DWTS 11 | Pure Dancing with the Stars

DWTS11 Finalists: What If…?

Ok, first things first: I don’t think this is the final 3 that any of us predicted at the beginning of this season. Jennifer? Maybe, but there were concerns about her health. Most of us had never heard of Kyle and predicted an early exit for him; and we certainly didn’t expect Bristol to last to the midpoint of the season – let alone to the finale. It definitely leaves us with some interesting speculations and concerns – the main one being “What if Bristol wins?” Well, perhaps in an attempt to assuage some of the panic, Heidi and I decided to examine the 3 possible outcomes of the finale: Jennifer winning, Kyle winning, and Bristol winning. Just how exactly will it impact the celebs? The pros? The viewers? Even the show itself? Read on…

What if…Bristol wins?

Courtney: Ok, obviously this seems to be everyone’s biggest worry right now – and I think we all generally agree that this would be a very, very, VERY bad outcome for the show. Literally – this is the Doomsday Scenario for me. If Bristol wins, the show’s credibility is basically shot to hell, as if it wasn’t headed there already with her far-longer-than-neccessary presence this season. People are already claiming the show is “rigged” (doubt it, but some people cannot be persuaded); I think a mirror ball trophy in her hands despite a marginal performance this season would read as confirmation for a lot of people. From those who believe the show is not “rigged”, there would be outrage about how the voting process can screw over great dancers and protect bad ones – some might be proactive and actually try to reach out to the producers and the network for voting reform (how political :-P), others would probably stop watching altogether out of disgust. And ratings would plummet – they might manage to eek out another season just riding on the coattails of controversy from this season, but I don’t know that another season would be the ratings juggernaut that this one was. As for the pros – I could see a few of them quitting, most likely Maks (who, understandably, seems the angriest of all about Bristol, and is being mysterious about his future on the show), maybe Tony & Louis (who seem to get their feathers ruffled more easily about ballroom politics, and already feel they’ve been “wronged” by the show in the past), and perhaps even Mark or Derek – we’ve been saying for awhile that they may already have one foot out the door, and their final season would be sooner rather than later – maybe this would be the last little “shove” they needed to leave the show for good. As for future celebs – I definitely think it would deter some potential candidates from signing on. Who would want to participate in a show that is known to be unfair? And who would want to suffer the humiliation of putting your all into the show, only to get the boot in favor of a pseudo-celebrity that is not nearly as talented as they are? Listen up, people: do you like DWTS? Then don’t let this happen. Get out and vote for either Jennifer or Kyle as if your life depended on it. Now while I don’t see Bristol actually winning (just too much talent from the other two to overcome, as well as some very angry, very proactive fans), it’s important that everyone does their part to ensure that she doesn’t even come close to winning…because this could be one very, very big nail in the coffin of DWTS. Plus I just don’t want to hear about it or the Palins any more than I have to in the media, jeezass…

Heidi:I had a conversation with my mother today that was very illuminating. She is a very casual watcher of the show, at best, but she watches it when she can because I watch it and she’s a mom. She really likes the show, it’s just that she likes The Closer even better, which I think might be on at the same time. But she and my sisters were really loving Kurt Warner. And she has been watching the show this season because of him, as opposed to watching it every other week or so. Well, she ain’t watching it anymore. This is totally anecdotal evidence of course, but she was pretty pissed off. She kept saying she got disgusted when that “one girl” got voted off. I was trying to figure out what “one girl” she was talking about and she was saying how she just can’t watch it, she gets to mad and disgusted that Bristol is still there and “that girl” is gone. I’m like, “what the hell girl are you talking about”?? She says, the one dancing with the big athlete. I’m like, Oh ANNA?? She’s like, “yeah, that’s her.” I’m like okay, Anna is a pro, not the celeb, but that’s the couple she liked by god and she thought that Bristol wasn’t nearly as good as those two. Whatever, ma. 🙂 But my point is, my mother, the casual watcher – who I have not talked to about DWTS in several weeks – is fed up enough with the show and it being “fixed” that she’s turned the channel. My mother lives a few hundred miles away from me, so she’s not being influenced by me – but she’s pissed off. I’m thinking old Conrad perhaps wasn’t expecting this scenario when he put a politicians daughter on the show. Like it or not, it puts a different connotation on the competition that just isn’t good. Maybe it’s not rational. Maybe it shouldn’t. But there’s a little saying that goes: “Perception is reality”. If a large percentage of the audience thinks it’s political and that they’re giving Bristol a pass – well then that’s all that really matters. How people – viewers – perceive a situation and how they react to it is very important. Who cares if that’s not what you intended – this is how it’s working out. We are far from the only blog that is wondering if they will be able to get good celebs after this, or if we’ll be stuck with the likes of Christine O’Donnell. We’re not the only blog that wonders if great ratings right now translate into basement ratings in the long run because people have had enough. It’s very easy to sit back and say, “Oh people are always saying they won’t watch the show anymore, they never quit.” But what you’re missing in that little scenario is that every audience has a point where they say “Screw it”. How do you know this isn’t the proverbial straw??? As for the pros?? Well, I think they need to worry far more about the men than they do the women. Maks, Tony and Louis?? All three have been VERY vocal in the last year or so about the failings of the show. All three have other stuff going on too. Heck, Louis just testified on Capitol Hill the other day – these guys are stars in their own right. They might not leave right now, because the show still benefits them, but how much more time they have will depend on just how well the producers cast the next season. Derek and Mark?? Well, nothing seems to really ruffle Derek these days other than paparazzi – and even they are getting the occasional smile from him. But Derek’s most recent interview indicates pretty strongly that he’s got something else cooking. We’ll have to wait and see if that takes him away from DWTS. Mark? I put Mark in the same league with Maks, Tony and Louis. I think he’ll stick for a bit because he’s starting at the very bottom for his music career. He needs DWTS probably more than any of them. There is one “Pro” to Bristol still being there, though – this, and everything around it, will certainly come back and bite Sarah at some point in the not to distant future. 🙂

What if…Jennifer wins?

Courtney: I’m sure there are those that are going to point fingers at me and scream “BIASED!” (here’s a preemptive “Ummm, DUH, and I don’t really care, because this is a blog”), but I think of the 3 that are left, Jennifer is the one that deserves the trophy the most. I’ve seen her work hard, improve, overcome obstacles, and truly enjoy herself this season. She has technique, she has performance, and she has character – she is the full package for me. I have enjoyed all but one of her performances (the paso doble, but I’m looking forward to seeing her redeem herself on that one). That said – this outcome would not be without backlash, either. There is the camp that always whines “But Derek ALWAYS gets a good partner! NO FAIR!” that will likely try to claim the show is somehow rigged in his favor. Big whoop. There were so many outraged fans commenting here after last season that claimed they would never watch the show again because Nicole’s win was “unfair” – and I have to chuckle when I think of how many of those same fans are still actively watching and commenting this season 😉 And ratings are still fantastic…clearly enough people are not pissed off enough with Derek’s success to boycott the show. My other concern (and Heidi knows more about this and can either dispute this or support it) is that another win, just like Bristol winning, may be enough for Derek to say “You know what? I’m done.” Whether it’s going out on top or getting out before things get REALLY bad, Derek’s days on the show are likely numbered…he’s a successful, in-demand guy, and I can’t blame him for wanting more from life than DWTS. As for Jennifer – it could possibly generate into some more TV & film opportunities, although I’m not sure that’s necessarily what she wants right now. She seems pretty happy with being a wife and mommy, and just taking the occasional small role (anyone else catch her on House?) here and there. But who knows – it could generate into something bigger, and she could jump right on it. She looks fabulous and I’d sure as hell like to see her do more! Overall, I don’t think much would change on the show – I don’t see any big uproar if Jen wins. If anything, I think America, the pros, and TPTB would breathe a sigh of relief that someone other than Bristol won.

Heidi:Yeah, I think everyone other than the Mark and Cheryl fans would be breathing a sigh of relief. 🙂 Those two groups will not be happy if Derek is the first to reach Mirrorball number three. And well, the Maks fans are always unhappy about Derek. 🙂 I see it as validation. 🙂 Who really cares what some fan groups on the net say, anyway? They don’t actually represent the general viewer, but the fringes. Hey, I’m fringy. 🙂 Really, there isn’t much to say about this scenario – everybody wins (except those fan groups I mentioned). The really funny thing is that out of all the people involved, Derek and Jennifer seem the most relaxed about the outcome. You had Brandy desperately wanting to WIN, you have Bristol and Mark on the defensive (to the point of nervous breakdown in Mark’s case, I think 🙂 ), you have Kyle having fun and wanting to win…then there’s Jennifer and Derek. I get the feeling from them that they would love to win, but they actually seem to have pretty good perspective about the whole thing. That’s just my feeling from watching all of them. Actually, Kyle and Lacey seem pretty cool too. I wonder if they have bought into Bristol as a foregone conclusion and are just going to relax and have fun. Really, they both could knock it out of the park for that reason.

What if…Kyle wins?

