Free DWTS Newsletter Want to receive the latest news on Dancing with the Stars sent straight to your email? Join hundreds of other DWTS fans who subscribe to Pure DWTS for FREE!
Bermain judi qq online tentunya setiap orang ingin meraih kemenangan besar, sekarang telah hadir situs judi online koinqq agen bandarqq online. Seiring berkembangnya judi online di dunia internet, maniaqq kini telah menyediakan dominoqq yang bisa kalian download melalui android / ios dihandphone kesayangan kalian. Cukup menggunakan 1 ID saja kamu bisa menikmati berbagai macam permainan idn poker seru seperti poker Online, Ceme Keliling, DominoQQ, Ceme Online, Capsa, Super 10, dan Omaha. Total ada 7 jenis permainan terbaik dimana bisa kamu nikmati dengan menjadi member disini.

DWTS Juniors Pros Elliana Walmsley & Sage Rosen Spill “Tea” on the Show; Court Reacts

So a reader shot me a Twitter DM this morning, containing the link to a YouTube video and asking “Is all this true?” I thought it would be a casting rumor for the upcoming season, given the timing; you can imagine my surprise when I saw that it was a “tea spilling” video from two of the child pros from DWTS Juniors – the one-and-done season they did 3 whole years ago. I watched it; most of what was said wasn’t entirely new or groundbreaking (and I think we already spilled a lot of this same “tea” here 3 years ago), but I thought I’d go ahead and do a reaction post…hell, there ain’t much else going on right now. With the ‘rona still a-ragin’, it might be good for my psyche to flash back to a simpler time!

First thoughts: whoa. THAT’S little Elliana? She looks very…grown up. Or maybe teenagers just looked different when I was her age? We Millennials all went through an awkward teen phase where our makeup was terrible…Elliana’s generation seems to have skipped the white eyeliner, glitter face gel, and metallic lipstick phase…probably thanks to YouTube and beauty influencers. Sage looks the same…maybe a little more mature in the face.

Sooo…they’re “scared” of getting in trouble with the DWTS producers? Then why are you making this video, guys? For what its worth, I doubt the DWTS Juniors producers care…the show got cancelled, and I think many of them from that time period have either gotten canned or have moved onto other ventures by now. But when in doubt – don’t do anything that might sabotage future work opportunities, kids.

First “tea” they spill: the kids apparently “couldn’t talk to or see each other”, and were prevented from interacting with with other couples/pros when they weren’t filming group dances or intros. This was one of the few things they said that was news to me. And it may sound harsh (especially to kids, who are chatterboxes), but DWTSJ is not the first show I’ve heard of that has had this policy. I know the queens on Rupaul’s Drag Race are forbidden from talking to each other when the cameras aren’t rolling, because production wants to be able to catch any and all interactions to potentially use them on the show later. In the case of these kids, I honestly think it was just done to try (in vain) to prevent leaks – the less the kids are allowed to interact, the less they know, and the less they’re able to potentially leak to friends, the internet, etc. In the end, I think it was all for naught, because those kids were posting potentially spoiler-y pix on social media left and right, and lord knows I had zero issues getting spoilers from people who were in the audience at the tapings. NDA who? Don’t know her…

Second spot of tea: some of the parents were “kinda crazy”, or, as Sage put it “low-key psycho”. Ableist terminology notwithstanding, this was not really news to me – I had heard a few anecdotes about some of them being pushy stage parents, which isn’t really all that surprising when you take into account that many of them are acting as their kids’ de facto managers. I don’t know who specifically they are referring to when they talk about a mom “blowing up” on set and being “escorted out”, but my money’s on either Bristol Palin (Tripp’s mom) or “Mama June” Shannon (Alana’s mom). The former allegedly signed her kid up for the show without telling him, and he only found out on the day of his first rehearsal when Bristol dropped him off at the studio (I recall being told it was an awkward, tearful, and understandably tantrum-filled first meeting); the latter just struck me as a bit twitchy around that time, and I remember some lightly veiled threat she made to Artem & Tristan about “treating Alana appropriately” or something like that during their first meeting. I also recall June being arrested and then entering rehab for an ongoing drug problem a year or so after Juniors, so that could explain any potentially unhinged behavior she might have displayed on set.

