And Kelly has slipped again. Her samba was excellent last week, but I thought this week her foxtrot was only passable and her paso doble was awful. She basically gyrated through the entire paso doble. And Alec is not a very good choreographer by putting those side-by-side moves; you can clearly see how much more crisp his moves are compared to hers. I admire her work ethic, but she shouldn't win based on that.

John and Charlotte were truly magnificent tonight. Their foxtrot was beautiful and elegant. I thought their paso doble was pretty good although it looked like John had a few missteps.

The judges were particularly harsh with Joey and Ashly tonight. I thought their paso doble was the best of the night - controlled yet passionate. Plus, Joey's posture was the best I've seen in all his dances - definite improvement. As for their foxtrot, I thought it was entertaining if not traditional enough. If the judges are going to criticize Ashly's choreography for the foxtrot for not incorporating enough basic moves, then they should have done the same for Alec's choreography in the paso doble.

I am rooting for John and Charlotte to win!!

John and Charlotte have pulled the favorite card with their music selections. Almost everything they've had to dance to was very ballroom, with the exception of last week's Samba. They got the most traditional tango music, and now the absolute traditional Paso Music.

I just watched it again and I'm calling bullshit on John's Paso scores. It was like watching Rachel do Samba - too fluid.

I think Alec went way too fast on the music. One thing they can control is tempo, and I feel it was a little too quick for Kelly to keep up with. However, he is just to die for and no shirt? *swoon*

As yet another who knows bupkis about ballroom dancing, I really wish that at the start of each segment they would describe What a proper foxtrot, paso doble, etc... is supposed to look like, what moves need to be incorporated etc... Kind of like in figure skating competitions where the announcers tell the audience what elements must be used in order to acheive a high score. I like watching the show, but I can't always tell what the judges are looking for because I have no idea what elements should be there.

That being said, I was sad to see Joey and Ashly go. I love her, she has so much spunk, and I would kill to be able to move like that. I appreciate how regal John and Charlotte look as a couple, but his facial expressions kill me. I guess he's made a career out of being "that guy" though, so I can't blame him.

One quick question to the veteran viewers of this show however: the viewers scores from last week are used, right? So if one of the couples totally biffed it, fell down, and then ran offstage in tears they could still move on if they got more votes from the audience last week? That seems a wee bit off. I could see it not mattering so much early in the show with all the different competitors, but this is ostensibly the best of the best, and it doesn't make a ton of sense to me.

What an episode. It'll be a while before I get the vision of Joey Mac silhouetted in the spotlight with fist raised in the air as his partner lies in a heap behind him. And also! Joey rolling on the floor during a fox trot! What the ... ? I liked their Paso in spite of the cheeseball dramatics and execrable music, but their fox trot seemed more like a number from some random musical. Why were they dressed in old West saloon gear anyway? Bizarre. I'm happy with the final two. John and Charlotte looked fantastically elegant and Kelly and Alec were smoldering suxily.

My girl made it to the finals and that is all I care about. Damn I am going to miss this show after next week.

Why is it that John and Charlotte ALWAYS get music that can be passably danced to, and the others get such garbage?

John and Charlotte got a Fox Trot.
Kelly and Alec got --- WHAT? Nora Jones?
Joey and Ashly got what - "HEY, BIG SPENDER?" (a broadway production number - NOT a Fox Trot!

John and Charlotte got a REAL BALLROOM Paso Doble.
Kelly and Alec got ---- WHAT? A MAMBO? A SAMBA? A CHA-CHA?
Joey and Ashly got ---- WHAT? EYE OF THE TIGER?

The first and foremost requirement to good ballroom dancing is APPROPRIATE music. Although I am not a big "Joey" fan, I thought that they did a marvelous job trying to make BIG SPENDER an American-style Fox Trot. The judges (ALL THREE) are obviously NOT qualified to judge American Smooth.

As far as John and Charlotte go, sorry, but I have seen better Fox Trot from rank beginners. John had no "lilt" in his 2nd to 3rd step (the essence of dancing a musical Fox Trot), and Charlotte did not roll through her heels in Feather actions (John's posture and shape was not correct to allow Charlotte to do so). His Paso Doble was typical O'Hurley the actor, acting like a Paso Dancer instead of being one.