Courtney: The more I think about this one, the more I could possibly see it happening – just based on the fact that there are a lot of Maks fans that seem intent on somehow “avenging” Brandy, and somehow that agenda involves sticking it to both Bristol AND Jennifer…go figure. Plus, Maks & Brandy have publicly thrown their support behind Kyle – I think a more PC move would have been to encourage their fans to VOTE, PERIOD, and to vote for who they think was the MOST DESERVING…a very subtle way of implying that certain couples *cough*Bristol&Mark*cough* don’t deserve to be there. But for those on Team BranDMC that aren’t too pissed off to tune in and vote, it could be good news for Kyle – an extra boost to maybe put him over Jennifer, who maybe didn’t get quite as many votes because people assumed she was safe based on scores. Overall, I think the reaction would be something like “Hmmm…well, didn’t see that coming, but COOL! Someone other than Bristol won! GO KYLE!” There may be a bit of an uproar from those who thought Jen deserved to win, but again – I think at this point everyone (except the Tea Party) is just going to be thrilled as long as Bristol doesn’t win. Lacey might get a little big for her britches (ugh), but I think Kyle would just laugh, say “Yay!” and ask for some pizza 😉 I could definitely see this kid having a bright future…tv shows, movies, talk shows, whatever! After thinking this one through…I almost wonder if this would be the most PC outcome of this season. Seems like it would eliminate the Derek backlash, the Bristol backlash, and wouldn’t disrupt the dynamic of the show too much. Do I think it’s what SHOULD happen? Of course not. But I think it would be hard for anyone to truly be pissed off if this lovable little imp won 🙂

Heidi: Hell, even *I* wouldn’t be pissed off if he won. Of course I want Jennifer to win, but I would take Kyle easily – I think you are absolutely correct, that anyone other than Bristol at this point would be a positive outcome. I think many of the Brandy fans are a lot of talk, but like most fan groups they are only a small part of a much larger whole. I doubt there is a lot of power voting coming from that quadrant – I know I wouldn’t if I was them. As for Lacey – yeah, ugh – she is an odd one. She was left out last season and she was nearly left out this season – you would think that that would be a bit of a wakeup call to be a bit more humble. Girl ain’t all that if she starts to go the Jonathan route – only signed on when there ain’t no one else (poor Jonathan – sob). Why she doesn’t grasp this is beyond me – lack of self awareness? Beats me. But Kyle is generally a cute little guy – even if he has been annoying me that last two weeks or so. As for the “Derek backlash” – girl, ain’t nothing stopping that, regardless of the outcome. Boyfriend is threatening. 🙂 He’s only won twice in 7 season and yet to the fans of other pros he’s the root of all evil – even though he isn’t the only one with two trophies. It’s quite validating, actually – the talent and charisma is surely there if he’s perceived as such a threat by those groups to the point that they revise history such that it is unrecognizable. You can forget that -that isn’t going to change. 🙂 Hell, I got ten bucks that says, if Mark wins, people STILL complain about Derek’s partner if he’s on next season. Mark could be paired with Kristi Yamaguchi junior after winning three MBTs and Derek with an unknown model and still it would be “They like Derek best!!” whine, whine, whine. Why??? Because people are SILLY. You wanna take that bet?? 🙂

A Day on the Set of Dancing with the Stars!

Abby, one of our readers here at PureDWTS, was the winner of the Design a Dance Concept design and got a trip to LA and a day on set as a reward. 🙂 She sent me the following blog about her experience:

A Day on the Set of Dancing With the Stars
By Abby

A quick bit of background: I have been a dancer for practically my entire life and spent several years performing and choreographing professionally. So of course I’ve been a huge DWTS fan since Season 1! I am constantly choreographing dances in my head so when I heard about the Design a Dance concept contest I sat down and came up with an idea and penned out my entry in about ten minutes. About a week later I got a call that I was a top five finalist! The voting was up online the following week which ended on a Thursday, and I got the call that Friday that my concept won. They immediately booked my flight for me and a friend to fly to LA on the very next Monday…definitely a whirlwind!

We arrived at the DTWS studio (on the CBS lot) on Tuesday morning at 9am. We were immediately met by a producer and I was given a trailer for the day. That’s right, I had my own trailer! 🙂

Then we went backstage and I was mic’d up and met my camera man for the day. Derek and Cheryl (as you all know) were chosen to do my dance, which I was beside myself about. Besides having a horrible crush on Derek, he is my inspiration as a choreographer… amazing. Derek and Cheryl were already on stage rehearsing when I arrived, and the car was on stage as well. They were working on putting their steps together as well as camera blocking and lighting, music timing, etc.

They rehearsed for about two hours and I sat and watched (with a camera on me). They filmed me walking around the stage, checking out the car, walking down hallways, scoping out the stage, and also talking with Derek and Cheryl.

Derek and Cheryl were very sweet! Everyone I met and worked with on the set that day was SO, SO very nice. From producers to costumes to camera men, they truly have an awesome behind the scenes cast on DWTS! It was very thrilling to watch Derek and Cheryl rehearse the dance all morning and see the geniuses at work. 🙂 Oh, and of course I loved getting to hug Derek! Here we chatted at the food table:

My other crush on DWTS is Tom Bergeron! Love this guy! He is truly just as sweet, adorable, and funny in person as he is on camera. We met during rehearsals in the morning but he would come over and chat with me all day, even during the “live” taping later that night. What a doll!

Before the live show Derek and Cheryl rehearsed again with the band and I watched the private rehearsal again (with a camera in my face). They had interviewed me and filmed me all day because I was told they were going to do a 45 second package about the dance, but sadly it never aired. It was still fun to film though!

The audience arrived at 4pm and we pre-taped the Design a Dance at 5pm (pst). After that they let everybody on the ballroom floor for a dance party! What fun that was! Tony and Kyle came out and led everyone through fun dances like YMCA (except it was DWTS) and the Cha-Cha slide. I got to watch the entire show from the front row which was such a thrill! One producer told me that everyone says this, but the ballroom floor truly looks much smaller in person than it does on TV! It’s still a magical place in that ballroom, and I think (actually I KNOW) I would be happy to go back every week!

I had a backstage pass that allowed me to go wherever I wanted on the set all day. I also got to watch the press line after the show, meet the cast…It was truly an amazing day to be “behind the scenes” all day on DWTS! I can’t thank the producers enough for giving me a wonderful experience. And I have to say Derek and Cheryl’s dance was hot hot HOT!!

DWTS Season 11, Week 10 – Las Vegas Odds For The Finals

Could Gambling Skews be playing with the Dancing With The Stars Results as well as all of the other things we’ve discussed? According to On-line Casinos, this could be a real possibility. Here are some takes from them.

Online gambling, when it comes to some niche wagering has some major advantages over other traditional forms of betting. The biggest advantage is the speed at which one can access information that can lead to an informed and possibly better bet.

When, for example, it comes to sports betting the fact that you can watch the play and place bets on the outcome at some online sports books makes for a more exciting experience because of the immediate results.
Today’s world is all about the now and with mobile online wagering the now can be accessed anywhere in the world at any time.

There is some controversy over the use of online web sites for betting purposes one such example is entertainment betting and the Dancing with the Stars issue in the USA that has come to light recently. People who follow the show are able to speed dial their votes for the winner which can skew the winning results even by a small percentage the idea of manipulating results becomes apparent.. It looks like the show is more about popularity than talent. American Idol has cleaned up their show with actual talent this year, making for a less biased competition. Dancing with the Stars voting is allowed up to five votes by phone or text for up to 30 minutes after the show. Online voting through ABC.com allows voting until 11 a.m. ABC’s site requires people to register their email address, speculation is that people are using fake ones.

Here is what Gambling 911 is writing about it.

Though Jennifer Grey remains the -200 favorite to win Season 11 of Dancing With The Stars, Bristol Palin’s odds of winning the final have been slashed to even, meaning that a $10 bet would pay out $10 profit. Kyle Massey would pay $40 for every $10 bet with a victory.

There has been much talk about Bristol, the daughter of 2008 Vice Presidential GOP running mate Sarah Palin, making it this deep into the competition when she routinely placed among the bottom three by judges. Viewer phone call voting accounts for 50 percent of the results. Theories include everything from young teen girls voting for Bristol en mass to a Tea Party uprising.

Some have gone as far as to say that, if Bristol Palin wins this installment of Dancing With The Stars, the show will be ruined.

“It’s not as if she is a bad dancer,” says Payton O’Brien, Senior Editor of the Gambling911.com website, which has watched the odds for Bristol shorten from around 45/1 to even. “She has dramatically improved week after week. But is she in the same league as Jennifer Grey? No. But she has not beaten Grey yet either.”

Patrik Jonnson of the Christian Science Monitor perhaps offered the best observation yet:

Bristol Palin and and her mother, Sarah Palin, both have weaknesses as candidates. On “Dancing With the Stars,” Bristol has repeatedly received the lowest scores from the judges. In public-opinion polls, about two-thirds of Americans say Sarah is unqualified to be president.

