I agree about Charlotte straddling John constantly. I felt they did this to disguise the fact that he couldn't really lift her. Even that one "lift" they did where she swung in the air just depended on momentum. It's not really hard to give someone a reverse piggyback. I was puzzled with this move.

I also think it's possible a lot of people voted for Alec, not Kelly.

I don't think ABC is to blame for Kelly's win. It was the viewers that voted. The judges were really quite moot when it all came down to it.

I think some of this Kelly bashing is uncalled for. They ALL worked their asses off for this show and to entertain us during the normally boring television season known as summer. I don't think that Kelly's wardrobe or a few missed steps justifies all this negative talk about her.

ITA and didn't pay attention to the way too confusing voting system. I enjoyed watching a fun / lighthearted show. as well. I also managed to learn a few thing about Ballroom Dancing and those amazing steps involved.

Tom & Lisa need to pack up and move on. Lisa's one interview question, " How do/does it feel? " should be banned from her vocabulary & Tom is simply annoying.

On another note, what the hell happened to Patrick Swayze? Is anyone sure that was really him ? He looked freshly "waxed".

Disco ball trophy with hilarious, yet perfect

I've enjoyed this to the end. I hope the next batch of "stars" are just as entertaining. Congrats to Kelly & Alex. And all the best to all of them, good fun entertainment.

Wanted to add that I think Lisa Canning and/or wardrobe must read these boards, because I thought her dress tonight actually looked pretty good. It was a good color and a good cut.

But did they? Everything I've read had J&C winning by a landslide. Who are these voters? USA Today had J&C winning by a landslide. K&A have had very little support at any of the boards I've seen. We have judges giving them 10s for a performance with multiple flaws. I'm just saying it looks suspicious.

Maybe there is a contingent of teen boys out there that voted a zillion times

I may dislike her wardrobe but I'm not saying Kelly isn't a good person. I'm not saying she doesn't try hard but so did all the rest of the contestants. This is a show about dancing and in my opinion the couple who showed the most "dancable" elements was J&C.

I noticed Lisa's dress improvement too, blackwing. It actually fit her! Although she must have been wearing something funky underneath because there were some strange lumps when she stood a certain way.

As was mentioned before, that USA Today poll was hardly an accurate representation of the show's viewership. And this show isn't just about dancing. Actual ballroom competitions may be strictly about the dancing but this show is entertainment and as such, popularity, audience appeal, and showmanship play parts in the results here. Can't speak for anyone else but personally, the more vitriol I saw directed against Kelly, the more I rooted for her. Plus I really thought that she had gotten pretty good by the end, though there was certainly room for improvement still.

I feel the same way. Every time I went over to the ABC boards and saw her getting skewered, I voted again for her. There are some vicious things going around out on the internet about Kelly and all because she won a cheesy dancing contest. I don't think that's right.

The more I see Kelly on this show the more I see how TIIC at GH are completely wasting her.

Very well put. I floved this show! I didn't really care who won once Trista was gone, although I don't think I could have lived with Evander unless he really, really improved. I thought tonight was fun, pure enjoyment, light and frothy. I will miss it and look forward to the next incarnation.

Word, word, wordy, word on that nasty trophy. Do they have to take it home? Really? Freaky disco ball with words glued on it. Why didn’t they just go to their local sports store and buy a little plastic one with faux-gold dancers on the top? Yuck.

As soon as I saw those 10s I knew there would be outrage & calls of fixing from ABC. I honestly thought the judge's votes were incidental due to the fans votes, which I assumed had already gone to Kelly so she had the win even if the judges scores placed her second (at least if - big if - I understood the rules right).

Damn, Alec is suxy! (TM Bruno) So when exactly did y'all think he was going to kiss Kelly because I was unabashedly staring at him all night and I somehow missed that. And can I just say that the male pros moving in their tight pants while they do their fancy footwork is a joy to behold. I know I'm pathetic. I’ll sit over here in the shallow end by myself and pretend to be a grown up.

I thought the fix was in from the first show. Kelly, who said she has hearing loss and vertigo from a scuba diving accident, was unable to do the simplest of turns without getting dizzy, purposely tanking at her first dance (Waltz) so she could become the underdog and people would root for her. Tonight, she did spins, lifts and walkovers, giving no indication that she has severe balance problems.