Kelly and Alec did a nice Fox Trot (American Smooth) for the music they were given. The music was so lifeless and banal that I was amazed they could even stay on beat! Kelly showed beautiful form and extension on some of the figures, and actually moved into them rather than just standing and posing. Alec did a nice job with the choreography. They had NO CHANCE in the Paso Doble. The music was so ridiculous that the Paso figures didn't fit, try as hard as they did to make them fit. That music made you want to Samba, and to use rhythmic hip movement. If this was the best music that Alec could choose just imagine how AWFUL the OTHER choiceswere!

Joey and Ashly in my mind did the best Fox Trot. The routine fit the music like a glove, and Ashly did whatever she could to add some Fox Trot to decidedly NON-FOX TROT music. Lyn and Bruno need to go to some basic American Smooth classes before they are EVER allowed to comment on something they OBVIOUSLY have no experience in. Their Paso showed that Joey is growing up. It was surprisingly good considering the music WASN'T a Paso Doble!

The way that I rate them (factoring in the obvious judge's ignorance and bias) and the music they had to work with:

FOX TROT:
Joey and Ashly - it worked, and it reminded me of a few exhibitions that I have seen from Smooth Champions.

Kelly and Alec - again, incredibly banal music but they danced to it relatively well.

John and Charlotte - I was extremely disappointed. With Charlotte as his teacher I would have expected much better musicality; it just wasn't there.

Paso Doble:

I can't comment. Only John and Charlotte were given Paso Doble music. The other music selections were simply ridiculous. Had Kelly and possibly Joey been given a real Paso Doble they could possibly have overtaken John's "acting like a dancer".

Joey and Ashly deserved to be eliminated for their absolutely ridiculous Viennese Waltz from last week. But they also deserved much better marks for their Fox Trot than these so called "qualified" judges gave them.

JMHO

I really enjoyed Joey and Ashly throughout - and get the impression that Joey's a really great guy - but I was so pleased when one of the judges openly stated what I believed: what they do is very entertaining, but it's rarely the dance they were told to do. And since it was lose Joey or lose John tonight - because Kelly is a given for the final - I can live with losing Joey. But really, music people... "Eye of the Tiger"?? For a Paso Doble???

I also thought Kelly was more about shaking the maracas Vegas showgirl style than about doing an actual Paso Doble, but she's improved a great deal since the beginning and is much more relaxed and natural. Still don't think she's a great dancer, per se, but I do respect the hard work she's put into this.

I don't know if it's simply that Charlotte makes John look really good or if they work terrifically well together, or if he has a natural flair for it, but they remain my favorites...

Wow, Joey has a really, uhh, intense look whenever he gets any criticisms from the judges. I half expect him to just utterly lose his shit, take a flying leap over the table, and start beating the crap out of Bruno. Hell, it might’ve helped their scores.

I agreed with the results tonight, although I admit that I’m one of the “don’t know bupkis” fans of this show.

I just didn’t think Joey and Ashly’s foxtrot was a foxtrot. He was rolling around on the ground, for goodness sake. I don’t mind the theatrics at the beginning, and end, and maybe just a second or two during, but they seemed to go from 5 seconds dancing, to 10 second of theatrics, and back and forth. It was just too much for me. I wanted to see a simple foxtrot. John and Charlotte delivered, Kelly and Alex did OK, but Joey and Ashly just missed the mark to me.

I do agree that they got absolutely screwed with their Paso Doble music. Eye of the Tiger? Really? What? WTF does that have to do with the Paso Doble? Of course, ever since I heard that they’d be doing the Paso Doble (which I love saying, by the way), my mind immediately went to Stricly Ballroom, which I just re-watched last week. I love it even more after watching this show. I compared these performances to that movie, which is probably very ignorant, but I felt John and Charlotte nailed it, Kelly and Alex did OK, mostly because Kelly really is very hot, is her strongest in the Latin dances, and is very good at selling every move she does (This coming from a hetero female), but as soon as I heard the Eye of the frickin Tiger, I knew Joey and Ashly were gone. I mean, really.

I do just adore Ashly, though. I loved how much she took control of the Foxtrot dance, felt really strongly about it, and you could just see her get so riled up over the critiques. Well, you could if you could manage to look away from Joey’s psycho expression. That boy is intense.

I am so looking forward to next week. And yes, I voted tonight. For John and Charlotte. Love. Them.

Could somebody please, please, please repost the link to watch the dances? I only caught the last 15 or so minutes of the show. Thank you muchly in advance.