Yet here they are, Bristol and her warm, slightly baffled grin now in the final of “DWTS” – a feat so incomprehensible to some that they see foul play at work. And Sarah is drawing record audiences to “Sarah Palin’s Alaska” to watch her shoot skeet with a smile, even as she sends tremors through the blogosphere by simply asserting that she could beat President Obama in 2012.

And here are the odds from On-line Betting Guide:

Jennifer Grey 1.44

Bristol Palin 4

Kyle Massey 7.5

So, what do you think? Could Gamblings Skews be an issue as well for how this show is turning out this year? How far will the odds be off or on this week? We are about to find out. 😀

DWTS Season 11, Week 9 – The Cheesecake Award, Protest Edition

What are we protesting, you may ask?? Well, we are protesting all the fun being sucked right out of the show by Hurricane Bristol and all the CRAP surrounding her. Not her fault, per se, but the fault of wacky fans everywhere. I’m going to have to delete the DWTS related search columns on my tweetdeck because of all the right wing demands to vote for Bristol to make liberal heads explode. Hello? Can you BE more cheesey?? What kind of moron thinks that a dance show will make “liberal” heads explode? The heads exploding belong to those of us who can see that Bristol can’t DANCE. Period. Pretty sure they cross the political spectrum, especially since Courtney and I cross the political spectrum between us and we both think it’s wack. If Kelly Osborne had danced like this I think most fans of the show would be having the same reaction. And what kind of freak thinks that Bristol winning this show is any kind of political statement?? Crazy f*$kers, that’s who.

As I said in the comments, I think I will actually feel sorry for Bristol and Mark if they end up winning (but if people actually VOTE I don’t think they will win) – never in the history of the show will a win be so totally dismissed as irrelevant and not truly earned. And it won’t actually be their fault! They’ve both just doing what they’re supposed to do (except that bit where Mark was imitating CAI – that was classless and tacky). But they will get little credit for that and will go down in DWTS history as the least deserving winners ever. Blame the judges, IMO. BUT IF PEOPLE FIGHT FIRE WITH FIRE AND VOTE SHE WON’T WIN. 🙂 Just sayin’. This is the one part of the show that is like politics – if you didn’t vote, you don’t really get to complain about how the government is running things. Anyway….on with the show.

Award for the Professional Dancer Most Likely to Have an Identity Crisis If He Isn’t Already: Mark Ballas

Heidi: Yo, dude, you are exhibiting serious addiction to guyliner. More than twice a season and you have to start asking yourself what’s what. “Why do I like eyeliner so much. Is it just because it really makes my eyes pop?? Or have I somehow convinced myself that I am a Rock GOD??” Mark looks at his hands and realizes…”HOLY CRAP, I must have painted my nails black in my sleep!! What is happening to me?!?! Why am I channeling Tommy Lee??” Okay, wow, I’m kinda cracking myself up which means NO ONE else will find this amusing. 🙂 Seriously, dude, lighten up – guyliner is fine in MODERATION. Moderation is the key. You’ve almost made guyliner into eye shadow – and no one wants to see that. 🙂 And to anyone who didn’t notice, I wasn’t kidding about the fingernails – he really did paint them black. Crap. Now the Rolling Stones are in my head.

Courtney: Y’know, if Mark really wants to emulate Tommy Lee, he’s gonna need to procure a raging case of Hepatitis C 😉 He is really just annoying me anymore – all of a sudden, he’s developed a case of oral diarrhea that rivals even some of Maks’ best rants, he’s doing dumb, pointless stuff in routines (monkey suits, doffing his shirt for no reason), and he’s still trying to project this image of being Mark Ballas, the Rock God. I wonder if part of it has to do with having the most controversial celeb this season and just buckling under the pressure – and another part of me wonders if he’s doing it intentionally to get the boot. Lord knows it’s probably not super fun for either he or Bristol right now – it’s seriously better for everyone involved with the show at this point if they do not win, IMO. So if the guyliner is an attempt to exude extreme douchitude and get booted because of it – I’ll be taking donations of MAC Eye Kohl in Smolder to ship to him to help the effort 😀

Award for Best Pro Response to Inane Brooke Burke Questions: Derek Hough, after Brooke asks him how it “feels” to get a perfect 30, responds with a sardonic “I’m so disappointed”.

Heidi: Okay, this is as close as Derek gets to sarcastic in public and it’s quite, quite amusing. I mean really, Derek and Jennifer get a perfect 30 and the best question Brooke can come up with is her usual “how does that feel” – ya think maybe it doesn’t SUCK, Brooke?? Geez. Derek also has a light touch – he does it in such a way that even Brooke laughs at it. Non Sequitur by Heidi: Has anyone noticed that he’s got great biceps this season? Goodness.

Courtney: Good grief, Brooke – you and your prepackaged, generic questions. I can only imagine if she posed that same question to someone who had just gotten injured badly…”How does that feel?” “Feels great, Brooke – I’m really a masochist so I get off on pain. Would you like to come to my dungeon later and play with my whips and paddles?”

Award for Best Production F*^K Up of Week 9: the Camera Men During Kyle and Lacey’s Cha Cha

Heidi: You guys are supposed to film the dancers…not each other. Did Carrie Ann give you some of her crack??

Courtney: Wasn’t one of them quite visibly scampering out of the shot a moment later? Seriously – the production staff must be comprised of Muppets & orangutans this season.

Len Goodman Line O’ The Night: (To Kyle:) “You really had the most bounce for the ounce.”

Heidi: Okay, props to Len – that was a pretty good one. But since this is the protest edition, that’s all I have the energy to say.

Courtney: Hehe. That’s all I can muster. Moving on…

Tom Bergeron Line O’the Night: “Bruno’s Book of Effusive Adjectives will be available for holiday gift giving”

Heidi: Hee. Marry Me Tom. Only a very smart, funny guy can come up with that line (Effusive Adjectives? Man after my own heart) on the fly.

Courtney: Got a Bruno lover in the family??? No holiday gift-giving is complete without the book of effusive adjectives, the Bruno dance video, and the Tiny Bruno iPhone app!!!!

And now, folks, you get the real meaning of “Protest” – we can’t work up any more funny at all. 🙁 Maybe the finale. That’s usually cheesetastic.

DWTS Season 11, Week 9 – ‘Can DWTS right the ship’ Weekend Media Roundup

I wasn’t going to watch the final because I was so ticked over the unfairness of everything. But I am starting to look forward to it.

Can DWTS right the ship? Will Baby take the mirrorball? Will Kyle the underdog win it all? Or will Bristol (gasp) sink the whole show? TPTB (and the judges) have a chance to end the season with a positive bang – or not.

What else is on Monday and Tuesday nights anyway? I might find out come March. 🙂 ~ PureDWTS Reader Laurie

LOL! I just loved that quote by Laurie yesterday and it says it all, doesn’t it?!! I still love this show despite the unfair eliminations, controversies, and whackiness this year.

And for all of the fans out there that are out there hating on the show and planning to boycott it now and never watch again since Maks got voted off or for whatever reasons (I can’t believe some of the tweets I’ve seen out there), this sure isn’t what Maks wants. Please listen to his words in this new interview on Access Hollywood. He still very much loves this show, he wants the best for it, and hopes to dance on it in the future. So, when you talk of boycotting it, do you realize you are hurting Maks, the other dancers, and future celebrities you might love to see dance when doing so? (Heidi’s Note: Better still watch, and vote for either Jennifer or Kyle and avoid a self fulfilling prophesy. Strategically, it would be safer to vote for whichever of them has the higher score, but take your pick.)

Here is another interview with Maks on The Insider discussing the voting system and the elimination. He hopes the system will be checked and more thought will be put into the show in the future for what’s best for it. I agree and I hope the producers will hear him and how many of us feel after what’s happened this Season.

The producer of Dancing With The Stars, Conrad Green, also speaks out on the voting system and Bristol. Here is what he told EW.com in a new interview.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: This week, there’s been a lot of outrage that it’s too easy to exploit the voting system at ABC.com. Do you have any plan in place to correct that?CONRAD GREEN: It’s already corrected, to be honest with you. It might appear that you can make up a thousand email addresses and send them in, but we have a number of security checks in place that go over all of the internet votes before they’re calculated. In this particular case, we can spot an IP address, and if one computer sends in a crazy amount of email votes, we just discard them. These things can happen for any of our contestants. It’s not like only Bristol’s fans could do that. It could just as easily be happening for Jennifer’s or for someone else’s. But either way, those excessive votes are not being counted.

Are you saying that it might look to people like their excessive votes are getting through, but because they’re using the same IP address the votes actually wouldn’t count?Exactly. And there’s a number of other security checks they can do. I’m not gonna reveal all of them, because it might encourage people to try to find a way around them. But there are tons of checks done by every one of our vendors — the phone people, the text people and the internet people. They do discard anything that looks suspicious. Sometimes people just can’t get through because the phone lines are busy; the local exchanges get overwhelmed. But that affects everyone equally. Unfortunately, it’s a huge country with a huge infrastructure, and those kinds of things are going to go wrong. Our servers have gone down on the internet during voting a lot. I’m very confident the votes that are getting through are valid.

