Lindsay Arnold | Pure Dancing with the Stars

Dancing with the Stars Season 28, Week NINE – Who’s Dancing What…and When??

Well, I just realized that I didn’t do this post this past week. I was in New Orleans working and having fun also and not thinking about blogs. 🙂 Better late than never I suppose. So, here’s what we’re going to see tonight on DWTS:

“Boy Band & Girl Group Night” – Six celebrity and pro-dancer couples return to the ballroom to compete on the ninth week of the 2019 season of “Dancing with the Stars,” live, MONDAY, NOV. 11 (8:00-10:00 p.m. EST), on ABC. (TV-PG, L) Episodes can also be viewed the next day on ABC.com, the ABC app and Hulu.

Choreographed by Brooke Wendle and Rodrigo Basurto, the show will open with a medley of songs from some of the most popular boy bands and girl groups in history. For this week, there will be two rounds of competitive dance performances. In the first round, couples will dance to music from girl groups like TLC, Spice Girls, En Vogue and The Pointer Sisters, among others; the second round will be music from boy bands like Backstreet Boys, New Kids on the Block, Boyz II Men and *NSYNC. For the first time ever and joining Len, Bruno and Carrie Ann, two guest judges in the ballroom will be Emma Bunton (Baby Spice) of the Spice Girls and Joey Fatone of *NSYNC and “Dancing” alum. Emma will judge the girl group dances, while Joey will judge the boy band dances.

Vying for America’s vote, each couple will dance to a variety of songs including The Supremes’ “You Can’t Hurry Love,” Spice Girls’ “Wannabe,” En Vogue’s “Free Your Mind,” The Pointer Sisters’ “I’m So Excited,” Backstreet Boys’ “I Want It That Way,” New Kids on the Block’s “Step by Step,” and Jonas Brothers’ “Only Human,” among others.

I personally think this theme is kinda dumb, but we’ll see how it plays on TV. And I wonder if Mel B wasn’t available – is she on another network? She was on America’s Got Talent, but I don’t think she is anymore. Anyway…I think Lauren may struggle this week cuz Rumba. S___ should be a trainwreck of major proportions – will it matter? Not until the judges give out appropriate scores for him relative to every other couple still on the show. If Lauren does struggle and gets 8s on her rumba, this is STILL no way in HELL that S___ should get anything higher than a 5. But apparently the judges lack courage. Hopefully, the Hannah of last week is still present – if she is she won’t have too much trouble. If she’s not, she might. I think Kel, James and Ally are probably fine. We will see!!

Kel and Witney – Paso and V. Waltz

James and Emma – Jive and Jazz

Ally and Sasha – Samba and Jazz

Hannah and Alan – Salsa and Tango

Lauren and Gleb – Quickstep and Rumba

S___ and Lindsay – Argentine Tango and Samba

PureDWTS Season 28, Week 8: Power Rankings

He’s still here, y’all. 🙁

We’re only three weeks away from the finale, and we’ve eliminated half of this season’s cast. Assuming they eliminate one couple next week and another the following week, we’re looking at a four-person finale – and given that the judges seem disinclined to really do anything to help the situation, I think we need to start coming terms with the fact that’s he’s more than likely going to end up in the finals, barring any sort of extreme interference from production. As I predicted last week, this week’s bottom two was just a recycling of previous bottom 2 survivors, which makes me think it’s going to continue being such (sorry Ally, and possibly sorry Kel) until he finally ends up pitted against contestants that have also been able to steer clear of it thus far (read: Hannah, James, Lauren). I’ve seen some folks worried that he might win – while I’m not ruling it out completely, I’m also thinking (hoping) that his continued presence is lighting a fire underneath some viewers to vote for all the other couples, and with each week that passes there’s fewer and fewer people to spread the votes around to…so those that haven’t fallen into the bottom 2 yet are likely amassing bigger and bigger shares of the voting pie, which creates more pressure for his voters to pick up the slack. I’ve given up on the judges actually scoring him fairly – he should be getting 4’s, and not the overly-kind 6’s and 7’s that the judges are still throwing out. Got blocked by Carrie Ann (again) for telling her that she has no room to be “irritated” with the fans, when she’s actively contributing to him sticking around by copping out with her little 7 paddle. So we clearly can’t rely on the judges to actually drop the hammer. But if it’s any consolation, we confirmed this week that you can vote ten times per couple, per account online, so if you aren’t doing so already – go through and add ten votes for each couple EXCEPT HIM, then submit your votes, log out, and repeat with your other accounts. If we ride this hard, it could result in him falling into the bottom 2, where he can finally be flushed out…