The music is killing me. Killing me! John and Charlotte got a paso doble that I know I have heard in actual dance competitions. Joe and Ashly got "Eye of the Tiger?" And "Hey, Big Spender?"

The HELL?!

And in a total girly comment... I really loved Kelly's foxtrot dress. I thought it was just gorgeous with the color and the beaded drapey thing on the top. I also liked the back of Charlotte's but not so much the front.

Put my guesses down as "The Devil Went Down to Georgia," "Auld Lang Syne," Battle Hymn of the Republic" and "I'm a Little Teapot." That's the only way I can figure they arrived at the song they did...

Kelly looked like Jasmine from Aladdin. I loved both her outfits tonight and she gave me another reason to hate her ass tonight. Did you see her abs? Bitch ;)

Here's another reason to hate her - she lost 8 pounds from dancing. I think I found all of them.

I loved Kelly's foxtrot dress and her hair was absolutely lovely. I do wish she had left it up for the PD.

I got the feeling Joeys crazy eyes, were containing his being pissed off by Ashly and his gesture to her, was more a "Shut up! They still haven't given us a score!!"

Hee. I think the Barney song would have been better than "Eye of the Tiger".

The producers have been awfully biased in their song selection for each couple.

Kelly is the word "bitchface" come to life. Love how she can barely hold a smile convincingly without it falling down two seconds later. Cant. fucking. stand. her. Oh and, bitch, maybe if you actually wore some clothing you wouldnt be having "wardrobe malfunctions." She doesnt dance, she skanks up the stage. Its absolutely obnoxious. Cant wait to never hear from her again.

Joey and Ashly- I loved them in the beginning. So cute, so adorable. But if it is indeed Ashly choreographing their dances- then she absolutely sucks at it. IMO, its their choreography that has done them in. Its always so horrible- so is their music.

John and Charlotta = awesome. Their Paso Doble was beautiful.

I think the best two are left, but I hope hope hope John & Charlotte win.

I thought J&C's foxtrot was far superior to the others; Kelly was the new Rachel, I felt like she did more posing than dancing. It also reminded me of the week when Cary said she was bored with one of Rachel's dances, that's how I felt about Kelly's foxtrot. And sorry Ashly but I thought the judges comments were spot on - great performance, not a foxtrot.

Color me surprised for how well John pulled off the Paso Doble, since Latin isn't his strong side. Word to whomever said Kelly was doing the PD, it was something else. Very sexy and very latin but not PD. I saw hardly any stomping.

I'm going to vote early and vote often for J&C, but I suspect stupid Kelly will win it all.

Given the audience vote was from last week when I thought Kelly did the best Samba, combined with tonight's judges vote when I thought John did fabulously, I like the 2 finalists. My favorite Latin so far is Kelly & Alec's Samba, and my other favorite is John's Quickstep.

It's great because John's strength is really Standard/Smooth and Kelly's is Latin. It's really hard to compare the male and female stars, but Joey doesn't have John's carriage and elegance in Standard/Smooth and he gets beat out by Kelly in seductiveness and hip movement in Latin.

I'll miss Joey & Ashly but they're my least favorite. Their Paso Doble was the best of all their performances, first time in a while I thought that they combined good technique on Joey's part and excellent appeal to the audience.

But I agree with Len and Bruno's opinion of their Foxtrot.

I think that's what I disliked too. It's not that there was no Foxtrot steps there, but more the overall flavor of the dance was lost.

But I agree with bornonce, the music selection was really stilted! Double-You-Tee-Eff!

So, for those of you who think that Ashly & Joey didn't do the foxtrot...what they performed was a quite passable American Smooth Foxtrot with solid open work. Len and Bruno dismissed the open work without really examining what was done. And the song IS played at competitions for American Foxtrot. Word to whoever called Bruno on the fact that the song is from "Sweet Charity", although I think he meant simply that it was more a broadway performance than a ballroom performance.

If anyone DIDN'T do a foxtrot, it was Alec & Kelly. The Norah Jones piece is a rumba, not a foxtrot (and much farther off target than "Eye of the Tiger" as a paso), and their choreography had about 5 measures of foxtrot in it. But Kelly gets a tongue bath. Now, I have great admiration for Kelly; she's taken in every bit of criticism, and found the positive, constructive aspect to it. Her dancing has grown. I've come to respect her dancing and her attitude. Nevertheless, this was NOT foxtrot and should have been received with much more skepticism.