Tea #3: Sage technically wasn’t allowed to be on the show. Can confirm – the age cutoff for the initial auditions in Jan/Feb of 2018 was 13, and Sage was already 14 at that point. That’s why I think a lot of readers were like “Who the heck is Sage Rosen?” when we first leaked the list of junior proshe wasn’t even one of the faces we saw at the auditions, because his age automatically disqualified him. However, I was told that once they got around to casting the actual kid celebs, it became obvious that they would clearly need someone a bit older for Kenzie – so Sage got the call, along with Jake Monreal, who I think had the advantage of being Jenna’s partner on SYTYCD two summers prior. Could also be “there just weren’t enough decent boy dancers”, like Elliana mentioned; if the only boys cast in the second audition went to the troupe, she must be referring to Cody Bingham and Sebastian Jozuka, who I think were both on the younger side and probably not ready for the responsibility of being pros.

Tea(ish?) numero quattro: the kids had to wear these super heavy mics they had to wear that were strapped on them like a waist trainer. Don’t recall hearing anything about those, probably because it’s what I’d consider a rather mundane detail that our readers wouldn’t be particularly interested in knowing.  But given how much attention the crew was paying to child labor laws, I’m a bit surprised they had the kids lugging around heavy, restrictive mic sets with the potential to burn them. Sage also talks about feeling like he couldn’t really say much because he was mic’d at all times – this could explain why I feel like he barely said 100 words all season long.

Spot of tea #5: Someone fell off the stage. I vaguely remember something along those lines being mentioned to me – but I think my source glossed over it as just a funny blooper where nobody got seriously hurt so it wasn’t really even worth mentioning. I will say that I always found that star-shaped stage to be an accident waiting to happen…I’ve been through enough OSHA audits to know that they really frown upon raised platforms without guardrails, let alone ones in awkward shapes. It being JT or Artyon sounds plausible – I recall hearing them described as two of the younger, more boisterous and spirited of the kid pros, and they had a LOT of energy.

Tea #6: They taped two shows per week.  Yep – we knew this. With the exception of the first week (when they only taped one episode), the couples would have Monday-Wednesday to learn and rehearse two dances, camera blocking would happen on Thursday, taping of one week’s show on Friday, taping of the subsequent week’s show on Saturday, and by law, all the kids had to have Sunday off. I think there was one week where they had to camera block AND tape an episode on a Thursday, and then the next one on Friday, because Kenzie had some commitment on Saturday of that week. They basically shot a full 9-week season in one month – the breakneck taping speed owing to the fact that they needed to wrap everything up before the kids had to head back to school in late August.

Tea #7: There were some partner changes. No news here – I remember being told originally that Makeila Lawrence was going to be a junior pro, then told about a week later that no, she had gotten moved to the troupe, because she was too tall for not only her partner, but the rest of the male junior celebs as well. What’s funny to me is that the crew seemed to not understand the fundamental difference in growth spurts between adolescent boys and girls – the girls have theirs a couple years before the boys do, so it’s not really all that unusual to have girls that tower over boys the same age. I feel like Miles was always supposed to be with Rylee, though, despite the height difference – or maybe I’m just projecting, since I predicted them as a partnership a full year before they even started casting Juniors 😉

Tea #8: Kids would cry in the skybox if they got bad scores. Um, duh. There were a lot of tears.  Probably because they were kids that hadn’t yet learned to manage their emotions in the same fashion as adults. Really shocking tea you’re dropping on us, guys 😉 But for what it’s worth – some those kids handled defeat far better than some of the adults we’ve had on DWTS.  I recall Akash being particularly gracious and mature when he got eliminated.

Final tea: The voting remotes were janky.  Again, nothing we didn’t already suspect – I had heard stories about them altogether not working and crew members hastily distributing pencil and paper to the audience, and suspicions that they probably weren’t working all that well for the remainder of the season. In the end, I doubt it mattered much – I remember people in the audience at the finale saying it was clear that Sky & JT were the favorites to win, and the fact that there was no cash prize means the show didn’t really have to worry so much about “voting integrity” like they do on the adult version.

Final thoughts? I’m guessing Sage needed content for his channel, and they didn’t have anything else going on – hence the room-temperature tea from a show that ended 3 years ago. It’s a little annoying to me that they seemed to paint the experience in a somewhat negative light, given that a lot of those kids seemed to be having the time of their life up there and I think it was probably the first big gig as a dancer that some of them booked; but hindsight is 20/20, so in retrospect, maybe they’re seeing the cracks. Oh well.