So with this continued clownery, the question on everyone’s lips seems to be “Is the show going to be cancelled?” If you’re just asking for my opinion, I say if this is the type of nonsense we can look forward to for seasons to come, the show SHOULD be cancelled; however, the actual answer is quite a bit more complicated than that. Ratings are at their lowest; however, if ABC is going to cancel DWTS, they’re going to have to come up with something else to put in its time slot that can hold its own against The Voice, which airs concurrently on NBC. I don’t know that it’s going to be very easy for ABC to track down a new show to replace DWTS, but I could see them swapping it out – and I think the most likely candidate is American Idol. It’s currently airing on Sundays (which is actually considered a more competitive time slot than Mondays) and is pulling in roughly the same ratings as The Voice on Monday nights. Why ABC has such confidence in an outdated reality competition format is beyond me, but I could see them giving DWTS’ Monday night slot to Idol and either putting DWTS on Sundays or scrapping it altogether. I mean, they’ve got all manner of fluffy stuff they can pad Sunday night out with – America’s Funniest Home Videos, Kids Say the Darndest Things, Shark Tank, etc. However, AI has been airing in the spring, and is already greenlit for a spring 2020 season; will ABC take the risk of doing two seasons of AI in a year and over-saturating viewers? Can they even AFFORD to do so, given Katy Perry’s bloated salary? There’s a lot of variables to consider when it comes to cancelling DWTS, and while I can’t in good conscience condone several continued seasons of the shenanigans currently happening, I can’t say confidently that this show will be toast after this one. Will be interesting to see what (if anything) gets said about another season on finale night…if they don’t say anything, up-fronts in May of next year will be a key time to watch…

So we lost Kate & Pasha, which, while not unexpected, was still disappointing. I actually thought her jive was her strongest Latin dance, and was impressed and how bouncy and clean the legwork was – which made it all the more annoying when the judges seemed to downplay how well she did, and she ended up with the same score as Lauren for a dance that I thought was actually better. But boy am I glad that they were on this season, and that Pasha was a pro – as Len mentioned last week (I think), Pasha has forced all the other pros to up their game in terms of content, and it’s benefited just about everyone. You could tell Len was sad to see them go when he did press line after Monday’s show, so I guess that’s something… Read more..

Pure DWTS Season 28 Week 8 – Interviews, Recaps, Scores, Photos, And Extras

What a super night of dancing again. I thought the Dance Offs were a nice shake up. My favorite couple (again) was James and Emma. They are in a realm of their own. If you missed the show, be sure to see Miss Heidi’s Live Blog post from last night for complete details and Number updates.

So, let’s review the scores again from the highest to the lowest scores….

Scores:

James & Emma 30 (10, 10, 10)
Ally & Sasha 30 (10, 10, 10)
Hannah & Alan 29 (10, 9, 10)
Kel & Witney 28 (9, 9, 10)
Lauren & Gleb 24 (8, 8, 8)
Kate & Pasha 24 (8, 8, 8) Eliminated
Sean & Jenna 20 (7, 7, 6)

Dance Offs:
Kel & Witney Winner (2 pts)
Ally & Sasha Loser

Kate & Pasha Winner (2 pts)
Sean & Jenna Loser

Hannah & Alan Winner (2 pts)
Lauren & Gleb Loser

To view all the dances, see the official You Tube page. You can also view the dances at the official Facebook page. You can see photos from the show at Getty Images. Here are a few to take in….

Embed from Getty Images

And now onto some interviews (the judges weigh in after the show this week) and recaps. Be sure to see all the fun Extra’s as well. Lots to take in today…. Read more..

Dancing with the Stars Season 28, Week Eight – LIVE BLOG

So, I never did get around to my numbers post this week, dang it. The upshot is, besides S___, Hannah appears to be the only one who can be low on the leaderboard and not be in the bottom two. It’s quite likely that James is the same but he’s not been tested yet. Last week it was Kate’s turn to be in the bottom with Karamo and they were the two low scorers besides S___.