Would you ever consider giving more weight to the judges’ scores in the future?You’ve watched the show for a long time, so you’ve seen every little brouhaha we’ve had along the way. With the amount of times people have screamed blue murder about the scores of the judges have given, do you really think the complaining would stop if the judges had the final say? What it comes down to is, we add the share of the judges’ scores each night to the audience’s votes. And if you look at the spread this week between Jennifer, who got 60, and Bristol who got 53, and the other two in between, I think the share Jennifer had of the judges’ vote was like only three and a half percent more than Bristol had. I think the share that Bristol had was only one and a half percent less than Brandy’s. So all Bristol had to do was get more than one and a half percent of the popular vote than Brandy, and then she’s through. That isn’t that surprising. I’m kind of mystified about why everyone is finding this such a bizarre thing to happen.

Do you think Bristol might win?Of course. She’s got the same chance as everyone else now. The slate has been wiped clean, every show. She’s improved every week. I think a lot of people are ignoring the fact that she’s actually a decent dancer. What I think is annoying people is that maybe she’s not as vivid a performer as some of the other dancers on the show. Kyle is quite a performer, but Bristol is probably in terms of technique a better dancer than Kyle. But she’ll never get credit for that. The thing is, when you look at her, she’s actually quite shy. Watching someone develop stage presence is actually quite fascinating to watch, and I think that’s why some people are rooting for her. You see her gradually unfolding and unfurling and all, as a performer. I can assure you that she’s really enjoying doing it. It’s not like she doesn’t want to be here. Far from it. I think she just feels uncomfortable with a lot of the things you see on our show — wearing tiny costumes, being over-the-top. She just feels slightly embarrassed doing it. She just doesn’t come from this world. I think that’s one of the things that’s absorbing about watching her.

So you think it’s just a case of America loving the underdog?
We have no way of knowing why people are voting for Bristol. If you look at it, young contestants on the show are always popular. Shawn Johnson won it. Kyle happens to be in the final as well, which everyone seems to have overlooked. You’ve got 19- and 20-year-olds in the show who have both made the final. People like young contestants, contestants who aren’t from the mainstream, who have got a tough story, who have come from no dance training. You’ll remember, this time last season, everyone was furious about Nicole being on the show because she’s got too much experience. There might be an element of her vote that’s from Republicans, but there might be an element of her vote she’s not getting because of Democrats. She was working at a dermatologist’s office in Alaska, whereas Jennifer Grey was in a movie beloved by millions of women around this country who are now our target audience. She hasn’t got any fan base to speak of. If there are a few Tea Party people getting behind her, how is that any different from Marie Osmond’s fans voting for her, or rodeo fans voting for Ty Murray, or Brandy’s fans — five million albums sold — who were voting for her? You could argue that [Bristol]‘s got no constituency. People are being melodramatic about this. If she was Kenny Mayne, yeah, that could be an issue. Or Kate Gosselin — with the quality of her dancing, that would be a bit bizarre. But she’s a good dancer, Bristol. I thought she did great on Monday. Here’s a 20-year-old girl who everyone’s screaming at. This should be the best week of her life. I really feel for this girl. Everyone’s acting like she’s getting together with Dick Cheney, trying to start an evil empire. It’s crazy. It’s a dancing competition. She’s a lovely girl. Give her a break!

A lot of fans are flipping out on the internet and insisting they’ll never watch the show again if Bristol wins. How do you respond to that?Unfortunately, people get pissed on this show. It’s the nature of it. Your favorite gets kicked off and you think it’s unfair. There’s a massive difference between “unfair” and “something else going on.” Life isn’t always fair. You could probably nominate the best dancer after only two shows — you might as well just stop the season right then. It’s about improvement, it’s about where people go. Bristol’s our most improved dancer. People threaten to leave the country if the next government wins the election. They tend not to. At the end of the day, they should be mobilizing their friends, getting their children to vote, talkimg about it in the office, you know? Make those calls. It’s a pretty easy process. It’s very easy to influence the results of this show if you’re passionate about it. The fans have always had a say in the past about who wins, and frequently someone wins who they don’t agree with. I haven’t always agreed with the person who’s won. Everyone has their favorites. That’s the nature of it. Get involved!

Heidi Adds: The article above is somewhat contradicted by what he says to Entertainment Tonight below, so, I’m inclined to think he’s referring to putting a stop to fake email addresses. He clearly doesn’t care about multiple valid emails – the abc.com site even implies you can do that.

Meanwhile “Dancing with the Stars” executive producer Conrad Green told the AP that there are security measures in place to detect abnormal activities like using fake email addresses, but that he doubts many people are doing it.

Green tells the AP that even if people could get around the voting rules, he says it’s still fair since fans of any of the dancers could do it. “I don’t think there’s any reason to believe our voting system is unfair,” Green told the news agency. “If someone really wants to sign up for a million e-mail addresses … well, so be it. But they could be doing that for Jennifer, they could be doing that for Kyle, they could be doing that for anyone.”

Speaking of Bristol, here is Brandy and Cheryl being interviewed on Access Hollywood at Us Weekly’s Hot Hollywood party about Bristol Palin’s chances to win, giving back, and if we’ll see Brandy on Tuesday night’s show.

Moving on to other news….and a little scary at that. According to Access Hollywood a Hazmat team was called into the “Dancing with the Stars’” offices on Friday evening after reps for the show received a package containing an unknown white powder substance. Thank goodness it turned out to be a harmless.

“An envelope containing an unknown substance was delivered to the ‘Dancing with the Stars’ production office on Friday evening,” a rep for ABC said in a statement to Access on Friday night. “Security and the Los Angeles Fire Department and Los Angeles Police Department were immediately notified. Measures were taken to secure the area and ensure the safety of personnel.”

After authorities arrived on the scene and investigated, they determined that the white powder was a harmless household item, the ABC rep added.

“Ultimately we were advised by the LAFD that the substance was determined to be talcum powder,” the rep’s statement concluded.

Ok, that wraps up this media post for your Saturday. Have a fun day for whatever you have planned out there.xxx 😉

DWTS Season 11, Week 9 – Your Friday Media & News

TGIF Everyone! How is your Friday so far? I hope all is well and you are taking cue from the show and your favorite dancers making sure to include dancing to something in your routines and schedules daily. 😀

First up in reporting to you today, we have “official” word from ABC on what is to take place for dances, performances, voting, etc.. Here are some details.

“Episode 1110/1110A – After ten weeks of electrifying performances and shocking outcomes, Jennifer Grey & Derek Hough, Kyle Massey & Lacey Schwimmer and Bristol Palin & Mark Ballas have earned the right for a chance to be crowned champions of “Dancing with the Stars.” Eleven of this season’s couples will also return to the ballroom to dance one more time. The three finalists will have their last opportunity to impress the judges and viewers on two final nights of competition, MONDAY, NOV. 22 (8:00-9:11 p.m., ET), and concluding on the Season Finale, TUESDAY, NOV. 23 (9:00-11:00 p.m., ET) on the ABC Television Network.

In the final performance show on MONDAY, NOV. 22 (8:00-9:11 p.m., ET), each of the couples will compete in two dances. In an effort to show their improvement over the course of the season, all three couples will dance for redemption by re-choreographing and doing a previously performed dance chosen by the judges with new music for a better score. Each couple will also perform the unpredictable and always entertaining no rules Freestyle dance.

In the two-hour Season Finale on TUESDAY, NOV. 23 (9:00-11:00 p.m., ET), the thrill of the competition will continue as the three finalists perform their personal favorite ballroom dance of the season and will be ranked by the judges. In the final element of the competition on Tuesday, each of the couples will do an “Instant Dance” — in which they will have to master the Cha Cha Cha to music they’ve been given for the first time after the show’s broadcast has begun.

Also on Tuesday’s spectacular Season Finale, multi-platinum, award-winning recording star Christina Aguilera will perform two songs. Aguilera’s performance will feature a number from her show-stopping new film, “Burlesque,” which will be released by Screen Gems, a division of Sony Pictures, on November 24. The soundtrack to “Burlesque” will be released on November 22nd on RCA Records and features numerous original songs co-written and performed by Aguilera, as well as production by Tricky Stewart and Linda Perry and songwriting by Claude Kelly, Tricky Stewart and Sia. “Burlesque” also includes remakes/covers of classic songs such as Etta James’ “Something’s Got a Hold on Me” and “Tough Lover” and Mae West’s “A Guy What Takes His Time.” Aguilera will also perform her breathtaking Grammy Award-winning single, “Beautiful.”

Aguilera has sold more than 30 million albums worldwide, achieved four #1 singles on the Billboard hot 100 chart and has won five Grammy Awards, as well as three top five albums in the United States. She has collaborated with other legendary artists including Herbie Hancock, Andrea Bocelli, Tony Bennett, Elton John and The Rolling Stones. This month she will appear in her first feature film, “Burlesque,” opposite Cher and Stanley Tucci. Earlier this year, she launched her new album, “Bionic,” which featured collaborations from artists such as Sia, Le Tigre and Ladytron, as well as producers Tricky Stewart and Hill/Switch.