I didn't think John was that great, either. He's just too stiff and not light on his feet like a dancer should be.

It was perfect, wasn't it. Almost as perfect was the sort of fireworks/sparks they shoot out at the end when the winning couple was announced. I laughed my butt off.

Congrats to the winning couple. I really wasn't rooting for any of the couples though I did like Trista. Sue me but I adored her and Ryan on The Bachelorette. Anyway I just enjoyed the show for the entertainment and I knew as soon as John lost, I'd come here to read much anger.

That is pretty suspect. It's seemed to me that for at least 3 weeks now that Kelly and Alec were the "Fan" favorites and that the only way John and Charlotte were going to win was if they scored waaay higher than K&A by the judges. As it is, I thought John and Charlotte were the better couple (that is they danced together the best) but all of tonight's show seemed like a coronation for Kelly, as if everyone assumed she was going to win.

Not that I mind Kelly winning, she seems like a very likable non-fame-whorish person (aside from the Playboy thing) who has a day job as well as this gig, so she obviously worked hard (still won't get me to watch the crap that is GH). If ABC was smart they'd get her off the soaps and move her into a prime-time series to capitalize on this viewers on this show. Maybe she and John O'Hurley can host "Dancing with the Stars 2"?

Word to everyone else about the trophy though. With all the rating this show has gotten ABC you would think they could have spent more than $2 on a trophy - I mean, it's not like they were actually giving away any actual money like the other reality shows.

He looks like Jonathan Antin from BlowOut.



It's possible she decided to do the spins because in waltz you have to do the spins(I'm assuming). And wouldn't it also be possible that after 2(?) months of practice she's gotten either used to it or able to ignore the effects the spinning would have?

I loved John from the first time I saw him dance on the show (week two, the quickstep). I feel that he and Charlotte had the skill, polish, and pinache necessary to win this competition, and I voted for him week after week (and for the record I am part of the younger demographic at age 22). I was wicked bummed to see him lose after all his consistent hard work and effort. That being said, whoo-boy did I enjoy having Alec on my TV week after week; he is smoking hot! And I loved his dancing, especially his jive. So while Kelly wasn't my favorite, I'm consoling myself with the fact that Alec won tonight.



A few times after they were declared the winners, while they were hugging, he looked like he was about to kiss her. He kept nestling his face in her hair and giving her some smoldering looks (that I sure wish I could get directed at me!). Then when they were doing their final dance during the credits, he was dancing all up on her looking very suxy ;) Also when I was re-watching past performances (thanks to that wonderful website), it looked to me that he kissed the back of her head at the tail end of their rumba routine. They definitely had a lot of chemistry. I'm quite jealous of Kelly!

I don't believe that she would purposely do poorly on her first dance. I remember that she was practically in tears at getting 4's. She said something about working so hard and to come here and hear that and it hurts. I think she has overcome her balance problems through repeated practice. If we are to believe Lisa Canning, Kelly must have logged something like at least 20 hours of practice per week. That's a lot of practice.

I like Kelly because above all I think she seems very real and genuine. When she got those good scores she was in tears and she said something like "I'm such a dork". She seems like a very down-to-earth and natural person.

John & Charlotte could have scored straight 10s, Kelly and Alec could have scored straight 1s and it still wouldn't have mattered. The rank scoring system would have configured the scores as 2-1 in favor of Team John from the judges added to 2-1 in favor of Team Kelly from the audience with Team Kelly winning on the audience tiebreaker. Once the audience poll came down, there was nothing in the universe that John and Charlotte could have done tonight to win.

I am in the camp that thinks the judges had to give the 10s for Kelly and Alec not b/c they were perfect, but b/c the judges had painted themselves in a corner by giving 9s to John and Charlotte, who spent the first quarter of their routine just standing and hip-shaking/walking. The effort and results Kelly had, I think, exceeded John's. John's quickstep was slow compared with most ballroom quickstep routines I've seen.

I love that Kelly practiced the lifts in the pool -- girl of the Dirty Dancing generation!

I'm glad Kelly and Alec won, b/c anything that keeps Alec on my tv is a good thing.