For S___ to be safe, he needed the following things to happen:

He needed 14.9k more votes per million votes cast than Kate, AND;
He needed 17.4k more votes per million votes cast than Karamo.

In the olden days of DWTS, those were pretty small numbers. Probably not any longer. And he obviously did that – but who knows who else he managed to beat. Here are the remaining numbers:

He would have needed22.3k more votes per million votes cast to beat Kel
He would have needed 24.8k more votes per million votes cast to beat Hannah
He would have needed 29.8 more votes per million votes cast to beat either James, Lauren or Ally

So, vote for your favorites and vote HARD. We’ll see who the low scorers are tonight and if the same thing happens. As of right now, everyone except James, Lauren, Hannah and S___ have seen the bottom two. Hopefully, that is NOT your final four, if you know what I mean.

T-minus 30 minutes… Read more..

Dancing with the Stars Season 28, Week Eight – Who’s Dancing What…and When??

Happy Halloween!!

Well, I doubt the set up for week 8 will truly benefit anyone at all, but I guess we’ll see. Here’s what the press release has to say:

After a first-round dance to a style they have not performed before, the second round is the Dance-Off challenge. Two at a time, couples face off against one other on the ballroom floor as they dance head-to-head in the same style at the same time (Cha Cha, Jive or Salsa). The winners of each of the three dance-offs will be selected by the judges, and the winning couple from each dance-off will receive two bonus points added to their judges’ totals for the night. One couple will be granted dance-off immunity based on the leaderboard from the previous week and will not have to participate, receiving two bonus points as part of their immunity.

Vying for America’s vote, each couple will dance to a variety of songs including Elle King’s “American Girl,” Linda Ronstadt’s “Heat Wave,” Styx’s “Come Sail Away,” John Legend’s “All of Me” and Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing,” among others. In addition, the dance-off songs include Gloria Estefan & Miami Sound Machine’s “Rhythm is Going to Get You,” C+C Music Factory’s “Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)” and Queen’s “Don’t Stop Me Now.”

I saw where some on twitter were confused by this, but it seems obvious to me – but who the hell knows anymore? Anyway, “dance off immunity” certainly seems to imply that the high scorer doesn’t have to dance off, not that they’re immune from elimination. As I’ve said in the past, that person better also get two points, otherwise they’re more vulnerable than those dancing off. Also seems clear that WHO gets immunity will be difficult, since there was a tie for the top spot. My money is on whichever of those folks is most vulnerable to elimination.

Kel and Witney – Salsa

James and Emma – Contemporary

Ally and Sasha – Jazz Charleston (WTF?)

Hannah and Alan – Quickstep

Lauren and Gleb – Jive

S___ and Lindsay – Jazz

Kate and Pasha – Jive

PureDWTS Season 28, Week 7: Power Rankings

Well I guess it goes without saying that Halloween Night brought some bad juju with it that I’m struggling to shake. My girl crush Kate (and male pro messiah, Pasha) fell into the bottom two, while you-know-who somehow dodged the bottom two altogether (again). And I’m noticing a disturbing pattern with his supporters: with each week that passes with him sticking around, they seem to take on more aggressive, offensive posturing; they’re likely heartened by witnessing human garbage like former White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus antagonizing Erin on Twitter, over a perceived “sad face” that she apparently had when you-know-who was announced as safe. He did this completely unprovoked, I might add – and that’s what’s really disturbing to me. Bones’ fans may have been annoying, but I don’t recall them going out of their way to pick fights with his detractors (until finale night, when they all apparently decided to flood my mentions). Supporters of Lindsay’s partner seem to have started searching the #dwts hashtag, and start pig piling on anyone that dares to say anything negative about him – or nothing at all about him (I legit saw one poor fan inundated with “Funny how you’ve left S*** out of your list of favorites” and “You’re gonna feel so stupid when S*** wins this whole season!” tweets from the #MAGA faction). I don’t even think half these people voting for him even like him as a person or a dancer – I think they just like thinking they’ve somehow “stuck it to the liberals” by keeping him on the show. This is why I refuse to say his name – not only does it give him power in social media algorithms, but it just allows the bad juju of the people that support him to find its way into my timeline. I DO NOT ACCEPT THIS ENERGY. But unfortunately, this show did, and when you lay down with dogs, you wake up with fleas…