Then for the paso, they danced to a samba! Again, "Eye of the Tiger" was a better choide musically than "Bambaleo". At least "Eye of the Tiger" has a paso (or march) rhythm. Alec & Kelly did a FEW recognizable paso moves, but many of the choices Alec made were dicey. He tried to get Kelly to do some of the most technically difficult steps in the syllabus as the only basics in the routine; Joey was doing mostly what are called bronze level steps, and doing them well. John had bronze & silver steps, and again delivered a respectable performance. Kelly's "basics" were at gold, and were just barely acceptable. All that's left is the "stand & writhe" alternative. And if Ashly or Joey is reading this: great coupe de pique!

John & Charlotte have consistently shown high level performance material with a substantial amount of well done basic work. This has made their dances both a pleasure to watch and extremely readable to the judges, possibly an unbeatable combination. Definitely a smart strategy. My respect for Charlotte, which was already quite high before DwtS, has only grown over the last few weeks.

The Australian judging panel weighs in on the issue of lifts in this excerpt. Sonia Kruger, Lisa Canning's counterpart, is the interviewer. But no one can hold a candle to Lisa in reading cue cards. But no one can hold a candle to Lisa in reading cue cards.

I should add that you need to download the lastest Quicktime Player.

In addition to her inane chatter and complete inability to interview, she has been cursed with a horrible stylist. Her dresses have all been fairly awful, but tonight's was a new low. Horrid color - and that style, which seems to repeat iteslf weekly in a different color, doesn't suit her figure.


Word double squared.

So here's part of what's wrong with this show - I voted 19 times tonight. Five times from home phone, and five times each from two cell phones, plus four internet votes. I'd vote 100 mroe times on the internet if I wasn't too lazy to make up e-mail addresses.

Dance videos

But this week's videos aren't up yet.

I just want to say that Kelly's costume is very common and is what you would see in most ballroom, Latin competitions, esp. ones filled with young, nubile and fierce competitors. Edyta's style is just like Kelly's, as well as some of Charlotte's number -- all are equally revealing. Only Ashly's has been a bit more covered compared to what I had normally seen at pro or amateur comps.

And it does serve a purpose, Latin is a very dynamic dance with emphasis in proper hip motion and leg line & placement. So the bare midsection really accentuates the isolated, rhythmic and controlled muscle contractions needed to get proper hip movement, and the short skirts show off your leg extension.

I mean you have to spend hours and hours on technique to perfect your hip movement and leg line, it would be a shame to hide it all! JMHO ;)

And to be fair, Alec does all the choreography, so I think we have to criticize him with regards to what Kelly does or does not do on the dance floor. I do cheer for Kelly & Alec, so for me they can steam up my screen any time, esp. MmmmmAlec.

boggartlaura wrote:



Absolutely 100% agree!!! I don't know crap about ballroom dancing, but I've watched enough of it on PBS to know the difference between a paso doble and whatever the heck Kelly Jigglesworth was doing. It's like the judges seem to be giving Monaco full marks for improving from an F to barely a C-, but Joey gets blasted for turning in solid C's to B's every week (with the occasional A-).

I may be up on the grassy knoll, but it smells an awful lot like somebody wanted to make sure the star of the ABC daytime soap was in the finals - crossover promotion anyone??

I really need Dick Button/Peggy Fleming equivalents on this show! Instant replays too - "see where his feet are, they should be more xxx and her line is xxx". Heck, I'd even take John Madden with his telostrater pen! Why not? They already have the cheesy "before the competition" mugging and personal interest stories and the "kiss and cry" area, or in Joey/Ashley's case "the seeth and bitch" area. They definitely need new hosts - am I the only one missing Sandy Duncan from the PBS specials? and more than cable access production values.

John and Charlotte all the way! It's just a matter of time before the "Sweating to the Ballroom" DVDs ;)

ETA:

Give Joey and Ashly the gold too! Clearly it's European bloc voting! ;)

Quick notes:

John & Ashly did an excellent job with difficult music. I like the fact that she basically beat him into submission this week -- and it showed in the resulting dancing. I thought their Paso was the best because they took some non-Paso music and actually danced recognizable Paso Doble to it with pretty decent posture. I'm sorry to see them go because

I DESPISE WATCHING KELLY DANCE. Sorry, I'm just a little upset. Ugh the costumes. Ugh the Rumba. I mean Foxtrot. I mean whatever. And don't even get me started on that Samba. I mean Paso. She was heading for another wardrobe malfunction too -- this time I could see a little breast tissue popping out from the underside of her costume. Look, she's got the greatest abs since Edyta, but someone please dress her in something that won't fall off her. I know it's difficult to make costumes for women with breasts of a certain size (in fact I've spent the past two weeks dealing with it), but the costumers for this show are way more accomplished than I am so I'd expect Kelly's costumes to say on her. Maybe it's all the writhing.