I don't hate Kelly, and I understand that because of the scoring system she would have won anyways, and I am quite ok with that, even though I prefered John. However, if the producers or the judges or whoever wanted there to be no confusion (I only know that the audience vote is a tie breaker cause I read it here, but I've never heard that said on the show), so since Kelly would win anyways, they would have her win the judging too. However, they should have thought this through and had a strategy from the beginning of the episode, that way they could have avoided the situation that appears to be really pissing people off, which is the fact that Kelly was given perfect tens on a routine where she appeared to forget the steps (even if it was the coreography, which I think it was, she didn't sell it), and wobbled on most of the lifts, and landed painfully and awkwardly on the FINALE!!!!!

Had she been just one point behind after the first round, and on the second, John had gotten 9,9,8 and she had gotten 9,9,9 or even just one ten, I, personally would be a lot less pissed.

Thank you. Soap fans may have had a hand in saving her in the first week but there are still plenty of people who have never heard of her that still voted for her who liked her dance and didn't agree with the judges.



This is true as well. Kelly could have come out and got straight 1's and she still would have won. The dances tonight were just filler.

Kelly does have fan support on the boards. Most of her fans just hang out at her official website and Alec's DWTS site cause they don't feel like defending her from all the hateful shit that is made up and spewed about her at the ABC boards.

I liked their freestyle dance more than John and Charlotte's. It didn't deserve a perfect score but I still thought it was loads better.

I completely forgot this was on and watched a repeat of Mythbusters instead. Now I see that they don't appear to be repeating the show anytime in the future. Anyone know if ABC repeats it on any of their affiliates like NBC and Bravo do with some of their shows?

I was going to wait until the end of the show to read here but I just couldn't stand it anymore. I have one thing to say

NNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OK, two things. I emailed John.

After that horrible hip-waggling from John on his last dance, I'm glad Kelly won. That and the shameless mugging was too much for me. He seemed to only want to be "cute" and to pose. I couldn't believe he chose to do so poorly for his final dance. Kelly made some mistakes too but at least she seemed to realize how important it was to put all your effort into that final dance.

re-watching Kelly's freestyle and the hesitations were planned. On the first one, Alec holds up his finger as if to tell her to watch and wait and it happens several other times. I think they choreographed it to really look like a more spontaneous freestyle dance.

John lost me with his "I HAVE to win this competition", but got me right back with his losing gracefully. Kelly was very classy when she left Alec to run over and hug John.

I always seem to be pissed when it comes down to audience vote - I voted for Bo, I voted for J&C - but you know what, when I look at the #1 music and #1 movie, I'd rather stay in the minority.

It looked to me that Charlotta was seething before the reveal of the winners and John was thinking to himself, whatever, I did a great job, I'm getting mileage from this (hope the Broadway thing comes to pass) and at least, the new commercial! I heart John! That's okay, John can be the Clay Aiken to Kelly's Ruben.

mrjacobndiana, who doesn't get the appeal of most reality shows and this show in particular, said "Really?" (as in WTF?) when the results came in.

ETA: I also love Patrick Swayze. Loved the juxtaposition of him being there and Kelly's Johnny/Baby lifts. I was singing the song from the movie when Patrick and Jennifer Grey go to the lake to learn lifts. Also, I think that was his wife Lisa, who was a dancer with him. I would have liked to hear her take too or had her cut out altogether.

The finale was rigged, IMHO.

John and Charlotte have given fabulous performances as of late, each worthy and deserving of a 10. Even their worst dances were better than Kelly and Alec's. And none of their dances were ever worthy of a 10.

I have nothing against Kelly and I wish her well, but this was an insult. Had the judges got off their asses and given John and Charlotte at least one 10 tonight, this would not have been an issue. Kelly (who, frankly, chews the scenery in her dances and had a horrid partner in Alec, who wasn't even that good of a dancer) would have won the public vote, but John would have won the judges vote. This would have resulted in a tie, and the producers would have to look at both pairs' progress throughout the series, and more times than not, John and Charlotte were the better pair.

Woohoo! What a surprise series for me, this show! I was almost in tears watching all the dancers together and the look back, and couldn't hold it back anymore when Evander was dancing! I'm such a sap, but I love this show so much.

Congratulations to Kelly & Alec! And John & Charlotte as well... I couldn't have asked for a better finale. You guys danced your hearts out.