I’ve inevitably had a few fans asking me “What can we do to stop this??? How do we get rid of him????” and I wish I had an easy answer for you. The fool’s errand this season has left us with is to basically vote for EVERY SINGLE OTHER COUPLE, in the hope that they all eventually surpass him in combined scores and votes. However, my gut feeling (one I share with Heidi) is that it’s not necessarily that he’s getting a ton of votes – it’s that there’s not very many votes being cast, TOTAL, and thus it’s giving a small-but-determined fanbase more voting power than they’d normally have. If that’s the case, then every vote that is not for him should help – and it seems like there’s some debate over whether the online accounts will allow you (10) votes total (to distribute among the couples as you see fit, as it’s always been), or whether they will allow you to vote ten times apiece for each couple (like the text voting, which allows you a max of (10) votes per couple). If you truly can vote ten times per couple per account, then y’all, I recommend you ride that till the wheels fall off – that could be the key to finally ousting this festering boil of a contestant. If it’s not the case, then I hope you guys are still voting nonetheless – if you wanted to vote more strategically, I would suggest throwing votes to James, Lauren, and/or Hannah, as I think those are the three that ol’ Frankenstein is going to struggle to surpass in votes (they’ve never been in the bottom 2, while Kate, Ally, and Kel all have). All I know is that if this show ends up with another bullsh*t winner, we can probably kiss it goodbye…hell, we might still kiss it goodbye, even if he doesn’t win. But I’ll be damned if I don’t put up a fight first…

So as I had generally been thinking for the past several weeks, we inevitably lost Karamo – half of the bottom two from last night had no business being there, and I think Karamo had plateaued with his dancing and wasn’t likely to improve much more this season. If you-know-who had gone home last night (or last week…or the week before…) like he ought to, I think Karamo would have probably been in the bottom two with him, and probably would have been the next one eliminated, anyway. I still love the story and the energy he brought with him, though, and if nothing else, I now have a quite fetching “OMG BEEEEYOOOOONNNNNCCCEEEE!” pterodactyl screeching Karamo sound byte as my text tone, graciously created for me by reader Rob 😉 Read more..

Pure DWTS Season 28 Week 7 – Interviews, Recaps, Scores, Photos, And Extras

Outstanding Halloween show as always, but, I’m so upset on the elimination! I have enjoyed Sean Spicer’s run, spirit, and trying to unite people, but, dance wise it really has been his time to go especially these past few weeks. Huge kudos though to Karamo who has been a complete class act about his elimination. I love what he said on the show and Sean Spicer in this new interview. With that said and if you missed the show, be sure to read Miss Heidi’s Live Blog post from last night for complete details and Number updates. Courtney is working on her Power Rankings too. So, stay tuned.

So, let’s review the scores….

Scores:

Kel & Witney 27 (9, 9, 9)
James & Emma 27 (9, 9, 9)
Ally & Sasha 27 (9, 9, 9)
Hannah & Alan 25 (8, 9, 8)
Karamo & Jenna 25 (9, 8, 8) Eliminated
Lauren & Gleb 27 (9, 9, 9)
Sean & Lindsay 18 (6, 6, 6)
Kate & Pasha 24 (8, 8, 8)

Team Trick: Ally & Sasha, Hannah & Alan, James & Emma, Lauren & Gleb 27 (9, 9, 9)
Team Treat: Karamo & Jenna, Kate & Pasha, Kel & Witney, Sean & Lindsay 24 (8, 8, 8)

My favorite couple last night was James and Emma. I plan to vote for them all the way to the end now if they keep up their passion, creativity, and brilliance. I also loved Gleb & Lauren and Sasha & Ally. I have to give huge props to both Team dances last night too. Team Trick had the best dancing, but, Team Treat was the most entertaining. Huge props to the Make up, Lighting, and Props teams. They were amazing as well. Awwww *sigh*, Halloween shows make me love Dancing With The Stars all over again. If you missed seeing all the dances, see the official You Tube page. You can also view the dances at the official Facebook page. You can see photos from the show at Getty Images. Here are just a few of them. Stunning captures….

Embed from Getty Images

And now onto some interviews and recaps. Be sure to see all the fun Extra’s as well including something cool from Kristyn Burtt…. Read more..

Dancing with the Stars Season 28, Week SEVEN – LIVE BLOG

Who’s the scariest of the all and will that person be eliminated tonight?? Only if we’re real freakin’ lucky.