John & Charlotte did fine, nothing else to say there. He makes me want to go dance with him because he really looks like he's actually learning how to dance and not just churning out performance numbers week to week. Picky grooming note: maybe he should consider bleaching his eyebrows to coordinate with his hair.

I was sad to see Joey & Ashly go, but because John & Charlotte are still there I'll watch again next week. :-)

With all the experts here telling us that Kelly had the same problem that the judges criticized in Joey; ie, not dancing the actual assigned dance, I'm wondering if the judges are aware of the outcome of audience voting from the previous week and using that in shaping their comments. If Kelly finished first in the audience voting, as we suspect based on previous weeks' outcomes, and the judges knew it, then they knew she was not going home no matter what they said. She would get no fewer than 4 points, and, since she had the tiebreaker, at least one of the men was going to get fewer than that. It might make sense that, knowing she wasn't going anywhere, that they'd prop Kelly up in the standings, if only to protect John, who we suspect was last with the fans; if not also to make the finale look more 'legit' in that the two teams they praised most heavily last night made it. If we figured out that the audience vote means almost everything on this show, I'm sure the judges have, too. What we didn't count on was that the judges might well know in advance how the teams are ranked with the audience before the competition begins each week, causing them to 'support' the teams they know will be staying, especially now as they enter into the finale.

I realize some of you are ballroom experts, but please try to be patient with people who know less than you, and try not to throw around a million references you know nobody else is going to get. Most of you are doing a stellar job of being friendly and helpful, but we're getting a bit of dance kudzu from a few of you, so please just be aware of it. Thanks.

(Edited not to sound meaner than I intended.)

Although the music stretches the limits of what these dances are supposed to be, the pros are given such wide latitude in how they can choreograph that some of these routines are like comparing apples and oranges.

I'm not sure how you even compare what Joey did to what John did. If you had ballroom judges and asked them to score pro couples doing these two different styles and the couples were reasonably close in dancing ability, you'd get no consensus from judges. This is why there are different styles, different divisions and different types of music are used in dancesport.

I think the judges were unfair in how they characterized Joey's routine as 'not foxtrot' especially considering that the demonstration by the pros at the beginning of the show of foxtrot was clearly in the same American style.

But you have to give John credit for making a basic look passable in what is often the hardest dance. If I had to rate on degree of difficulty I'd give John the edge but partially that's because Joey did something so different.

Actually, I think her abs are disgusting. They're gross to me in the way that bodybuilders in general (physically) are because they are just too defined and without fat.

In defense of Kelly, she is the only one of the "stars" that has a steady job. So she is learning these dances between working. And she is putting in the work, clearly.
Joey just didn't do it for me or anyone else I know. He seemed like "Hey, I was a NKOTB, I know how to dance, do you remember 'The Right Stuff?'" Bleech. Ashly had too big a crush on him, I think she was crying like a girl in high school when her tudoring session with the football player is over.
That being said, I hope John wins.

While I admire Kelly for doing the work learning the dances while working on a soap while the others apparently are not working currently (although we really don't know that for sure, do we?), I don't think it should figure into our assessment of her abilities. She took this on, she knew what her work schedule for GH is like, it's not like anyone forced her to do it although I'm sure the network encouraged her to go for it to promote her show.

Thinking about it, it's clear that the performances next week are essentially exhibitions, since whoever won last night's audience votes can't lose. The judging is irrelevant since the tiebreaker lies in the audience vote.

Well said. I always detect just a hint of panic in her eyes, like she's one dropped cuecard away from screaming "Where am I? Who am I?"

It's gratifying to know that Ashly's "Sweet Charity" number was technically a Foxtrot after all. I've enjoyed most of J&A's numbers, but I got the sense that Ashly's choreography was the reason for most of their low scores, especially since Joey's posture improved. It's an interesting complication for this show: the celebrity can dance his/her heart out, but if the routine doesn't have the moves the judges are looking for, he/she is boned. So it was nice that J&A at least went out on a couple of decent routines.