I agree with the judge placings: John & Char did a better first program but thought Kelly & Alec's freestyle was the better of the two! I don't think the 10 was about perfection but just a comparison of the 2 programs. If John & Char's freestyle are a 9, then I agree with the judges, Kelly & Alec's had to be a 10.

I cannot disagree more with this statement. Alec is a professional dancer and Latin champion, and IMHO a great dancer with phenomenal lines, dynamic moves... and the hip movement, LORD!!! Alec is the perfect fit for Kelly, and they are the only couple that hold my attention equally besides John & Charlotte.

I absolutely agree barkley, I think I'm a little bit in love with Kelly now and I'm a straight woman.

I wanted her to win but I would've been happy for J&C as well. It was a feel good show and they all entertained us. I'm gonna miss watching these guys.

And of course there was a freakin' Patrick Swayze cameo. This finale kicked ass.

I think the problem lies in the fact that some of us want it to be the World Series (best of 7), when it's the SuperBowl (who's having a great night). Sorry to mix sports analogies, but to me John and Charlotta are Dorothy Hamill for me and Kelly and Alec are Tara Lipinski.

Kelly made SEVERAL mistakes. She almost fell at least twice. John and Charlotte were robbed!

I was pretty satisfied with the finale. Kelly and Alec and John and Charlotta were my two favorite couples early on. But when it came to the end, I wanted Kelly to win because of her progress.
I think one of the reasons she was a fan favorite, besides being the underdog, was that John and Charlotta were boring. They played it safe and there were few surprises with them. The judges even said they thought he'd continue playing it safe, but he danced on the edge for the finale, which didn't count with the audience vote.
Kelly and Alec, you never knew what you were gonna get, so you were pleasantly surprised when she didn't do awful. Not to downplay her accomplishment, cuz I thought their freestyle was incredible. I got that the pauses were part of the choreography. Alec was one of the strongest choreographers the entire series.
I would have been happy if either couple won though. Also, John and his partner had a ton of chemistry. But he's married, isn't he?

I thought John's free dance was horrible--maybe it's just me but he just seemed so awkward. But then I never got how great he was anyways. I thought K and A's free dance had great choreography and encompassed more dancing and intricate footworks. IMO they also showed more energy. I agree that Alec is the best choreographer in the series, especially in the last 2 weeks, as he's able to take advantage of kelly's stregths and cover her weaknesses while making the dances fun and energetic. I also love their chemistry, and it doesn't hurt that Alec's smoking hot. If John's performance deserved a 9, I don't see why she shouldn't get a 10.

I don't understand the Kelly and General Hospital popularity factor. Based on the heavy kelly bashing on the various boards, it seems to me that there are more people biased against her soap star/playmate status than there are kelly-GH fans. I do think Alec's hotness is a voting factor though, at least for me (I'm shallow, I know).

I'm right there with you; this is the reason I kept watching the show!

I have to say that I don't begrudge Kelly her win; just the manner it came about. That dance did not deserve 10's and that's what my fuss is about. I had no idea John was leading in other polls (eventhough he was my pick) so I totally expected Kelly to win--just not like it went down. I'm sure she will enjoy her win and do well in her career since there are a great many people rooting for her. As long as Alec graces my TV in the future, all will be well.

I'm happy that Kelly and Alec won. Although I like O'Hurley, his need to win turned me off, whereas Kelly knew she wasn't the greatest and was always trying to improve. Plus, the fact that she was also carrying a day job impressed me.

I don't really smell the fix or rigging that others have called. Instead, it's been pretty evident from the beginning that Kelly's had a lot of fan support, or at least a lot of people voting for her. She was never in the bottom two, not even necessarily last week. She's always had at least one vote from me because she was an underdog (from a judging standpoint, in the beginning they beat her up on a regular basis).

About tonight's performances, while John had the better first dance, Kelly definitely had a better second dance. John and Charlotte's freestyle was kitschy crap imo. I was very disappointed in it. They had a chance to really step up their dancing and instead resorted to a gimmicky performance (the type that Joey and Ashley were always chastised for). In contrast, Kelly and Alec increased their difficulty and did a more complex routine than they've ever done. I was proud pf Kelly and knew then if she didn't win that I'd be disappointed.