T-minus 30 minutes…

Remember to include context when commenting!! Here we gooooo….

So this means that Len is going to bury someone tonight? This is the best opening we’ve had in a very, very long time. (Bar low) Really good. There was a point where I didn’t know who anyone was. 🙂 Great job.

Michael Rooney did the choreography – props man. Erin’s dress is gorgeous. Wow, Jenna and Karamo look amazing! CAI is Maleficent – apropos.

Kel up first with Rocky Horror. Jive to Time Warp. Doesn’t seem like a good fit but okay.

I don’t get the staging at all but he’s holding up well so far. Got a bit off time for just a moment but recovered well. All in all, good dance!! Don’t get the outfits either, for that matter. Maybe there is copyright issues?

Len: Terrific way to start off the evening.

Bruno: I love a cult classic. Taken it and reimagined it. Surprising treat.

CAI: (OMG) That was incredible. Off the hook. Tight and clean.

Scores: 9, 9, 9 for a total of 27. New camera people please. Jesus.

Heh. Promo suggests that Len split them into teams. Which means the producers split them into teams. We’ll see.

James and Emma up next with the V. Waltz. He does have a nice booty.

Emma looks amazing. Beautiful dance so far, love the concept. Excellent job. Particularly liked the ending. 🙂

Bruno: Prince of Darkness. Totally in command. Such a powerful performance. Perfect until he went wrong. James says he slipped on the fog.

CAI: Perfection until the mishap.

Len: Honestly you put a spell on me. Dance was terrific. Lovely movement. Was gonna be a 10 until the incident(s). Lovely mix of tricks and treats.

He should win this season…I’m just not confident he will.

Scores: 9, 9, 9 for a total of 27.

Ally up next with Tango. Dancing to Sweeter than Psycho. The singer is not doing well. the Tango on the other hand is pretty good, but her head looks weird…like it’s too far back in the wrong way? Can’t explain it.

CAI: On point. Ridiculously good. What I loved most is you push yourself right up to the edge. Lost focus at one point.

Len: Last week nearly dead, so glad you came back to life with a terrific tango. Lots of proper dancing. Len noticed the head thing too. It wasn’t just me.

Bruno: Premiere league tango. Full of content done correctly.

She was good, but I suspect she’ll get 9s that I’m not sure I agree with. That said, maybe the judges have wised up.

Scores: 9, 9, 9 for a total of 27. I sense a theme.

I worry for Hannah as she could barely walk on her feet as of yesterday. Eek. Let’s hope for the best.

One of the pros messed up. Not sure how this is Halloween. But she’s doing quite well for someone who couldn’t walk the other day. Over all, kind of a weird theme with weird music. Think she got hosed on that. Her dancing was good, but dang.

Len: Bad girl is a terrific dancer.

Bruno: Nothing scary about that. Most beautiful, friendliest zombie ever. Things she needs to punch it more.

CAI: Crisp and clear, but agree with Bruno. Something lacking in her performance. You close off to the dance.

Good lord she is talking so much and so fast!!

Scores: 8, 9, 8 for a 25 out of 30.

NUMBERS UPDATE: So far, there are only about 10k votes between the top 3 and Hannah. Everything is going to hinge on how badly they over score Lindsay’s partner.

Karamo is up next with his Paso to Destiny’s Child.

He’s handling this dance very well, still a tiny bit awkward in places but he’s vastly improved. And he just gets better the farther he gets into the dance. The make up is AMAZING.

Bruno: The bringer of the apocalypse. Went wrong on the one foot once. Don’t lose the shaping due to the power. Well done.

CAI: Like a sonic boom. You opened up and let it out.

Len: firstly may I congratulate hair, makeup and wardrobe. Shaping has to be exaggerated, having said that is the attack and he did very well.

Ugh. Boy Bands and Girls Groups next week. Two dances each.

Scores: 9, 8, 8 for a total of 25 out of 30 – tied with Hannah.

Lauren up next with an AT. Doesn’t seem sharp enough but I keep getting distracted by other stuff. Sorry. Mid-show fade out. Seemed like it was pretty good though.

CAI: Love Halloween. You slipped right there but you went with it and made it a moment.

Len: Not sure what lola wants but saw plenty of what Lennie wants. AT characterization. Sparked off each other. Well done.

Bruno: Can I have a bite please. Your performance was great.