All of the frenzy and anticipation will lead up to the moment we’ve all been waiting for when the couples’ scores from the judges will be combined with the audience votes to determine who among the three finalists will win reign as champion of “Dancing with the Stars” and take home the coveted mirror ball trophy.

In other news, Brooke Burke was interviewed on USA Today. Here are some of her thoughts on this week’s show and predictions for what’s to come.

Brooke Burke, co-host of Dancing With The Stars, knows Bristol Palin has been a lightning rod for controversy this season on the show.

“A lot of people are questioning whether she deserves to be there,” Brooke said today in a phone chat from New York.

“I think she deserves to be there. America makes up for half of the scores. And they are voting for her. A lot of people who are criticizing, don’t vote at all. This is a show you have to participate in and you have to let your voice be heard.”

Adds Brooke, “I think she has grown the most. And I think America has chosen to put her there.”

As for what will happen on Tuesday’s finale: “You can assume nothing on a show like this.”

Speaking of our co-hosts, here is Tom Bergeron on “Chelsea Lately” this week. He’s a hoot as always. She is too.

Derek was also interviewed by Hollywire. Thanks to Heidi and Pure Derek Hough for this fun video. The backdrop for this is so cool with Hollywood getting ready for Christmas. Derek is a class act as always.

And here is Brandy and Maks on “The View” yesterday. Joy Behar cracks me up trying get Maks to admit it’s the Tea Partiers that kept Bristol in the competiton. Anyway, they are interviewed a little backstage and then they dance their beautiful Argentine Tango again.

Speaking of Brandy and Maks, there is an on-line Petition out there to bring them back to show. Wouldn’t it be interesting to actually see the producers consider the idea? But, I really doubt it will happen. This isn’t the first unfair elimination and I’m sure it won’t be the last. I do hope this will make them re-vamp their voting systems somehow as many of you have expressed.

Maks also called in to The TV Insiders Podcast on Popwatch to discuss not making the finals. He said, “This is bulls—”. He also has some not so nice words for Carrie Ann and whether he was, in fact, wearing a thong during his week 8 waltz. lol He also talks about Bristol and the “Palism” voting.

Maks also started his own personal blog (seperate from TV Guide) so he could really air out some things and the reaction he’s seen and received. Here is a take. But, be sure to read more at the link.

But as this is my blog, my choice of topic and my own opinions, so I do want to address some of the issues that have come up as relates to Brandy & I on various forums, discussions, and even some odd comments I received from a few gloating about last night’s results….
1. My Arrogance- I am pretty passionate and also pretty blunt. I think my passion and straight response gets sometimes mistaken for arrogance. I may be strong in my belief. Maybe that is tough for some people. But I have learned to live a life in black and white, with little shades of gray. Like in dancing, there is a right way and a wrong way. There is no middle ground. I generally am passionate about perfection and doing things the right way. I give my point of view as I see it. I do not say I am more right than anyone. But it is what I believe. I don’t mean to be rude or abrasive. But my passion drives me and I believe being passionate about your work is important. It is unfortunate if that my passion is mistaken for something negative. My partners, friends and families know where I come from. I feel strongly and I express myself that way but arrogance assumes I think I am better than the rest. I don’t. I am no different than anyone else. I just am strong in my opinion.

A. Brandy’s Past- I believe people make mistakes. Look at any of the magazines out there today, everyone from politicians to celebrities, to local people in your community have made mistakes. I am not sure what the right punishment is for people who make mistakes. I come from a very tough household. We try to be the best in all that we do. All of my life I have striven, trained, and worked my a$$ off to be where I am. But do you think I have never made a mistake in my life? I am sure this won’t shock anyone. I have made plenty. Some punishments I’ve suffered are worse than others. But ultimately, I have learned that the worst punishment comes from myself, from within. So one thing I learned to do is I live and I learn. And at some point, I have to move on from the past. It is unhealthy for anyone to live in the past. And it is unhealthy for others to punish you constantly for past mistakes.

So I am addressing this to tell everyone, leave the past in the past. I hope you all see what I see in Brandy today. She is a big hearted, gracious, amazing person. She has heart. She is a sweetheart. And I have nothing but love for her. She will remain a great friend to me. I am behind her 110% in all of her endeavors today and in future.

B. My attitude/Carrie Ann/Judges- If my attitude jeopardized Brandy, then I apologize for that and I feel just terrible for Brandy. The show shouldn’t be about what I think or feel or how I teach or choreograph. This show should be about the celebrity contestants that put a tremendous amount of effort into working to learn how to dance and perform in dancesport. My argument with Carrie Ann was about that. Don’t judge Brandy for my choreography or how I trained her. That is not Brandy’s fault. Ultimately, she should have been judged for her technique, effort, and her dancing in comparison to the others.

Did Brandy do a good job? She did absolutely incredible every week. I think she overcame her own issues and insecurities each time she came out onto the dance floor. She came with composure, no drama, no tears. She came to compete. I couldn’t ask for anything more than that from my partner. She did wonderful.

Sometimes the viewers didn’t see the other side. The struggle, the worry, the emotions she did go through just like the other celebrities on there. That is the magic of video editing and I can’t control what they choose to show you. I’ve mentioned that before as well.

But I apologize to Brandy, if my passion about putting the focus where it belonged caused more an issue than my real intent. Ultimately, I am a choreographer, an instructor, and her partner. I wholeheartedly wanted to make it to the finals because Brandy, in my opinion, truly deserved to be there. If this competition were about me, I would still be competing against dancers of equal skill. But I was not competing. Brandy was. And she was an amazing partner and dancer and in my opinion, the best this season.

What can I say but that I am beyond disappointed that her talent, her skill, her improvement, her technique seemed to be overlooked or undervalued in comparison to other competitors each week. Maybe some of you will disagree. Maybe some of you feel good about certain celebrities over others. That is not what I, as her partner and coach, am concerned with. I pushed her to bring the best she could each week. I was hard on her. I trained with her daily about her movement, her technique, her footwork, her body posture. It was tough, frustrating, hard, a work out. And I pushed for her to give me perfection. She did, btw. I just wish this is where the focus should have remained with the voters.

C. Brandy’s Response That Night- For the record, this is my job. I have been here a few seasons now. It does not affect me the same as my partners. But no one should begrudge anyone the right to their own personal reaction and processing as best as they can. Was Brandy in shock when the results were announced? Yes. Did she assume she would be there in the finals as some have suggested? No. We were both nervous. But she really wanted and hoped to get a shot in the finals. The reality of that not happening had to sink in. Losing a competition for any one is tough. But losing so publicly with the intense focus on you is extremely nerve racking. Brandy had a tough moment. But who wouldn’t have in her shoes. Give her a break.

Before this week, I have mentioned a few times that behind the stage many of the celebrities from this and past seasons have taken being voted off badly behind stage. That is the truth. And maybe I’m one of those guys that sees black and white and feels terrible to see them go through it, regardless if they are my partner or not. I hate to see someone hurt. And I would stick up for anyone who feels bad after a show and reading the posts about them. I will always also try to protect and defend my friends and those I care about from getting hurt, too. Wouldn’t you?

D. Voting Issues- This season more than others I heard rumblings of issue with voting and the phone lines. Unfortunately, that is not something I control or am knowledgeable about. If there were phone issues, let ABC.com know. I hope that no foul play existed. I assume it didn’t. All I can say is I hope the DWTS producers look at that for future shows. But at this point, the results are in. It is what it is. And I will look forward, not backwards.

E. Politics- I am a dancer. I leave politics to the politicians who are good with using media and propaganda to their advantage. It shouldn’t be on the dance floor. I am simply a dancer, an instructor, and an entertainer. I hope you enjoyed our dances each week. That ultimately was our goal.

F. Next season & Me- I can’t speak to next season. All I will say is that I have had an amazing 9 seasons. It has been an amazing experience, challenging, fun and rewarding. I have met and worked with amazing people. I appreciate the opportunity to have been on the show and have no regrets with regard to participating.

And here are a couple of takes from Maks at his blog at TV Guide. Be sure to read the link for more.

I want my fans to understand me and not to be angry at the show. I don’t want to say I’m the most just and most fair person, but I think I’ve matured in a way where I realize what good is anger going to do for anyone? I want everyone to know that I had a blast this season with Brandy. People’s perception of Brandy that she’s a diva couldn’t be further from the truth. I’ve never met anyone who smiles more, she never complained. Given everything she’s overcome in her life, she’s become such a positive person. She gave the show her all and she was upset like a serious athlete who’s preparing for something only to come up short.