And now onto less weighty issues, Alec was all kinds of hot. I'm going to miss seeing him on a weekly basis.

I hope that Kelly is able to parlay all of this exposure into something better careerwise, hopefully onto a primetime show or something.

Because of their samba, wanted K&A to win. But, would have been happy for J&C. Agree w/CarrieAnn though. Expected tonight's samba to be a showstopper, and it wasn't. Their first performance of it, was more tense, faster & tighter spins. Tonight's was good, but the first one rocked.

Because of their freestyle, am pleased with the results. Don't view it as a throwaway, because K&A won the judges & the fan votes tonight. I did feel their freestyle was the better performance. Removing the lifts & the gymnastics, I think they shone in their dance couple moves. They also "danced" more.

Ditto re: disagreeing that Alec is/was a poor partner. Akin to pairs & ice dancing, the male partner's "duty" is to present their female partner, and make her the focal point. I think this was Alec's strength in choreographing their routines. He'd have the dominant moves & be the focus, when it was an area of weakness for Kelly; and, highlight her strengths in movement.

Fun show. Can't wait for the next installment.

Well everything I predicted with the flawed scoring method came to pass. It really does show how dumb it was to let the audience vote also be the tie breaker. Under this method, if there is a clear number one in audience voting, that person will win regardless of what happens on the dance floor.

John could only make the finals if the semi's went John-Kelly-Joey in the judges scoring. That happened.

Kelly was going to win regardless tonight because of her being the top audience vote getter. That happened too.

What I didn't think would happen is the "cover up". I don't think ABC conspired to have Kelly win. What I do think happened is that the producers of DWTS realized how flawed the voting system was late in the game, and THEY manipulated things so that the obviously flawed system was not exposed to the casual viewer.

If John scored a combined 54, and say Kelly scored a combined 40, but they still handed her the trophy, then it is OBVIOUS to all that the judges hardly matter and the audience vote rules all. Casual viewers will extrapolate this fact backwards and realize that the whole competition was more a popularity poll than about dancing. To make this less obvious, they HAD to have Kelly win the judges as well, so they still seem relevant.

Before Kelly took the floor for her last dance, I was salivating at the prospect that DWTS's incredibly short-sighted voting system would finally be exposed for all to see. I just knew that there was no way she could get perfect 10's across the board, because no amateur should and because she is never flawless. I thought in my head that if she does get 10's, it was going to be a producer manipulation in order to maintain the popularity of the show for DTWS2. When it actually happened, my jaw dropped in disbelief. I'm pretty sure some others out there will realize this and we will hear a lot about it in the coming days.

I also believe that in the semi-finals, Kelly was put in the bottom two instead of John and Joey, even though she won the audience vote and therefore had the best tie-breaker. John won the semi-finals night from the judges, so if he is bottom two with Joey, we all know for SURE he is losing with the audience vote. So they mixed it up. This was again to hide the fact that their judging system was totally broken and not make it obvious for the finals who was going to win, just because Kelly had the #1 audience vote throughout.

In reading the past few pages of posts, I'm surprised that OTHERS were surprised that Kelly won. She couldn't lose. There was a fix of sorts, but not of the "Kelly must be made to win" sort, but of the "We are so stupid for designing a flawed voting system, we must make it less obvious" type. Even in this, they did a piss poor job, since 10's denotes perfection in most viewers' minds.

One good thing that will result from this and hopefully continued examination of the outcome in the next few days is that even the dumbest of producers will now realize the mistake in how they weigh the audience voting and DWTS2 will have a different system in place.

For those of you who are just SHOCKED that Kelly won and have not realized how overpowering the audience voting is compared to the judges, see my previous posts here to see the mathematics behind it.

I was really happy for Kelly. I haven't followed this show all too closely, so I didn't really know how each of them had performed in earlier weeks. I'd agree with the comment up above about Kelly seeming to be a down to earth person. She reminds me of a thinner version of Holly Marie Combs. I may have to start watching that soap she's on.

I think in tonight's finale, Kelly clearly had the edge over John. An amateur petite female paired up with a professional dancer who can pick her up and do the helicopter? John's professional dance partner couldn't have expected him to do that. Perhaps a bit of an unfair advantage, but unless they have celebrities of all the same sex next season, there's really no way around it.