August 7, 2021 I Written By

Ultrasound sales specialist by day, semi-knowledgeable DWTS fan by night...with a smattering of hair & makeup enthusiast, occasional model, baker, and crazy cat lady peppered in to make things REALLY interesting ;-) I might pee my pants in happiness if Donnie Wahlberg ever does DWTS - or if they ever use "Sunglasses at Night" as a paso doble.

Radar Online Reports that Bristol Palin’s Son OUT on Night One of DWTS Juniors

Yep, we can confirm that Radar Online got it right. Quite surprising considering that Jenna is pretty darn popular with the judges. If you know what I mean. 🙂

Bristol Palin’s son Tripp’s reality TV breakout is short-lived! RadarOnline.com can exclusively reveal the 9-year-old was kicked off Dancing With the Stars: Juniors on night one.

Apparently, the kid was miserable. But ya know, DWTS is some hard work. And I’ll leave it at that until I see the show.

August 26, 2018 I Written By

I'm a nerd and proud of it. Two degrees in geology also means I love BEER. :-) I'm also a Derek lover - proud of that too. So don't scream at those of us on this site and call us a bunch of "biased Derek-lovers" - it's just ME. :-) It may sound like I hate DWTS at times, but really, I'm just a snarky nitpicker from way back. And I'm cynical and jaded too. But I do love DWTS. :-)

PureDWTS Season 24 Court Rants: I Don’t Care How “Rabid” Your Fanbase Is, You Won’t Win Without the General Audience Vote!

For the regulars, you probably have witnessed what prompted this rant 😛 For the non-regulars, bear with me: it seems like every season, there is at least one fanbase that just bugs the ever-loving sh*t out of me – and it’s usually because said fanbase decides to obnoxiously remind the entire online DWTS fandom how awesome their favorite is, and how they’re going to win, and how they’re sooooo much better than other contestants, and how much harder they’re gonna vote than all the other fans, how rabid & supportive the fanbase is, etc.  Basically – if they can think of something to boast about, they will.  Loudly, frequently, and obnoxiously…and the rest of the fans just have to grit their teeth and bear it until the season ends or that particular contestant gets eliminated.

But here’s the funny part: for all the boasting these fanbases do, very seldom do their contestants actually win DWTS.  Why? To quote one of my Twitter followers, “If you have to tell us how big it is…it’s probably not that big.” 😉 But seriously, though – there’s a bit more to it than that.  You have to take viewing demographics into account, and whether or not that fanbase aligns well with the main viewing demographic; you also have to consider if there’s another contestant on a particular season who perhaps aligns better with the main viewing demographic.  The bottom line is this:

You cannot win DWTS if you don’t have the main viewing demographic of the show on your side.

And right now, I can hear the defiant protests of hoards of Harmonizers 😛 Go ahead – you guys can tell us all till you’re blue in the face how “rabid” you are, how “organized” you are, how “passionate & committed” you are.  It comes across as a tad insecure, but go ahead.  But I’m gonna warn you right now, unless Normani can get demographics on her side (or the show tries to pull off a pimping of never-before-seen proportions), I can almost guarantee she will not win. Let me explain why, using historical data from the show…

Read more..

March 24, 2017 I Written By

Ultrasound sales specialist by day, semi-knowledgeable DWTS fan by night...with a smattering of hair & makeup enthusiast, occasional model, baker, and crazy cat lady peppered in to make things REALLY interesting ;-) I might pee my pants in happiness if Donnie Wahlberg ever does DWTS - or if they ever use "Sunglasses at Night" as a paso doble.

PureDWTS Season 17 Rant: Really, Really Dumb Ideas About the Show (Courtesy of Facebook & Instagram)

After Elizabeth & Val’s elimination last Monday night, against my better judgement, I decided to see what fans on the DWTS Instagram page were saying about the results.  Of course I instantly regretted this decision, because I saw more than a few hystrionic, irrational, and downright idiotic complaints about everything from the scoring to the voting to the overall format of the show.  I also witnessed a horrifying lack of command of grammar, spelling, punctuation, and overall coherence when conversing in the English language 😯 And here’s what really grinds my gears: nothing has changed, guys.  The show’s scoring has been calculated the same way for 17 seasons now (50% judges’ scores, 50% viewer votes), we’ve had the same 3 judges for every season, and this is FAR from being the only voting shakeup we’ve seen in 17 seasons.  So why is everyone suddenly up in arms about it now?