What people don’t know is that I had a complete mental breakdown last Thursday and I had zero clue about how to do the Argentine tango. Nothing was coming to me. Brandy helped me tremendously many weeks, but this week especially. I was having nightmares. We came in Friday and I spoke to Tony and he said look on YouTube for inspiration. I watched some videos and only saw blurs. I told Brandy, “Let’s take a different approach. Let me not teach you, but let’s just dance. Where do you want to start?” She said the stage. I said we can use the steps. Next thing you knew, we started dancing. It was a dance that we truly choreographed together. And what do you know? We got a 30. Brandy has been an amazing partner and I will truly never understand the amount of hate that permeates the Internet. What is with all the negativity? People pass judgment so fast without knowing anything about anybody. I feel so bad for these people who have nothing better to do in their lives than to spend time complaining about me. Why would you waste time and energy on someone and something you apparently don’t like?

As for the finale, we will be there Tuesday along with everyone else. We will not be doing a freestyle despite Bruno’s request. I would never put Brandy through that. When you get eliminated, you completely exhale and your body goes into shutdown mode. Your muscles were in such tension and you’re on autopilot during the season that when you get eliminated, you start feeling everything. I’m very proud of everything Brandy’s accomplished. There’s no reason for her to train to do a freestyle.

Everyone’s asking me about next season. All I can say right now is, “We’ll see.” Like I said, I love the show and I don’t want to see it fail. I love the fact it promotes dancing. The show is not perfect, but nothing is. I’m not going to go on a strike. I’m never not going to dance cha-cha or anything. Honestly, there’s not hate on the planet to make me stop believe what I believe. No votes are going to stop me from dancing. If they ask me back and the situation is permitting and it’s right for me and my family, then absolutely. I may not be driven in the same way as I was this season or in previous seasons, but maybe that will be a good thing. But as of right now, the answer is I don’t know. We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.

I am back home in New York right now and couldn’t be happier! After such a grueling season, I feel recharged and ready to restart. I saw my family, I saw Sleep, I spent time with my mom. It’s been fantastic. Now it’s back to business. We signed Tony to our company as partners and we’re going to take Dance with Me outside the tri-state area. Tony’s a phenomenal teacher. He’s had success running past studios. We’re looking to open studios in L.A., Vegas, and hopefully a town near you where you are. My brother is doing amazing. He just finished fifth in the world championships this past weekend in a higher category. He’s going for his unprecedented third title. As for my top-secret show, It’s being put together right now. It’s a slow process because of my commitments to other things. When it does come into fruition, you’ll be the first to know.

Finally, I just want to say a huge thank you to all of you — our fans — for everything this season and beyond. We feel a lot of love. Thank you for your humongous support during the tough times and the good times this season. It has truly meant a lot to both of us. It’s something that I will cherish. No hard feelings, no bad feelings for anything. It’s all only part of reinforcing what I do. I feel the love. I took criticism. We all have flaws. I’m certainly no exception. I’m just going to try to continue to improve as a person, a teacher, a dancer, a son, a brother and a friend. Follow me on Twitter and my website to see what we’re doing and what I’m doing.

Lastly, here is Kyle and Lacey being interviewed on E Online. They hope to bribe everyone into voting for them with PIZZA! lol

Ok, that is it for this Friday. Maybe more later!! Thanks for reading and being the awesome fans that you are to this site!!!xxx

DWTS Season 11 – Top 20 Prime-Time TV programs for Nov. 8th – 14th

How could Dancing With The Stars dip to second place last week? Alright…so who decided to watch football instead? Shame on you!!! 😉 Anyway, here are the prime-time viewership numbers compiled by the Nielsen Co. for Nov. 8 through Sunday with Monday night’s show in second place and the Results Show in 4th place. I’m surprised the CMA Awards didn’t rate a little higher.

1. NFL Football: New England at Pittsburgh, NBC, 21.18 million.

2. “Dancing With the Stars,” ABC, 19.95 million

3. “NCIS,” CBS, 19.87 million.

4. “Dancing With the Stars Results,” ABC, 16.96 million.

5. “Sunday Night NFL Pre-Kick,” NBC, 16.58 million.

6. “NFL Post-Game,” Fox, 16.56 million.

7. “CMA Awards,” ABC, 16.49 million.

8. “NCIS: Los Angeles,” CBS, 15.62 million.

9. “The Mentalist,” CBS, 13.84 million.

10. “Two and a Half Men,” CBS, 13.63 million.

11. “The Big Bang Theory,” CBS, 13.11 million.

12. “The OT,” Fox, 13.06 million.

13. “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,” CBS, 12.99 million.

14. “Criminal Minds,” CBS, 12.56 million.

15. “Football Night in America,” NBC, 12.39 million.

16. “The Good Wife,” CBS, 12.33 million.

17. “60 Minutes,” CBS, 12.32 million.

18. “Desperate Housewives,” ABC, 11.92 million.

19. “Survivor: Nicaragua,” CBS, 11.29 million.

20. “Grey’s Anatomy,” ABC, 11.13 million.

SF Gate

DWTS Season 11, Week 9 – Controversial Media Continues, A New Poll, & More

So, for starters, I’m curious. If you were mainly a “Maks and Brandy” fan and/or voting for them a lot before (like I was. I also threw some votes every week to others like Audrina and Jennifer), who will you support now?

Me?>>> all the way may to Jennifer and Derek!! All bets are off.lol

Speaking of Maks, he gave E Online an interview. In this interview, he quotes how “rediculous” the show is this Season. He also brought up a quote from Bristol where she said he “hated her” which, he said, isn’t true. You have to wonder how much a comment like that played into the votes this week? Here’s a take. Be sure to read more at the link. Special thanks to PureDWTS fan Carlie for this news.

Are you mad at all about it?I felt really disappointed with Bristol. On Monday night, I found out that she went on record saying that I said something about her along the lines of, “I don’t like her because she’s still here and she’s not a good enough dancer.” Every time I’ve opened my mouth about Bristol, I’ve been nothing but supportive…For her to come out on Monday night and totally smear my name the way she did, that’s just completely uncalled for…I have no idea where she got it from, but wherever she got it from, shame on her and shame on whoever told her that.

What about the alleged right-wing conspiracy theory keeping Bristol on the show? Are you starting to believe it?I definitely think that the system is flawed. I think there are a lot of problems with it. I have a lot of friends in the Philadelphia area who couldn’t call at all. People here, in front of me, picked up the phone, dialed one time and it said, “Thank you for voting. You are over your limit.” Anybody crazy would think, “This is a conspiracy theory. Everybody’s out there and wants Bristol to win.” Not at all. I think it’s just a flawed system.

Do you think Bristol could win?I really don’t care. I think at this point I’m rooting for Kyle [Massey] because this kid has come on with no fan base, with not a known name, not someone who is in incredible shape or had a phenomenal dance background…Kyle does have the same resilience as Bristol, same dance ability as Jennifer [Grey], but he’s just that kid next door…I think he’s amazing.

Maks also discussed the elimination to People. He also addressed the Bristol quote again.

As Chmerkovskiy comforted his teary-eyed partner backstage, the pro dancer admitted to facing some hurdles during the season.

“Most recently, Bristol said I don’t like her,” Chmerkovskiy said. “I never said it. I just want to make sure that people understand that I’m just a dancer. That’s all I am, and I don’t aspire to be a politician at all. I express my opinion when it comes to only dancing. This season, I’ve been so focused on Brandy that I really didn’t look at anybody else.”

Here is the exact original quote from what Bristol said to In Touch Weekly.

Some viewers are criticizing Bristol Palin’s longevity on this season’s Dancing With the Stars, and according to the Alaskan beauty, certain fellow dancers are giving her the cold shoulder, as well! “Maks (Chmerkovskiy) does not like me. He thinks I don’t deserve to be here because I’m not the best dancer,” Bristol tells In Touch about contestant Brandy’s professional partner. The reality star, who remains amongst the final four pairs on the ABC hit dancing competition series, thinks she even has a chance to win the mirror ball trophy. “The show is all about taking someone who has never performed, never danced and turning them into a dancer,” she explains. “I guarantee I am the most improved. I really do work my butt off!”

I’m with Maks. It was totally uncool that she smeared his name like that before the show for something that wasn’t true and that he never said.

Erin Andrews also spoke on the elimination at Movie Line. She also remarked how a bunch of Maks fans were sending her tweets blaming her for the elimination. Huh?? Crazy…this is so out of control.

Before we descend into a real discussion about Brandy and Maks’s elimination, let’s talk about their dances. How’d you feel they did? You’ll remember they scored a perfect 30 once.
I thought they did great. As always, they were very, very solid. The paso she did, she just showed that aggression and attitude. The paso is very angry, and I thought it was perfect. I just really, really enjoyed her paso a lot. With the Argentine Tango, I actually thought they had great luck because those are Maks’s strongest dances that he choreographs. Those were my two favorite dances that I did with him. They also obviously got the encore, which was wonderful. I thought the judges did a great job scoring them. And she was really good. One thing she did great with this week was her emotions. She chilled out a bit, and she even referenced it when she was getting her scores. Now, I will tell you a little side note, my friend. Our little Movieline chat last week caused a big, big stir with Brandy’s fans. I got some not-so-nice tweets about that.