I've been biased during the whole show because I watch GH. Even so, Kelly showed so much improvement and was just so fun to watch, I think she deserved the win. I found the whole series to be fun to watch, Who would have thought....dancing. ????

John and Charlotte were on Extra! and they said that they had been approached to go to Broadway. They didn't give details because it was being finalized, but that could be fun. I wonder what show they might end up in? Anyone have a guess?

John and Charlotte were robbed! I call shenanigans!

Kelly had spunk and certainly improved, but John really was the best overall in this competition. But again, it seems they went with style over subtance (or boobs and awesome abs over the old guy with the technically better moves).

I'll still watch the next installment, but it will be irritating if it feels like constant shenanigans with the final results. I hope next time they fire Lisa Canning and come up with a trophy I wouldn't be embarassed to have in my house.

The good news is that John got a lot of positive press from this, more than any other competitor, and hopefully it will boost his career.

So Kelly (and Alex -- it's clear a lot of people voted for him) won.

So. Fucking. What? It doesn't mean one stupid little thing, not even one charity getting money instead of another. It doesn't make Kelly a "tart" or a "slut" or a stripper. All it means is that she (and Alex He's part of this team, too) won a tacky trophy presented by a silly little show.

Yeah, the show was "fixed", but only in the way sgtbecktar (and others have mentioned -- the judges' scores were "nudged" so that the audience favorite would also be the judges' favorite. Can you imagine the howls if J/C had a 7-point lead from the judges and still lost?

And, in the end, it's pretty damn insignificant in any kind of long run.

I, too, felt that John and Charlotte should have won. I guess people want glitz, teeny costumes and cleavage over elegance and sophistication. I guess all those Venereal Hospital fans came through for Kelly, although I got tired of hearing the Rocky Balboa speech every week. Yeah, Kelly, you're a fighter, we get it.

Was it me, or did it appear that she stumbled at the end when she went down on her knees?

Yeah, that final dance wasn't 10-worthy, IMO. I don't watch GH but I think Kelly's cute and she tried really hard...but the girl is just stompy. Stomped around the dance floor like a tiny, busty much lighter footed yet still heavy footed Evander Holyfield. I admired her attitude, but 10s? Nuh uh. And was it me or did she flub up a couple of times? I was too lazy and jaded by her win to rewind my TiFaux and watch it again.

Ech, whatever. I knew Kelly'd win simply because there was too much O'Hurley hype from the judges. Besides, I got a bonus by seeing the O'Hurley insurance commercial, where he says something about being in "Oompapamaomao" or something like that. Cracks my shit up everytime.

ETA: I must've been typing while GidgetsMom was posting, but yeah, I saw that too.

This is what I have been trying to say on these boards for the longest but people still don't get it. General Hospital gets on a good week at the most 4 million viewers. Kelly will tell you herself that her character isn't the most popular. That is changing now but last year girlfriend couldn't buy fans. Her character was the most hated person on the show. Even now people who hate her said they would voted for anyone on the show but Kelly. It is certainly possible that people that aren't soap fans liked her and decided to vote for her. It may have even been for shallow reasons like they thought she was pretty. The same can be said for any of the other contestants. Maybe people voted for John cause he was on Seinfield and people voted for Joey cause he was in NKOTB. The point is we don't know where Kelly and Alec's main votes were coming from.


As for these polls that had John winning. Sure he was the judges' favorite. The commercials clearly state that and you could see that on every show. What most of these polls and odd makers fell to realize is just how popular Kelly really was. John must have known cause he even said himself that he needed the online votes to win this competition. Kelly's fans just beat John's in that area.

Thanks to all of you who called "Bullshit" because that was my exact reaction to the ending, and you saved me a lot of typing.

Throughout the series, one thought prevailed: What does it take to get a "10"? Tonight's K&A dance was not it.

There was much chearing in the Bay Area as Kelly and Alec won.

I actually think this was a huge factor to this win as well. Almost every single person I know voted for Alec. And every single one of these people had more than one phone line, and more than one email. This translated to about 10 votes per person per week.

And many of Alec's fans had no problem getting random strangers to call in and vote for him. And dude, he's hot.