We may never know for sure, but I can say this: some of the Instagram & Facebook DWTS fans have got some really, REALLY dumb ideas about the show – ideas that I’m proud to say that our Pure readers would recognize as pure poppycock in a heartbeat 😉 So of course, I just had to find a way to show you guys some of these gems – both for humor purposes and educational purposes.  All of these are actual comments, either on the DWTS Facebook page or the Instagram page, and all were posted publicly – so I’m within my rights to republish them here; but because some of these ideas are some real turds, I’ve taken pity on the commentor & blurred out any identifying details, except for the first name – cause it’s a helluva lot easier to refer to them by some name than by “idiot #1, idiot #2, idiot #3, etc”.  😉

Really Stupid Idea #1: The judges’ scores should have more weight.

dwtsdumbidea1

No offense, mimi, but where have you been the past 16 seasons???

I shouldn’t even have to elaborate on why this is a downright TERRIBLE idea, but I’m going to anyway because clearly some of the simple-minded folk that are backing this turd of notion don’t seem to understand that this is likely not going to have the effect they think it will. I’m guessing they assume that judges’ scores being weighted more heavily = good dancers stay, bad dancers go.  But apparently they don’t realize that the judges aren’t exactly infallible & objective – far from it, as we’ve witnessed over 17 seasons. The judges are capable of some pretty blatant favoritism towards some contestants (William Levy, anyone?) and have undeservingly HOSED other contestants (Ralph Macchio fans, this is where you nod in agreement).  They also have a tendency to “pity score” some contestants to soften the blow (*cough*BRISTOLPALIN*cough*), with the unexpected effect of said contestants outstaying their welcome.  And then there’s their personal biases: Carrie Ann & Bruno are both easily swayed by attractive young men (regardless of how well they can actually dance), while Carrie Ann seems to turn into a green-eyed monster when it comes to scoring attractive young women, and tends to take some cheap shots when critiquing them. Len has a tendency to scold Derek at least once a season, and hand out an absurdly low score as a result.  And of course, Carrie Ann’s dubious lift-policing seems to have an effect as well…just ask Corbin & Karina, who earlier this season were penalized for a lift that didn’t even exist. We’ve also talked about the “man behind the curtain” possibly exerting some influence over the judging as well – seemed awfully convenient that William Levy was getting worshipped by the judges week after week (whether or not he was actually worthy of the worship), when he was set to launch a huge deal for Univision (which is part of the ABC family…hmmmm). People REALLY want to give these clowns even MORE power? I feel like just last year, people were complaining about how the judges were terrible and needed to be replaced!!! Another point to consider: the viewers need to feel invested in this show – they need to feel like they have a say in who stays and who goes.  And the minute you start making them feel like their vote doesn’t count or counts less is the minute you start losing viewers.  Even those that don’t always vote seem to take comfort in the fact that the viewers do have the power to overturn a bad score from the judges. Read more..

November 22, 2013 I Written By

Ultrasound sales specialist by day, semi-knowledgeable DWTS fan by night...with a smattering of hair & makeup enthusiast, occasional model, baker, and crazy cat lady peppered in to make things REALLY interesting ;-) I might pee my pants in happiness if Donnie Wahlberg ever does DWTS - or if they ever use "Sunglasses at Night" as a paso doble.

DWTS 15 End-of-Season Awards: Which Dance Was the Worst?

And the fun continues…

 worst15

Write-ins:

Gilles & Peta’s Bollywood – 3

Bristol & Mark’s cha-cha – 2

Shawn & Derek’s non-samba samba – 2

Kirstie & Maks’ paso doble trio – 1

Shawn & Derek’s bhangra – 1

Gilles & Peta’s cha-cha – 1

Melissa & Tony’s freestyle – 1

Sabrina & Louis’ paso doble – 1

Shawn & Derek’s rumba – 1

Kelly & Val’s contemporary – 1

Courtney: This is all I’ll say about the write-ins: it’s obvious when someone is writing in a certain dance simply out of spite, or just to try to get a reaction out of people.  How very puerile of them 🙂 Was Pam & Tristan’s cha-cha a bizarre, fumbly train wreck? Yeah, but I almost think it’s unfair to even count first week dances…because they’re the ones with the highest potential to look like crap.  I usually find myself more turned off by bad dances that occur later on in the season – because by that point, you can’t cite “first week jitters” as a reason to f*ck up.  For that reason, I actually think I chose Gangnam Style – I hated that dance because it was a cop-out.  They basically got a free pass to do ANYTHING they wanted – they could have put a completely unique spin on it, thrown in some cool tricks & lifts, and incorporated some ballroom steps to please Len.  Instead, it was as if they said “Y’know what? Let’s just copy the video, add some additional raunch, and call it a day.” Was it fun? Sure.  But I can think a dance is fun and also think it’s terrible. Case in point? Carson & Anna’s pirate Viennese waltz in season 13.  Amusing in a trainwreck fashion, but I definitely wouldn’t say it was my favorite of that season…or even that week, and it was still a complete mess. I think my second choice was Bristol & Mark’s quickstep, because it just ended up being a complete mess, both in terms of choreography & execution.  Not sure what to make of the surfer flamenco – I guess I would categorize that one as a “cop-out” as well, since it seemed like they said “Welp, we don’t know any flamenco, so let’s do paso in skimpy swimsuits and hope nobody notices!”

Heidi: Courtney!! How dare you say that people write in comments just out of spite!! That NEVER happens here!! Well, okay, only every other day. 😉 Totally agree with you that I wouldn’t look at first week dances and cry out “worst dance ever!!” So many of them DO look like crap in the first week. Anyway, when I looked at this category two dances immediately came to mind – Team Gangnam Style and Gilles’ Bollywood nightmare.  Team Gangnam style just disgusted me because they didn’t even TRY. Any actual dancing that was included was sloppy and disjointed – I seem to recall thinking that Emmett was the only standout from that mess.  Pretty sure that’s the one I voted for…although I could have written in Gilles. 🙂

Vogue: When I saw this poll, I almost voted for the Team Gangnam dance as the Worst dance. I remember thinking it was just awful comparted to Team Call Me Maybe’s dance which was so well executed, choreographed and full of creative content. In the end though, I voted for Val and Kelly’s Surfer Flamenco (what an awful combination) as that dance beat them all as worst dance ever in all of the seasons of Dancing With The Stars PUT TOGETHER! 😯

February 21, 2013 I Written By

Ultrasound sales specialist by day, semi-knowledgeable DWTS fan by night...with a smattering of hair & makeup enthusiast, occasional model, baker, and crazy cat lady peppered in to make things REALLY interesting ;-) I might pee my pants in happiness if Donnie Wahlberg ever does DWTS - or if they ever use "Sunglasses at Night" as a paso doble.

DWTS 15 End-of-Season Awards: Which Couple Was the Most Mismatched?

Ok, it’s official: I’m probably going to eliminate the write-in category the next time we do these, because it seems like it got misunderstood & misused quite a bit this time.  HINT: if you wrote in several of “shawn n derrick!!!” dances for best dance, yet also wrote in “shawn n derrick!!!” for most mismatched couple, I’m going to assume you probably did not understand the question.  Oy 😯

 mismatched15

Write-ins:

Bristol & Mark – 11

Shawn & Derek – 11

Kirstie & Maks – 6

Kelly & Val – 1

Melissa & Tony – 1

None – 1

Courtney: First things first: if you wrote in any of the three finalists in this category, this is me rolling my eyes at you, because I daresay Melissa & Tony, Shawn & Derek, and Kelly & Val were probably 3 of the MOST compatible partnerships this season – and obviously they did something right, or else they likely wouldn’t have made the finale.  Methinks there are likely some sour grapes over the outcome of this season coming from those writing any of those 3 couples in.  And yeah, Bristol & Mark were mismatched in season 11, and they were mismatched again this season…but honestly, does anyone really think Bristol would have fared better with any other pro? I’m not even sure Derek could have shined that turd.  As for non-written-in results – I’m not sure I agree that Pam & Tristan were the “most mismatched”, per se – I would argue that they seemed to get along well in their rehearsal package and in their pre & post-show press, but that Pam just wasn’t able to put in the necessary effort to hack it in the all-star season.  In retrospect, I actually think that Drew & Anna were terribly mismatched – and as a result, I think they didn’t go nearly as far as they should have, given their combined skill set.  From what I gathered from insider info about their rehearsals, Drew came into the all-star season with a “let’s have fun!” attitude, but Anna’s intensity and the pressure she was putting on him to get things perfect took its toll and by the end of his run, he was stressed out, anxious, and definitely not having fun anymore.  Unfortunately, as much as I love Anna, I think her intensity is the one thing that may be standing between her and an MBT – unlike Karina, who seems to have figured out how to balance being intense with having fun, I don’t know that Anna has figured out how to relax and enjoy the experience…and I think that may take a toll on her partners. As for Gilles & Peta – yeah, in the end, I think they ended up being a mismatch…but I blame that more on Gilles being a complete d-bag, and Peta just letting him get away with it.  🙂 Apolo & Karina had some edgy moments, but overall I think they were well-matched; didn’t see enough of Helio & Chelsie to really make a judgement one way or another; and Sabrina & Louis were at about the same level of annoying perkiness, so I guess that means they were compatible 😛

Vogue: I voted for Peta and Gilles for “Most Mismatched”! When we first heard they were going to be teamed up, I thought, “Wow, this pairing is brilliant. We are really in for something special.” Both gave off a classy, ‘old Hollywood’ feel in all of their promos. I loved Gilles the first time he danced, so I was quite taken back with his ego from the get go. I felt sorry for Peta so much of the time. I got the feeling he didn’t trust her since she was more new to the scene and would have rathered had Cheryl as a partner. It was a disappoinment. I didn’t get a “mismatched” feeling from anyone else like I did with Peta and Gilles …and like Courtney, I blamed it on Gilles too.

Heidi: Again – don’t remember who I voted for. And I didn’t feel sorry for Peta at all – she fed his ego instead of reining it in.  I have to say that I agree with the Drew/Anna mismatch – that was just no fun at all. I don’t get why people think Pam and Tristan were mismatched. Because they went out first?? That’s a bit of a cop out – just because they were first out doesn’t mean that they were mismatched, just that she was the least skilled dancer who also had the fewest voters.  Saying that the most mismatched couple is the one that went out first is kinda like saying that the best dancer always wins. Ummm…no. 🙂  Also, Courtney – I’ve noticed on PDH that people tend to not read real closely on these sorts of things. 🙂

February 19, 2013 I Written By

Ultrasound sales specialist by day, semi-knowledgeable DWTS fan by night...with a smattering of hair & makeup enthusiast, occasional model, baker, and crazy cat lady peppered in to make things REALLY interesting ;-) I might pee my pants in happiness if Donnie Wahlberg ever does DWTS - or if they ever use "Sunglasses at Night" as a paso doble.

DWTS 15 End-of-Season Awards: Which Celeb Improved the Most?

Ok, now that I’ve finally worked up the motivation to start revealing the results, I’m gonna do this a bit out-of-order – mainly because I simply don’t have the patience right now to tally up some of the awards with HUNDREDS of write-in votes 😯 This season has definitely made me question whether to even include write-ins as an option in the future.  But I digress – let’s start with an award where the results were pretty cut & dry:

mostimproved15

Write-ins:

Bristol – 6

Helio – 2

Kirstie – 1

None – 1

Courtney: No arguments here – prior to the start of the season, Kelly was one of the celebs that I thought would REALLLLLY struggle, given that she was probably the weakest of the DWTS returning champions, based on her performance in season 1.  Apparently Alec just didn’t know how to tap into her potential back then, because she was definitely one of the stronger dancers this season! Maybe Kelly just had time to mature between season 1 and season 15, maybe it helped to have a partner that she could really connect with (and wasn’t an “Iceman”) – whatever it was, she definitely impressed me this season, as did Val…makes me wonder if he could be the next great choreographer on the show in Derek’s absence.  I also feel a bit vindicated now, since I’ve always said that Alec probably wasn’t that great of a teacher – if he was truly that great, he would have been able to pull performances out of Kelly 8 years ago that were as good as some of the ones we saw in season 16.  I think Shawn & Apolo also improved, albeit not as drastically as Kelly; Melissa improved a little bit, as there didn’t seem to be quite as many cheerleader moves this time around; I think Sabrina stayed about the same; and Gilles got worse.  I’m guessing the 6 votes for Bristol came from 2 well-known Bristol trolls on different computers – because she was even trainwreckier this time than she was before 😯