Still loving John and Charlotte. (I like ham!) I don't mind Kelly being in the final two, but I'd feel better about her being there if I didn't also think that her audience scores include a hefty chunk of "We wuv Kelly!" votes by soap fans. It's like she could strangle an orphaned bunny rabbit during one of her routines and she'd still top the audience vote. Mind you, I have no idea what the audience rankings have been. It's just a paranoid feeling I have.

Its the first time I saw this show, and this girl stuck out like a sore thumb. Is she a pagaent girl who got this job? How stiff can you get? And I think she needs to lose a few pounds (snerk.) The top of her gown was huge and sagging. Its like she's trying to be a low rent Halle Berry.

Lisa Canning was actually a reporter on Entertainment Tonight for several years and wasn't bad at that, at least she didn't stick out like a sore thumb like she does here. She's been off of ET for a couple years, I don't know what happened to her in the interim, but it sure wasn't anything good.

I was just thinking that all of my wishes had come true when I saw Alec at the beginning of the Paso Doble. I am still speechless.

katesus7 said:



I thought I was the only one that saw that. I am a Joey fan and he really scared me with that look. It was so reminiscent of an ex who would get that look just before he'd get all nuts, start screaming in your face and shove you around.

I know that there's a lot of Joey-love around here, but did anyone else think that up until that last episode he ran rough shod over Ashly? While he seemed to respect her as a person, he kind of acted like he knew more than she did. Although, I don't think this was evident in their first dance (cha-cha). Of course, it doesn't help that Ashly was too much in awe of him and had a tendency to be passive.

Otherwise, I do think his paso doble was really good despite the questionable music.

AwNutz, I was about to post almost exactly what you had to say about the competiton last night. I completely agree with your assessment of the dancers.

I medaled in Paso Doble when I was a junior competitor and while I think John/Charlotte were technically good and gave a great performance, it just wasn't one of their signature dances. Waltz, swing, two step and foxtrot have been the dances they've excelled at. To contrast, in the latin dances they've done well, but not as well as in the trads.

Ashley/Joey's foxtrot was good, but as I was watching it, I thought the same thing as Bruno. I've been out of the competitive loop for some time, but it looked like foxtrot with too many swing elements to pass muster. In the paso doble, though, I thought they were the best. They ripped off Kelly's song to be the best - eye of the tiger, baby!

Speaking of which, I agree with what some of the posters have stated upthread. Kelly's 2nd dance was good, but that was no paso. It was samba/chachacha/rumba with elements of paso.

Thankfully the judges voted John, Kelly, and Joey in that order -- the only order that lets John through, based on the likely audience voting of Kelly, Joey, and John in that order.

I thought John's foxtrot was elegant and smooth. In my view, this show has favored Latin dances over what I guess are called Standard dances (waltz, foxtrot, etc.) -- and John does so much better on the Standard dances. I had been worried for a while there would be so much Latin that John couldn't keep up. That was also disappointing because I prefer traditional ballroom dances to Latin dances -- what I want to see from this show is more elegant Viennese waltz in tuxedos and gowns, not a lot of sashaying skin.

Joey and Ashly's paso got rave reviews from the judges. That surprised me -- I thought that it was stiff -- almost robotic (I thought watching it that they should have chosen Mr. Roboto for their music). But then again, I know nothing about ballroom, so perhaps the paso is supposed to look that way.

I'm rooting for John, but my wife is rooting for Kelly, so our votes cancel each other out. Based on past rankings, my guess is that Kelly wins.

Edited to add: I like John's mugging -- I think it shows he doesn't take this seriously and realizes that it is a parody of a real ballroom competition, not an actual serious show.

Whenever I see Kelly's behind the scenes clips, I just think "Punky Power!". It's like they've gone out of their way to show how spunky, plucky and full of spirit she is!!!

Having said that, I don't necessarily dislike her, but I do feel, based just on dancing, John should win this. And lots of Word to whoever said upthread that John needs to be the host of this thing next time around.

On a (possibly) related note-
At the end of each dance as the performers are walking towards the judges I see each judge reach over and make a mark on a single paper on the top/center of their table. They all three mark it very quickly as though they are trying to get it done before the couple and the camera approach.
What are they marking and why?