My only complaint about the finale is having to see Edyta again. Ugh, please, no more. That women can't teach. Or you know, act normal.

dr gailey



General Hospital's "low" 4 million viewers is not as low as you think. What is important is comparing all the stars' relative fan base. Even if only 20% of the 4 million were going to be Kelly loyal voters from start to finish, that gives her 800,000 votes before things even get started. What other star could say that? Certainly not Evander (he has fans, but not likely the vote-for-dancing type), or Trista (who's can longer convince the public she's not Satan).

Rachel and Joey might have some fans left back from when they were in their prime, but they certainly have lost most of them by now. Rachel even proved to be Trista-like in popularity. Joey is the only one who might contend in this "pre-dance" popularity race, but I'd be surprised if he had 200,000 pre-show committed voters for him. And there is no way that 4 million were still actively following his "career" today.

Now look at DWTS. 18 Million viewers, and I'll stick with my estimate that only 20% vote. That means 3.6 million votes, assuming each voter votes for just one contestant (see my previous why this is important, and if they split the votes they weaken them). Suddenly a loyal base of 800,000 is insurmountable. Assuming that even most of the 3.6 million vote "fairly" (i.e merit based), even a 300,000 -->net<-- loyal-to-Kelly base is statistically HUGE to overcome. That would require less than 10% of GH's base to vote for her.

Add in her Playboy exposure, the fact that she can honestly say she is not a has-been, and her body/costumes (males I think will be swayed by their genitals more than woman, skewing the neutral voters in favor of Kelly over John) and I think she had a base that was statistically dominant since week 1.

Is there no donation to charity? I thought that was part of winning... c'mon ABC don't be cheap! A disco trophy is not adequately enough.

All these complaints about ABC, I actually think they were trying to do their best to safeguard the best dancer each night by having the judges vote count for half. They were actually compensating for a lack of popularity of a good dancer (whether because the audience didn't think they were the best, or they had their pre-selected favorites, or they just didn't want to see someone anymore *cough*Trista*cough*). When there were more contestants the judges could save their top 2 or 3, with less contestants they could only save one to advance, and the audience could only save one also for the finale.

Now that I think about it, that seems like a good way to set up a TV program... eliminate those that in combination the judges liked least and the audience liked least. I think this would run smoother with a larger pool of contestants. American Idol's repeated success has really set the precedent and tied their hands. If you want good ratings, let the public vote and decide the winner -- people get the sense it's their tv. So now I would even commend ABC for trying to give weight to the judges' preference.

What I want to see next season: Bring out the .5's. I bet Kelly & Alec would have gotten 9.5's if they were around, 10's have been so ingrained in people's head as perfect 10, when in this case it's just a relative score. The judges had no choice if they thought K&A's performance was better since they gave J&C all 9.

I cannot wait for the videos of the performance, I've seen posts that K&A's freestyle was all tricks than dancing, but it could just be my initial perception but I thought J&C's had even less dancing. I have to see both again and will report on percentage dancing next time :)

Very interesting reading all your posts about the eventual outcome of this show. I'm intrigued how many people think the result is some kind of ABC fix. In Australia, we've had two seasons of DWTS and both times a star from Channel 7, the network which hosts the show, has won. But because the "stars" are always at least 50% Channel 7 stars, it's no surprise to see one win. Maybe next season they'll have more "stars" (or washed-up has-beens, take your pick) and it may turn out fairer. I hope they do as they have done here and draft in some athletes or former athletes. We got some very good value out of an Olympic gold medal rower, Steve Bradbury (the Winter Olympics gold medallist who shouldn't be!) and Shane Gould, legendary swimmer.

Pleease be careful that your analysis of the results doesn't cross over into characterizing the people who would vote for the contestant who isn't your favorite. When we go down the "I guess people only care about boobs" route, it makes people feel defensive and so forth. People vote for lots of reasons, and as several season of American Idol have proved, the voting will always surprise you. Thanks.

I enjoy the show for the entertainment factor. But judged competitions are always biased in their judging, IMO. So the outcome doesn't surprise me much. I can't say I'm happy with it, but it doesn't surprise me.

What does surprise me is that Kelly Monaco actually makes a living as an actress. I've never seen a more emotionless expression than the one she has plastered on her face. All the time.