Vogue: I voted for Kelly as well in this category. From the beginning, she seemed intent on doing well and improving herself. She had something to prove and that she could dance with the best of them. Despite a busy ongoing schedule with General Hospital, she gave it her all and it showed with every week that passed. Both she and Val had a powerful passion. They couldn’t have been more suited for each other. He wanted to do well too and set a name for himself other than just being Mak’s little brother. She gave him the confidence to do that and they flew with it even with the odds stacked against them. I loved them and I too look forward to Val’s future on Dancing With The Stars.

Heidi: I actually don’t remember who I voted for in this category, but if I was voting now it would be for either Kelly or Shawn.  Kelly for all the reasons already stated – as much as the showmance made me nauseous by the end, she still ended up much better than her original season.  I also have high hopes for Val in terms of choreo – that he’s inspired by Derek and not, say, Tony. He is a musician, so he starts out ahead. He did a lot with Kelly and made her seem warmer than I suspect she might actually be. 🙂  If he continues to look at what Derek did as cool and creative as opposed to “rule breaking”, he can be the next great choreographer on the show.  Take notes, Tony and Louis. As for Shawn, she was like a different dancer with Derek.  She inspired him to up his game and she was fearless – talk about two people who complimented each other.  Derek just pushed and pushed and pushed and got her to not only up her dancing, but her emotional connection to the dance.  Awesome.

February 14, 2013 I Written By

Ultrasound sales specialist by day, semi-knowledgeable DWTS fan by night...with a smattering of hair & makeup enthusiast, occasional model, baker, and crazy cat lady peppered in to make things REALLY interesting ;-) I might pee my pants in happiness if Donnie Wahlberg ever does DWTS - or if they ever use "Sunglasses at Night" as a paso doble.

Vote for Your Favorites in the PureDWTS All-Stars End-of-Season Awards!!!

It’s that time of the season again – time to wrap up the season by voting in our end-of-season awards 🙂

First, some guidelines: I picked what I thought to be the most likely nominees for each category, just based on the vibes I’ve been getting from your comments all season.  I know some of you are going to disagree.  For that reason, I have allowed write-in votes…probably against my better judgement.  HOWEVER, I’m asking you guys to PLEASE USE THE WRITE-INS SPARINGLY.  Make sure the nominee you’re writing in isn’t already listed as one of the options, make sure it’s spelled correctly, and fits the scheme of the other nominees (i.e. if the category is “best dance”, you would write in something like “Kelly & Val’s paso doble”, and not just “Kelly”).  If I cannot understand what you’ve written in, your vote is getting thrown out.  If your write-in doesn’t make sense given the context, your vote is getting thrown out.  There was an absolutely ridiculous (and unneccessary) number of write-ins in last season’s awards, and I almost said “f*ck it” and threw them all out, because some of you guys clearly didn’t know how to follow directions.  Don’t bring me to the point of “f*ck it” again this season. 

I will give you guys a week or two to get your votes in, and then we will reveal the results category by category in a series of posts.  I’ve included a brief explanation of each award above each poll, since there seemed to be some confusion in last season’s polls. Now vote away!!! Read more..

November 30, 2012 I Written By

Ultrasound sales specialist by day, semi-knowledgeable DWTS fan by night...with a smattering of hair & makeup enthusiast, occasional model, baker, and crazy cat lady peppered in to make things REALLY interesting ;-) I might pee my pants in happiness if Donnie Wahlberg ever does DWTS - or if they ever use "Sunglasses at Night" as a paso doble.

Has Dancing with the Stars Jumped the Shark?

After almost every elimination, I get someone sending a message on the Pure DWTS contact form about how they’re never going to watch DWTS again. Many think that we’re the producers of DWTS, which I can assure you were are not! Most of these messages are easily ignored since it’s natural that fans of certain stars and pros are angry that they’ve been sent home. In most cases, those people end up coming back and watching DWTS again.

This season those messages have come at a much bigger rate than ever before. Most of the messages have revolved around Bristol Palin on the show (and sticking around) and the departure of Sabrina (which many thought was too early). The sheer volume has me wondering about the impact these events have had on DWTS. However, more disturbing has been the content of the messages. Usually you can just see the underlying anger about a specific incident. The messages this season have focused more on the show in general.