So Lauren gets the pity party two weeks in a row…

Scores: 9, 9, 9 for a total of 27 out of 30.

S___ and Lindsay next. Monster mash and Frankenstein – pretty slow Jive, of course.

Can’t go wrong with your partner laying down. Oh, I was wrong. 🙂 He’s not moving at all for half the dance. I mean, literally, feet glued to the floor. He’s pigeon toed when he does move.

Len: This wasn’t super and it wasn’t really natural either. Lacked content, but I must say what I like that you always come out and try the hardest.

Bruno: Monster part was perfect. But the jive was 6 feet behind (I think he means under). Timing is not your strong suit.

CAI: A dance only your mummies could love. Backsliding this week.

If Len gives him a fucking 7 just for showing up I may throw something at my TV.

Scores: 6, 6, 6 for a total of 18 out of 30. Still too generous.

NUMBERS UPDATE: Made some guesses on the team dances with James’ team doing 26 and Kate’s team doing 24, and Kate getting a 27 in her solo dance. With those numbers, S___ needs 17.5k to get past Karamo, 22.4k to get past Kel/Hannah/Kate and 27.2k to get past the leaders. Scary.

Kate up next with the rumba.

She seemed like she was rushing it there at the beginning, and she’s so somber. I suspect I just saw a mistake but they were only showing her from chest up. A couple lifts in there, one really obvious at the end of the dance. Not bad, but not fantastic.

Bruno: That was a beautiful and haunting rumba. Capture our attention. Lost a bit of fluidity. Better shoulders.

CAI: There was a tiny mishap, but what I love most is seeing a woman so confident. Lost connection at one point.

Len: Compliments to Pasha. (agreed) What you’ve done, is you’ve inspired other professionals to give proper authentic routines. Not normal amount of confidence, Kate. Stretch legs a bit more. Knockout performance.

Scores: 8, 8, 8 for a total of 24 out of 30. I wouldn’t have gone that low, although I didn’t care too much for the dance.

NUMBERS UPDATE: Of course, everything hinges on the team dances, but as I said I guessed James team getting a 26 and Kate’s team getting a 24. If that happens, this will be the leader board.

Sean vs. Kate	1.50%	15,000
Sean vs. Karamo	1.75%	17,500
Sean vs. Kel/Hannah	2.25%	22,500
Sean vs. James/Ally/Lauren	2.75%	27,500

This could get spooky. Who knows what will happens. I don’t think Kate is in danger, I think it’s more likely to be Karamo and…someone. But we’ll know.

You mean these lopsided teams were by random draw??? How on earth…

Team Trick is up first. Great costumes. Emma counting. LOL. Celebs doing great on their own. Well, I thought that was really good! Seemed like they were mostly in sync, lots of good dancing. Harkened back to what Derek and Mark might have done.

Len: lovely mix of tango, VW all together with fantastic, interesting choreography. Admiration for the celebs. Well done.

Bruno: I loved it as well. Dramatic and elegant. Bringing out the personality.

CAI: I loved it. Matching lines, really powerful. Kudos to Hannah.

Scores: 9, 9, 9 for a total of 27. Awww…Hannah getting emotional.

Team Treat is up with Sweet Dreams by Beyonce.

Love the costumes. Love the start. Very clever way to keep the men from dancing for a long period of time. Very simple choreography. Pretty in sync but not even close to the first team. It just seems kinda slow and low impact. Much stomping by S___.

Bruno: yelling the counts. Nightmarishly entertaining. Not everyone was always on time, but I really love the effort.

CAI: Love the concept, MVP to Kate for dancing with the women. S___ almost kept up.

Len: Liked the fun of it. You enjoyed. Wonderful entertainment and congratulations.

Scores: 8, 8, 8 for a total of 24 for team treat. Called that one right on target.

Here we goooooo…..

SAFE: Ally and Sasha

SAFE: Hannah and Alan

SAFE: Kel and Witney

SAFE: James and Emma

SAFE: Lauren and Gleb

SAFE: S___ and Lindsay (fuck)

CAI – Karamo

Bruno – Kate

Len – Kate

Karamo is one hell of a class act. Going out in classy style. It gives me a sad, though. Stay tuned for a numbers post this week. My preliminary theory is that so few people are voting that S___ is probably out in front, possibly with Hannah and James. The low number of votes is why the bottom two changes every damn week. Kate was at the bottom of the leader board, with S___ and Karamo, so they’re in the bottom. Hannah was near the bottom last week, yet wasn’t in the bottom two. Hence, I think she’s up there with S___ and likely James. More later.