Oh, God.Oh, you have no idea! Brandy had to call off the hounds and tell everyone to just relax. It’s kind of funny, because if you watched the show last night, Mark Ballas said the same exact thing I said in that pre-produced package. You can just tell how bad she wants it. Then they showed all these shots of her closing her eyes and being really intense. I never said that as a bad thing! That’s too bad that people misinterpreted it. My whole thing is — and I’m sure I’ll get criticized again — is I wanted her to enjoy the experience for what it is. It doesn’t matter if you win the mirror ball trophy or not. It’s about having the best experience and making the most out of the journey. But oh my goodness, I didn’t know that was such a terrible thing to say. And now I’m getting blamed for her losing as well! I appreciated her performance this week. I thought she did a very good job and was really relatable to fans at home. I thought this was probably the most real we saw her throughout the entire season.

Well, people would have to be idiots to blame you for Brandy’s elimination. It’s pretty obvious that Bristol has a big voting machine behind her, Kyle’s become an underdog favorite, and that means a consistently solid competitor like Brandy is bound to fall through the cracks at the last moment.
And also, don’t blame it on me — I put my votes in! Give me a break! I saw Brandy and Maks on Good Morning America this morning and on Jimmy Kimmel last night, and they were saying, “People say ‘I don’t want that person to win,’ and then they don’t vote for the person they want to win.’” I went on Good Morning America on Tuesday morning and talked about Bristol, and they asked me, “Is there a conspiracy?” And I said, “No! She’s just getting more votes! People are flooding the phone lines to vote for her!” At this point, all the negative publicity that she’s getting — all the Tea Party, Sarah Palin, “She shouldn’t be there!”, Rick and Kurt and Brandy were robbed! — I think this has helped her. From my standpoint, I felt like after she did her first dance on Monday, she got some of the loudest applause in the ballroom. I feel like now, people just feel bad. Is it her fault that she’s gone out there and done the best she can do? No. She knows she’s not the best dancer. She said that. It’s pretty obvious. But is it her fault that people are flooding the phone lines for her? No! In the end, what is she supposed to do? “I can’t take all this negative criticism. I’m going to quit.” No! What has she done wrong? I think there are a lot of people who feel bad for her, and they think, “You know what, I’m going to vote for her.” I feel bad!

Your beloved Maks was eliminated. He has still never won the mirror ball trophy. How would you describe your feelings about what happened with him?I’m heartbroken for Maks. Despite what Brandy’s fans feel about me, I clearly thought they were going to win the whole thing. I said that the first time he had her. I even texted him that. “You’ve got it. You’re going to win.” As much as we say, “It’s a TV show!” it’s also part of his profession. You always want to be considered the best at your profession. I feel personally bad that I wasn’t able to get him the mirror ball. You feel a little regret there as well. I’m very sad for Maks. He works so hard and does nothing but try to make his stars feel so comfortable and beautiful. He makes sure they feel prepared. Many times, these pro dancers do so much more than teach you a routine. They are your friend, and really, your best friend throughout the whole thing. For me, because I didn’t know LA, Maks helped me get adjusted to a new area. He helped me with so much more than on the dance floor, and it sounds like from everything Brandy has said, like “I have a friend for life” — he was the same way with her. In that respect, you know the work he put into this season. You just love that he’s in it to win it. He has a lot of pride. I feel so bad.

Erin also discusses all the dances plus what she hopes for the upcoming dances. Will Jennifer and Derek do a dance to “(I’ve Had The)Time Of My Life”? I’m with Erin. I hope so. Be sure to read the link for more.

So, here are some things we didn’t see on the Results show reported by People.

• Mark Ballas explained the black nail polish he displayed on his fingers during Tuesday night’s show, telling PEOPLE that it wasn’t Palin who gave him the manicure, and for the finals, he is “thinking hot pink with rhinestones. I’m trying to get a nail endorsement.”

• Enrique Iglesias received one of the warmest welcomes of any of the guest performers this season. When cameras weren’t rolling and he hopped on the stage, a group of girls chanted, “Hi Enrique!” The crowd then screamed as Iglesias gave several friendly waves. But when he asked everyone to sing the lyrics to his hit single, “I Like It,” he told them their attempt “sucked,” adding, “That was bad. Let’s try again.”

• The two couples deemed safe right away during elimination – Grey and Hough along with Massey and Schwimmer – came out during commercial break to hug and kiss the two couples in jeopardy. But the couples up for elimination didn’t interact at all. Standing right next to each other and not saying a word, Chmerkovskiy looked slightly nervous, swaying back and forth with his hands in his pockets, while Palin flipped her hair and giggled.

And this will make Heidi’s day complete. lol Here is Tom on the elimination from Zap2it.

“You get down to this point, and it’s always going to be hard, but I was surprised,” Bergeron tells Zap2it. “I would have thought she was going to the finals.”

Bergeron generally knows about the eliminations beforehand — other than during the finale, when he wants to be surprised — and this was no exception. But that didn’t prepare him for how the news was received in the studio.

“I don’t think I’ve ever done this at the end of the show,” says Bergeron. “I just said ‘I need a hug.’ Everyone was just standing around. No one knew what to do.”

Contributing a bit to the awkward quotient was the judges’ offer for Brandy to return to the finals to perform her freestyle… for fun.

“That kind of landed with a thud,” says Bergeron. “I suppose it was meant with all good intention, but if I had just been stunned and found out I wasn’t going to make it to the final, the prospect of busting my butt to do a freestyle wouldn’t have much appeal. I would fully understand if they politely decline.”

Brandy didn’t comment on whether or not she was interested in returning with a freestyle, but it was clear during the broadcast that she was still digesting the news.

“I thought Brandy wanted it more than anything, quite frankly” says Bergeron, “which made it very hard.”

Here is Carrie Ann with her thoughts on the show this week too on “Lopez Tonight“.

Lastly, The Examiner is reporting that Christina Aguilera will be performing on next week’s Results Show. Christina is promoting her first major motion picture (movie) starring role in ‘Burlesque,’ opposite Cher. ‘Burlesque’ opens in theaters November 24. (Heidi Note: Another blog is saying that the four dances over two nights will be done BEFORE anyone is eliminated, unlike last season where the 3 couples danced 3 times, someone was eliminated, and then the remaining couples danced again. The dances are:the “redemption dance” and the freestyle on Monday, followed on tuesday by the couples favorite dance of the season and by an “insta-dance” Cha Cha Cha where they don’t get the music till the show starts. I’m looking for an actual source from ABC – when I find it Vogue or I will post it. The ramifications of them moving the all the dances to before anyone is eliminated is quite interesting.)

Ok, that is all for you for now. Have a great Thursday, Dancettes!!xx 😉

DWTS Season 11, Week 9 – Your Favorite Costume This Week

Wouldn’t you just love to be Randall Christensen personal assistant for a day…especially right now with the last show approaching? As for this past week, he describes the design process for the semi-finals as “more intense but also more rewarding.” Here a take from Styelist on how he came up with the costumes this week.

Jennifer Grey and Derek Hough: The actress scored perfect 10s for her cha-cha in a sexy minidress that featured a mix of silver and gold bugle bead fringe overlaid onto a Swarovski crystal-encrusted base. Christensen’s team stripped down ostrich plumes one by one to attach some of the beads. Don’t expect a repeat — making the dress was “an absolute nightmare,” says Christensen, who was especially happy with Grey’s romantic blue waltz gown. “It was a perfect Cinderella look, dreamy and floaty on a cloud.”

Bristol Palin and Mark Ballas: The political daughter, known for her modest costume requests, asked to show some leg! “It was Bristol’s idea to open up the legs on both of her costumes,” says Christensen. The dark and dramatic gown she wore for her second dance to “Mary Goes to Jesus” from “The Passion of the Christ” was a “DWTS” first. “We’ve never done a hooded gown, but with the somber, haunting music, it set the tone.”

Brandy and Maksim Chmerkovskiy: Christensen says her “scorcher” tango look, which featured a beaded red halter, was one of his favorites. Red fabric was added to Brandy’s side-slit skirt to make the look “pop.” “It was the epitome of sophisticated sexiness,” he says.

Kyle Massey and Lacey Schwimmer: The inspiration for Massey’s crowd-pleasing tango look was a military jacket the costume designer saw on the runway and shared with the teen. “We decided it was a fun way to make him masculine and mature,” says Christensen.

Ballroom Bling: Many of the gorgeous gemstone earrings StyleList spied on the ladies were sourced from New York City-based Anne Koplik jewelers. “Last night was a testimony to their ability to bring just the right balance to each costume,” says Christensen. Typically, each contestant is given two jewelry options to coordinate with her costume.

The DWTS Hairteam posted some fun pictures of Brandy, Jennifer, and Bristol on their Facebook page Monday night with a few captions. They do such a good job on this show as well. You really have to commend them along with the make-up crew.