Certainly the ratings are down this season, but that could be caused by a ton of different X factors and Voices. However, I’ll be interested to see if this is a trend that continues in future seasons (yes, the ratings are still far from the show being cancelled).

With all of this in mind, I ask the question, has Dancing with the Stars “Jumped the Shark”? You can vote in the widget below (Click on Yes or No to vote):

For those not familiar with the term Jump the Shark, here’s the wikipedia description:

Jumping the shark is an idiom created by Jon Hein that is used to describe the moment in the evolution of a television show when it begins a decline in quality that is beyond recovery. The phrase is also used to refer to a particular scene, episode, or aspect of a show in which the writers use some type of “gimmick” in a desperate attempt to keep viewers’ interest.

In its initial usage, it referred to the point in a television program’s history when the program had outlived its freshness and viewers had begun to feel that the show’s writers were out of new ideas, often after great effort was made to revive interest in the show by the writers, producers, or network.

I’m looking forward to seeing the results of the poll and your thoughts in the comments.

November 2, 2012 I Written By

Better known as Charlie.

DWTS All Stars, Week 4 – The Cheesecake Awards!!

This blog is brought to you by the letter D and the number 8.

I don’t know how funny I’m feeling this week, but I AM feeling snotty, and that’s almost as good. 🙂 IMO, anyway.

The Award for the Oddly, Mildly Amusing Imitation of the Week: Mark (and Shawn and Derek) for the Bunny Imitation

Heidi: Okay, I found it mildly amusing when Mark was doing it…then much more amusing when Shawn and Derek started doing it and Mark joined in. And then I had to wonder – what the hell goes on in that boy’s head? And what made him think that possibly dancing in bunny suits would be a good idea?? He also seems to have a real fixation on a variety of animals. Last week he was all about turtles, this week bunnies. He shaved his head and got real weird. 🙂

Courtney: Old Mark Ballas had a farm, E-I-E-I-O…and on this farm he had a bunny, a turtle, some gorillas, the donkey from Emmitt’s paso doble, and probably the horses from the Gangnam Style team dance.  I dunno, I find his animal fixation oddly endearing this time around – maybe it’s because I love animals, maybe it’s because I think Mark had already kinda given up on Bristol this season and doing animal stuff was a way to amuse himself until she was eliminated. And Shawn & Derek? I just think they’re whimsical 😛 Yeah I said it…whimsical.  Like the keepsake ornaments at Hallmark.

Heidi: I find it oddly endearing too. 🙂  And I love the word whimsical.  This blog is now brought to you by the word “whimsical”.

The Award for Highest Cognitive Dissonance Factor, Week 4: Len Goodman, for the hilarious backstage aside to Bruno – “You touched him in a provocative way!”

Heidi: I’m sorry, but when Len is being the “real Len” that you often see in paparazzi video (and in this backstage bit) it really throws me and makes me giggle.  He’s just *funny* in a weird and unexpected way and I think it’s fun to see him interacting with Bruno in a more natural way. He often reminds me of a drunken grandpa who ends up dancing in his underwear for the entertainment of others. 🙂

Courtney: He’s either the drunk grandpa dancing nekkid, or the drunk grandpa will all sorts of tall tales from his youth about how he had to walk 15 miles barefoot in the snow to get to school, how he once beat Sinatra in a poker game, or the wild night he spent in Vegas with Shelley Winters 😛 Regardless, I just enjoy that Len seems to call his fellow judges out on their bullshit – and yes, I would say Bruno grabbing Gilles “in a provocative way” would qualify as bullshit, because you KNOW that allowing that to happen would score some serious Bruno brownie points for Gilles.  Oh sh*t…”Bruno brownie points” sounds FILTHY 😯 Read more..

October 21, 2012 I Written By

I'm a nerd and proud of it. Two degrees in geology also means I love BEER. :-) I'm also a Derek lover - proud of that too. So don't scream at those of us on this site and call us a bunch of "biased Derek-lovers" - it's just ME. :-) It may sound like I hate DWTS at times, but really, I'm just a snarky nitpicker from way back. And I'm cynical and jaded too. But I do love DWTS. :-)