Dancing with the Stars Season 28, Week SEVEN – Who’s Dancing What…and When??

So, have the judges learned their lesson and score what it destined to be a truly horrible jive appropriately?? I doubt it, but we can hope. Here’s what the press release has to say:

The show starts with a spooky Halloween opening number set to “Bad Guy” by Billie Eilish and “Come Along” by Cosmo Sheldrake. Choreographed by Michael Rooney, the celebrities and pro dancers will take the audience on a journey from the graveyard to the ballroom, ending with an epic zombie dance number. Later, after a round of individual competitive performances, there will be an additional round of two Halloween team dances. Each team (Team Trick with James, Ally, Lauren & Hannah and Team Treat with Karamo, Kel, Sean & Kate) of four celebrities and their pro partners will compete for more judges’ points, which will be added in as part of the final scores of the evening.

Vying for America’s vote, each couple will dance to a variety of songs including Halloween classics “Time Warp” and “Monster Mash” as well as Donna Summer’s “Bad Girls,” Chris Issak’s “Wicked Game,” Annie Lennox’s “I Put a Spell on You,” and Ava Max’s “Sweet but Psycho,” among others.

I would LOVE to know how the teams were picked, and if they truly just ended up the way they did through a school yard pick. I don’t think they could have, since James and Hannah are tied for the highest cumulative score but they’re on the same team. And if they went with the two lowest cumulative scores, well, that’s S___ and Karamo, who are also both on the same time. This is questionable, for sure. As for who’s dancing what? Looks like everyone has a dance they should do okay with, except that one guy dancing with Lindsay.

Kel and Witney – Jive
Dancing 1st

James and Emma – V. Waltz
Dancing 2nd

Ally and Sasha – Tango
Dancing 3rd

Hannah and Alan – Jazz
Dancing 4th

Karamo and Jenna – Paso Doble
Dancing 5th

Lauren and Gleb – Argentine Tango
Dancing 6th

S___ and Lindsay – Jive
Dancing 7th

Kate and Pasha – Rumba
Dancing 8th

PureDWTS Season 28, Week 6: Power Rankings

Oof, dear LAWD – what a mess this show has become. To be clear: while Ally and Sailor may not be the best dancers this season, they’re far from the worst, and neither should have been in the bottom Monday night. And yet, here we are, trying to make sense of the fact that Lindsay’s partner (who, despite her best efforts, is still by and far the worst dancer remaining this season) hasn’t even been in the bottom two yet this season, while those actually unfortunate enough to land there seemed like a revolving door of people of color with far more talent and charm than him. Clearly the other cast members were just as gobsmacked as we were, as the looks on their faces as the credits rolled just seemed like a stunned collective countenance of “WTF”. And when I ruminate on how far this show has fallen, it makes me think back to an op-ed from The Cut that Heidi shared back before the season began, which looks at Lindsay’s partner’s participation on the show as symptomatic of a bigger problem we seem to have as a society at the moment: the disdain held for the educated, trained, and competent in favor of the spectacle of rank amateurs taking up space instead. Heck, we see it in the current administration – men and women holding positions they have neither the experience nor the general intelligence necessary to adequately fulfill their duties, while those with the credentials and education to actually do these jobs well are treated with general contempt and are branded “elitists”. And when our damn reigning champion is trying to apply this same narrative to the show and rally his fans to vote for Lauren instead of “those Hollywood types” (you mean the ones that can actually dance, Bones?) much in the same way he constantly reminded us on his season that he “was from a town of 800 people, never danced before in my life, all those other people have dance experience, but vote for me cause I make a great story!!!” Whether it’s Bones trying to convince middle America that he’s “just like them” or you-know-who putting up straw men about being persecuted on the show “because [he’s] a Christian”, it’s all just wagging the dog to divert attention from the fact that THEY CAN’T DANCE but feel entitled to a win nonetheless.