As a judge in a totally unrelated field I was taught to quickly come up with a "final" score then work backwards from that to determine points in each scoring category. Could this be similar in terms of not letting the placements get away from them by factoring in the already computed audience votes?

They're not only marking, they're each looking at what the other two have written there. It's got to be a score or ranking for that couple, what else could it be? They must want to know what the others are thinking before giving their critiques so that they can make their remarks accordingly.

I wish they would tell us the actual results of the audience voting. Ideally, I'd like to see it broken down into percentages, but I'd settle for just their ranking with the audience.


And as I said earlier, I wish they were using cumulative scores. I think that would be more fair than the way they are doing it now.

It looked like Joey was stomping on roaches for most of the number.

Oh Lord, yes. I was like "No one told me neon was back in style!" The dress was meh, but the color made it worse.



I agree. Dude, it's for a damn trophy. Not worth the fuss. Though let's face it, it certainly gave both of them the chance to vent out their frustration into the best dance they have done. Something tells me if it was Donnie, Bruno may not be breathing. Heh.



BWAH! And so true.

I'm a little confused. Are there two weeks left in the show or one? Will they announce the winner next week or do the two couples dance again?

I feel like the producers have been doing this by the seat of their pants all summer!

I really, really would like to see an upheaval of the show's voting system next time. It doesn't matter how good Joey's paso doble was - he was going home anyway. And it seems a bit sadistic to have a team go through the agony of learning a new routine, etc. when they're slated to go home before they even perform!

Kelly's improved but she doesn't deserve to be in the Final 2. If Len was going to come down on Ashly and Joey for having too "open" a foxtrot, then I'm surprised that the same criticism wasn't leveled at Alec and Kelly. Do the judges already know who's going home? They've got to...why savage someone that they know will be in the Final 2? It wouldn't look good.

Is it me, or did Kelly not look pleased to be in the Final 2? Hard to tell, since she's often got that pouty look on her face. Maybe she was thinking "Just give it to O'Hurley already so that I can have a free weekend again."

I think it's a little more complicated than that. Before she could strangle the bunny, she'd have to shake her maracas like the rent was due, shove her ass in the camera 3-5 times while Alec spun, split and shook his own impossibly high, toned ass (side bar: Does anyone else think "Hello, Alec's ass!" every time it's on camera? Just me?) in the camera 8-10 times while either exposing arms, torso, or preferably both. Then she could strangle the bunny and Carrie Ann would give her another standing ovation because Carrie Ann may actually be Tsatthagua.

And if Kelly needs so many qualifiers to appreciate her dances (She's half deaf! She's never danced before! She's gainfully employed! She's graceless and stompy!) maybe she should just accept the fact that She's not that good!

Oh, man. EIGHT pounds? On such a tiny frame? She's loving that. Wow. But, with that oversized rack, she still looks like she's going to topple over (IMHO).

I am pissed Ashley and Joey are gone, especially since on watching the prior week's rerun, I saw Charlotte ooze her way into the background during an interview backstage and mug for the camera. SO blatant and annoying. HATE HER.

And especially cuz I thought Ashley was spunky and fun - loved her talking back last night about the open fox trot. I would have been pissed too! Especially since Kelly/Alec got lauded for what A/J got slammed for.

Bye, Joey - love ya!

Doesn't the show pick out their clothes?

I think she just isn't good at facial expressions. Most of the time she looks half-asleep. If she was bitchy I'm surprised Charlotte would be happy for her, and she seemed happy for her and Alec when they finally impressed the judges a few weeks ago. I can't help comparing her attitude to Joey's. She started out with a partner she couldn't stand and now they're close. Joey started out with a partner who adored him and by the end they seemed to be a few notches above outright loathing. I also haven't seen Kelly give death glares to the judges, even when they knocked her week after week. Joey and Trista seemed to have the bitchfaces.



Has she ever told people to qualify her based on these problems? She may not be as good as John, but I think she was better than any of the others left. Evander and Trista weren't that good, Rachel had to be carted around like a moose head, Joey had become sloppy and somewhat petulant...slim competition I guess.

Another thing I didn't notice until last night was how they go out of their way to make John look as wonderful as possible in those rehearsal clips. I think they wanted him to win from the start. I wonder if they originally thought Joey was a lock for final 2; they played up a fake rivalry between John and Joey which turned into nothing.