only based on their own journey and abilities – and we used to cuss it all the time, for sure.  That would lead to someone like Kyle being only one point off of Jennifer Grey in the semi- or quarter-finals (and Bristol only being 4 points off Brandy). Now, they can’t even have THAT close a margin and are clearly no longer grading celebs based on their own journey. They appear to be grading everyone as if they have the same level of training as Normani, which is just wrong. In any case, why the switch? Even if they graded everyone as if they had no training at all, and based on their journey, it would be better – then Normani and Rashad would be tied (with Simone as well). But, can’t have that. Frankly, Rashad is doing better than Normani – he has no training at all, but he’s dancing very well, as is Simone. Normani has all kinds of training and isn’t really killing it – a choreography issue, for sure. She seems like a nice girl, but I am SO OVER this show manipulating someone into the win column. I’m tired of Val always getting someone with training. I’m tired of shitty packages which portray one moment as if it defines an entire season. Or creative editing which shows the celeb in a bad light and doesn’t show the CONTEXT of how he got there.

Hmmm…thought my ranting was over. Guess not. 😉 Let’s look at the leaderboard before I get carried away again.

Boy, they’re scared of Simone and David, ain’t they? Perhaps they have good reason to be. We can hope. This certainly would NOT be the largest margin ever overcome…but it might be the largest in a semi-final. If anyone can do it, David can. No idea if he will or not. What would it take?

So, is David safe? He’s certainly capable of playing spoiler, I just hope that it’s not for either Rashad or Simone.  For him to be safe, he needs ONE of the following things to happen:

  • David needs to get 20,100 more votes per million votes cast than Simone, OR;
  • David needs to get 28,700 more votes per million votes cast than Rashad, OR;
  • David needs to get 40,200 more votes per million votes cast than Normani.

Something tells me he might beat either Simone or Rashad and it’s worrying me.  Let’s say he’s doing very well. What has to happen for Simone to be safe? ONE of the following:

  • David doesn’t get the 20,100 more votes per million votes cast than her, OR;
  • Simone gets 8,600 more votes per million votes cast than Rashad, OR;
  • Simone gets 20,100 more votes per million votes cast than Normani.

Hmmm…what about Rashad? He also needs ONE of the following things to happen:

  • David doesn’t get 28,700 more votes per million votes cast than him, OR;
  • Simone doesn’t get 8,600 more votes per million votes cast than him, OR;
  • Rashad gets 11,500 more votes per million votes cast than Normani.

Honestly, I don’t think I know what’s going to happen this week. I was right last week but that was about the best I could do this season. You can see, above, the votes that David, Rashad and Simone needs to be safe. What about Normani?  For her to be eliminated, ALL of the following would have to happen:

  • David would have to get 40,200 more votes per million votes cast than Normani, AND;
  • Simone would have to get 20,100 more votes per million votes cast than Normani, AND;
  • Rashad would have to get 11,500 more votes per million votes cast than Normani.

If all three of those things were to happen, she would be eliminated. Will that happen? No idea. The problem here is what I was ranting about at the top of the post – they have been so hyper critical of Simone and Rashad that it could very well have had a negative impact on the audience as a whole, causing them to not vote. OR it could have spurred them on to make them vote harder. Same goes for Simone’s clap back at CAI – could work either way, and we just can’t be sure.  I think David’s fanbase is likely equal to that of Simone’s and Normani’s and his fans might have been pushed to vote harder by the nasty Harmonizers. Combine that with the ass kissing Normani and Val have been getting – which could also make people vote for her OR make them assume she’s safe – I ain’t got a clue what’s going to happen. You could say that others like Normani (young musician-type fanbase) rarely or ever win…but they weren’t pimped to high heaven either. Well, Brandy kinda was…so there’s hope.

I will say this – my gut no longer believes that Rashad will win. My gut has been beaten into submission by this crap ass show and all the manipulation. My gut is starting to think they are obsessed with Normani winning for some reason.  Hoping very much my gut is wrong – it very well could be, it’s been wrong all season.

I guess I need to guess. I’m going to go with all or nothing…either David or Normani. Either Normani is getting the votes and David can’t touch her, Simone or Rashad…or Normani isn’t getting the votes and will be eliminated.  Would love to see a final 3 of David, Simone and Rashad, but I doubt I get my way. I think Rashad will be safe…the rest? No real clue.

ETA: You have NO idea how many times I waffled and said Simone was leaving…but I never thought Rashad would. But my gut is bad. 😀