“Mark giving Bristol a pep talk backstage while Mary touches up her hair and Zena touches up her makeup”

“Jennifer went from a tossed curl look for her Cha Cha to this up style with the new Dancing with the stars hair pieces”

Oh, and we can’t forget this. To go along with this thread, here is fun video on the Insider’s “Top 10 Most Outragous Costumes” on DWTS. Would you agree with their assessment? lol Julianne Hough is interviewed too for this.

#1 Kate Gosselin
#2 Bristol Palin
#3 Michael Bolton
#4 Julianne Hough
#5 Marie Osmond
#6 Erin Andrews
#7 Jake Pavelka
#8 Nicole Scherzinger
#9 Toni Braxton
#10 Donny Osmond

Ok, that is it for now. So, which costumes were your favorites this week? I’ve got to give it to Bristol this week especially being I’ve been so critical of her costumes in the past so much. I thought she looked beautiful, haunting, and mid-evil like. I love her in black. I loved the feathers in Jennifer’s Cha Cha Cha costume as well and the way they danced with her. Brandy looked so beautiful too in her lace stockings for her and Mak’s Tango. Perfect.

DWTS Season 11, Week 9 – Media After The Results

Well, it was a disappointing elimination for many of us last night including myself. If I feel the way I do, I can’t imagine how Brandy and Maks must feel? But, here they are in good spirits and making the best of it on The Jimmy Kimmel Show last night after the show. I love how Jimmy starts off this interview saying they were “unfortunate victims” of “Hurricane Bristol” and a little later “The Tea Party Voting Block”.lol I like how Brandy holds Maks’ leg for most of the interview and he holds her hand.

And here they are on “Good Morning America” this morning very emotional in places.

Here is recap of the night from ABC and some reaction across twitter on the elimination and many people blaming politics for what happened. Brandy and Maks are also interviewed by ABC.

Access Hollywood interviewing them as well. Maks takes responsibility and also says the elimination is due to the “nature of the show” and “not everything is about dancing”. I love what he keeps saying about what this Country is about and the power and freedom to vote which his Country didn’t have.

Brandy breaks down with Niecy Nash on ET. The other couples are interviewed as well on the elimintation.

Monday there was a great interview with Tom Bergeron (Heidi’s second love, lol) posted at Movie Line. Special thanks to PureDWTS fan Sheri for letting us know on this one. Tom discusses the show this year, his favorite funny people, hosting nightmares, and his impatience with Bristol Palin conspiracy theorists. Here are a couple takes. Be sure to read much more at the link.

Which couples on Dancing with the Stars have you felt compelled to defend this season or in past seasons?Nobody in particular, but in general it’ll be at any point where I think the judges are going after them and being either unfair or inconsistent in what they’re saying to one couple versus another. Sometimes I get it completely wrong. Last week was a case in point where Carrie Ann [Inaba] justly criticized Maksim [Chmerkovskiy], and Brandy and Maks got indignant. They went back and forth, and then Len said, “Your dance was full of this, full of that, full of this,” and he was being complimentary. And I said, “But what did you think Carrie Ann was full of?” It was a straight line to swing at, but he used it as an opportunity to defend what Carrie Ann had said, and he kind of put us all in our place. “You two may have had words,” meaning Maks and Carrie Ann, “but in fact she had a valid point.” That’s one of the things the judges know that I’ll go at them for if I feel like they’re being unfair. They, in turn, have reasons for what they’re saying. They’re happy to defend themselves.

Let’s talk about this season of Dancing with the Stars. Can you gauge audience reaction during the taping? Is there noticeable commotion when Bristol Palin gets the lowest scores but isn’t eliminated? Or when—Here’s the thing. Let’s address the Bristol thing. That’s the thing I get the biggest kick out of on the show. I’m going to put on my political hat. I’m a liberal Democrat, and I state that proudly. But I have no patience with my friends who believe there is a conspiracy keeping Bristol on the show. They’ll say, and they’re friends of a similar political persuasion though I have friends across the spectrum, “Oh, well! She’s still on the show! She’s obviously not the best dancer! She gets the lowest scores!” My response to that is similar to my response to the midterm elections. I’ll say, “OK, right. So who did you vote for instead of Bristol?” “Uh, well, I don’t vote!” “Well, then, f*ck you.” I mean, basically! You can clean that up. I have no patience for that! If you don’t participate to create a different outcome — and this can be true in national politics or a TV reality show — then don’t piss and moan if you don’t like the way it’s playing out. You know, I’m sorry! I think Bristol is clearly not the best dancer here, but she’s a charming young woman who’s shown an incredible growth from week one to this week. If she happens to get more votes for whatever reason, more power to her. If you don’t like it, vote for someone else. But that’s been the part of the show that’s amused me, how quickly people are to seize on conspiracy theories when people aren’t involved in the process.

I have to disagree with Tom about the political conspiracies surrounding the show this year. Although I think Bristol showed much improvement this week and I was impressed by her dances (and costumes, lol), I very much suspect (as others have commented) that the Tea Party has influenced this show this year. It’s debatable for sure. Here is something from E Online I found on this.

“I would assume that many people who follow Sarah Palin would also be supportive of Bristol Palin,” Dale Robertson of TeaParty.org told us via email.

Wait… So, there really is an organized, get-out-the-phone-vote effort on behalf of the somewhat-coordinated daughter of the Mama Grizzly in Chief?! Former DWTS competitor Marissa Jaret Winokur was dead-on in the New York Post?! (“I think Bristol is going to keep advancing because the Republicans are going to keep voting for her,” Winokur said.)

Er, no, not exactly.

“Bristol has done a great job,” Robertson said, “but I trust people to be objective in their decision-making rather than subjective.”

And so it went with the handful of Tea Partiers we talked to today—including the guy who all but hung up on us on account of he was kinda ticked we were asking him about DWTS.

Bristol also responds to people who say that politics give her a dancing advantage on the show which she doesn’t agree with.

More of the same here after the Results addressing criticisms and more.

Mark has posted a new blog on USA Today. Here is take from it. Be sure to read the link for more. (Heidi’s Note: I can hear the screams of laughter now as people read that Mark thinks Shawn was an underdog. LOL!!)

I’m so very grateful to our fans! Thanks to our supporters, we’re able to continue on. We’ve been working hard and are happy to be here. Aside from doing the best we can it truly is out of our hands. That’s why it’s such an honor to have the opportunity to make a run at the mirror ball trophy. And once you get to the final, all bets are off. I’ve been there with Shawn (Johnson, who won Season Eight) as the underdog. It’s anyone’s game!

As you can imagine, it’s been somewhat tense backstage. These past few days, I’ve pretty much turned on my iPod on and chilled out. The goal is to stay upbeat and loose. All of the couples deal with the pressure differently, but most of us zone out. If you don’t try to distract your mind, you’ll go crazy!

Take last week, for example. Before the Results Show. After I went to makeup, I returned to my trailer to change into my show wardrobe. I opened the trailer door and found a crowd: my managers, Bill and Steve; my mom Shirley; Bristol, her parents Sarah and Todd and her cousins Brandy and Greg. They were all hanging out, talking out their nerves and recounting all the fun moments from the season. (Plus, Mama P told me she loves reading the journal, so I have to give her a shoutout!) I’ve definitely enjoyed getting to know Bristol’s large family and they’ve been so warm, sweet, and kind to me, and I’m going to miss seeing them every week.

Remember last week when I was freaking out about having two dances? Well this week — the finale! — we have four dances! That’s four dances to choreograph, learn, rehearse, tweak, and perfect in five days. One of our dances is a freestyle dance. I’ve always had an idea in my head of what our freestyle dance would be, and I’m really excited that we get to perform it.

This is my seventh season and I’ve been fortunate enough to win the mirror ball trophy twice. But I’m proudest to have done what I believe is the true testament of this show: taking a non-performer and turning her into a dancer. And despite my previous successes, this is my most rewarding season. It feels great that all the hard work we’ve put in is paying off, and Bristol and I will do everything we can this week to give you our best dances!

I don’t know about you, but, I can’t even begin to picture Bristol being able to do FOUR DANCES??! 😮

Lastly, here is Jennifer and Derek discussion the elimination lastnight, the “odd mixture of feelings” and more.

Kyle and Lacey being interviewed as well on the elimination and their upcoming dances.

Ok, that is all for you for now. Have a great Hump Day! 😉 xx

DWTS11 Finalists: What If…?

A Day on the Set of Dancing with the Stars!

DWTS Season 11, Week 10 – Las Vegas Odds For The Finals

DWTS Season 11, Week 9 – The Cheesecake Award, Protest Edition

DWTS Season 11, Week 9 – ‘Can DWTS right the ship’ Weekend Media Roundup

DWTS Season 11, Week 9 – Your Friday Media & News

DWTS Season 11 – Top 20 Prime-Time TV programs for Nov. 8th – 14th

DWTS Season 11, Week 9 – Controversial Media Continues, A New Poll, & More

DWTS Season 11, Week 9 – Your Favorite Costume This Week

DWTS Season 11, Week 9 – Media After The Results

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