All that being said, I think another big problem the show is struggling with now is the fact that we just don’t have as many viewers invested enough to tune in and vote; and when the total number of votes gets smaller, the potential for shenanigans increases, as it gives fringe voting groups (like Bones’ fans) more leverage. I’ve had a few people on Twitter asking me if I think the new voting format (only Eastern and Central time zones are able to vote while actually watching the show; Mountain and Pacific can vote, but they have to do so blindly) is to blame for some of the weirdness we’ve seen so far this season – and honestly, while I don’t think it’s helping, I think the bigger problem is just that viewership is down and viewers aren’t impassioned enough to vote anymore. To put it in perspective, during the show’s heyday, it was commanding anywhere from 15 to upwards of 22 million viewers per episode (back in season 10 – keep in mind, this was pre-The Voice, which didn’t start airing concurrent with DWTS until 2011); it trended down once it had to go head-to-head with The Voice, though it was still averaging 8-12 million viewers per episode as recently as season 25. Then 2018 came along, and we got a truncated spring season that topped out at 8.77 million for the finale, followed by Bones’ season, which couldn’t muster any better than 7.9 million. And this season, aside from the premiere, we’ve been hovering in the 6 million range. Maybe Heidi could do a numbers post that illustrates the differences that happen when you’ve got 22 million, 12 million, and 6 million viewers voting to give you an idea of how much more power a fringe voting group has when the vote totals are lower, but trust me: Lindsay’s partner doesn’t need a ton of votes (boasting from his fans notwithstanding) to stick around when a) there’s just not as many people voting, total and b) when the judges are being far, FAR too kind with their scoring of him, which proves they’ve learned absolutely nothing in their 14 years judging this show.

So all that aside, we ended up with Ally and Sailor in the bottom 2 (and I had kind of wondered about Ally as recently as 2 weeks ago – I also said we would need to have a “come to Jesus” meeting if she ended up in the bottom two…), and one of them had to go – and I think the judges made the right call in keeping Ally. While Sailor did seem to be improving (and again – DID NOT BELONG IN THE BOTTOM 2), I thought Ally had an overall better command of all the dance styles she had done, while Sailor only seemed to really shine in certain styles (tango and Viennese waltz). I will say I found it a tad peculiar that Sailor took her elimination so hard – you could begin to the see the panic on her face when she was one of the last five still waiting to get called safe, and it was downhill from there; she was absolutely incoherent and inconsolable by the time it was just her and Ally standing there. For someone that stepped in at the last minute for her mother and apparently hadn’t planned to do this show until three days before the premiere, she seemed pretty devastated at the prospect of getting eliminated – while Ally, who I think had far more to prove in doing DWTS and had been signed on from the get-go, seemed far more composed. Everyone processes emotion differently, so who knows – but there were kids on Juniors that accepted their elimination more gracefully than Sailor did. Perhaps my curiosity was just piqued by a blind item someone on Twitter told me about, which implied something to the extent of “it was always the plan for Sailor to be on the show, Christie just agreed to do the show and faked the injury so Sailor could take her place and it was in Sailor’s contract that she had to make it to the semifinals!” Clearly the last part wasn’t true, but the whole Sailor replacing Christie situation still struck me as odd, as there had been rumors before Christie had even been announced as a celeb that she had already dropped out – and then we had Sailor just utterly devastated at being eliminated, and I had to kinda go “Hmmmm.” I saw a few comments on Twitter asking “Wow, where did all of Val’s fans go??? Eliminated early two seasons in a row now!!!”, to which I refer back to my point above that there just aren’t as many people watching and voting, period – additionally, they finally stopped handing him serial ringers after Normani, and so he’s had to really work to get decent dancing out of the three partners he’s had since then…with mixed results. Read more..

Dancing with the Stars Season 28, Week NINE – Who’s Dancing What…and When??

PureDWTS Season 28, Week 8: Power Rankings

Pure DWTS Season 28 Week 8 – Interviews, Recaps, Scores, Photos, And Extras

Dancing with the Stars Season 28, Week Eight – LIVE BLOG

Dancing with the Stars Season 28, Week Eight – Who’s Dancing What…and When??

PureDWTS Season 28, Week 7: Power Rankings

Pure DWTS Season 28 Week 7 – Interviews, Recaps, Scores, Photos, And Extras

Dancing with the Stars Season 28, Week SEVEN – LIVE BLOG

Dancing with the Stars Season 28, Week SEVEN – Who’s Dancing What…and When??

PureDWTS Season 28, Week 6: Power Rankings

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