I enjoyed Kelly's and Alec's performance and was suitably impressed with their freestyle dance. I thought it was awesome and pretty cool. I even taped it for posterity.

Most of the problems arise with Kelly winning because, by ABC's own website, it was a dancing competition. When you add in the viewer votes it becomes a popularity contest. If it truly was about the dancing, then Kelly wouldn't have made it past the first round and Rachel would have made it into the finals. Why did they even bother to have the judges? Just have the couples go round and round in circles and people could have voted for their personal favorite, even if they fell on their ass.

RazzieGal, everyone's perception and appreciation of dancing is different. I think dancing is a completely subjective experience. There is no telling that the audience voted based on "popularity" versus what they appreciated to be the better dancing performance.

I put "popularity" in quotes because it is even hard to categorize popularity. If an audience votes for who they think are the best dancers, then those dancers are the popular choice. If you mean, they are only voted in for non-dance merit based reasons... again, I don't think there is really any way we can proove this. Though, I suspect, some might be influenced by one thing or another.

I for one am a Seinfeld junkie and giggle with glee when I see "Mr. J. Peterman". I also always thought NKOB was a cheap rip-off of my beloved MENUDO. But I try not to let these things influence my vote for who I thought danced best.

ITA. John and Charlotte's freestyle made me cringe. I thought the judges WAY overshot with the 9s. Kelly and Alec were more entertaining with more actual dance so they had to give them 10s.

I didn't care which couple won -- I thought John and Charlotte were technically superior (until the freestyle - ugh!) but I rooted for Kelly and Alec also. I appreciated the fact that she received a 13 once -- 13!!! And she didn't get pissy about it (as I felt Evander did when asked would he continue to dance after elimination). She just doggedly continued to work as hard as she could (on top of that dreck of a soap that she does -- I watch GH for the trainwreck effect). I can't be upset about the outcome.

Did I mention how much I disliked John and Charlotte's freestyle? I did? Because it can't be said enough...


ETA:



You are so right. The fact that the audience had a large say in the vote should lower our expectations. Since the majority of the audience watching are not dancing experts, the voting is for whomever the audience connects with better -- for whatever reason. (i.e. hotness factor, backstory, attitude)

And since this show means nothing in the grand scheme of the world (it's not the Olympics) I didn't care if the public voting was for other reasons besides actual skill. This is why we, the public, don't get to judge the Olympics.

With so much ugliness going on in the world today, I realize that this is pretty insignificant. But I did want to make a couple of comments:

Yep. But if you go back and listen to the tempo of the music, the band/"singer" (who was way off key) was really dragging. I think J/C did a great job slowing everything down to stay with the beat they were given. Technically, they were just as good as last time, but the overall performance was lacking because the light, quick beat was missing.

As for J/C's freestyle, I have to admit that it wasn't as challenging technically as A/M, but I wouldn't have expected it to be, given that John is not the pro that Alec is. But you know what? I enjoyed it tremendously. I laughed out loud at their playfulness. I thought from the beginning of the show (in fact, I commented on it here right after their first routine) that John did not seem happy about something. He didn't seem to be his usual good-natured self for some reason. Now, I wonder if it was because he had already seen the writing on the wall? If so, then perhaps all he and Charlotte cared to do duringn their freestyle was to have fun for themselves. At least, I hope that's true. I hope they managed to have fun, because that would be the only positive thing I can take away from last night's mess.

Definitely not wasting the time watching this show again.

djork

I have never watched Seinfeld, and I don't watch General Hospital, so I went into this totally unbias to the 2 couples. However, when you trip and when your partner slams you to the ground, you should not receive perfect scores. Think of it as a gymastics routine (which it pretty much was) and score the performance based on that. There are mandatory deductions taken for falling. To all the dancers out there: does competitive dancing also have mandatory deductions, or do they just pick who they think is the best?



Very true, however there are techniques to dancing that should be taken into account. Otherwise, like I said earlier, just have them twirl in circles and don't even bother with the "dancing."




Soapdoc Thank you for putting it better than I could. Apparently "popularity" was not the proper word to use.

Yes, I am sad for that, too. I hope the rumors that the same pros will be back are true, though I can't imagine him having more chemistry with another partner. Though, come to think of it, he could probably have chemistry with an ironing board. Thankfully he wasn't shackled with a Trista, but got a "fun" partner -- he was the one called "Ice Man" in the first episode by his partner, right? It was cool to see him lighten up and have fun with her over the course of the season.

Count me among those turned off by John's schmaltz. His expressions and gestures were so theatrical and cheesy. Charlotte's looking adoringly up at him, and he's playing to the camera. One of the best things about Alec/Kelly's routine, I think, is their chemistry as a couple, or the illusion of it by their expressions. It just looks like they are about to go at it at the end of the dance, which is a plus in a latin dance. Let's be honest, they look like they're about to go at it at the beginning and middle of their dances, too.

I agree with the poster that pointed out that a female celeb always will have a bit of an advantage, as not only did John have to learn to dance, he had to learn to lead. Not saying that the ladies' role is super-easy (Ginger did everything Fred did but backwards and in heels), but it would be a tall order to come in and in six weeks be leading a professional ballroom dancer. If a woman has a strong leader, which I think it's clear Alec was (droppping Kelly on her kneecaps aside -- ouch, but way to work throught it, Kelly), the performance will look better. Esp. if they're encouraged to use "flashy, crowd-pleasing" moves, and not just basics. So you have Alec and Kelly doing fancy lifts, b/c he can physically lift her.

Also, Kelly had the youth and athleticism factor going for her. Girl is obviously in shape, and the lifts aren't just about Alec -- she is holding herself pretty damn straight and tight to allow him to do his thing.

So unless you have all stars be the same age, the same sex, there's going to be a disparity. Plus, there's no way to divorce the stars from their personal pluses/minuses -- some will vote for Alec/Kelly b/c they're hot and she has soap fans; some will vote for John b/c of the Seinfeld factor; some won't vote for Trista b/c she's a reality whore, etc. All of these shows are popularity contests, as are most real ballroom dancing competitions, to a degree, as I understand it -- all very political and "inbred," if you will.

Razziegal

I do currently compete in ballroom dancing. There are no mandatory deductions in ballroom competitions because there is no scoring as in gymnastics or skating. Until the final rounds, couples are recalled with no specific ranking. Only in the finals rounds are the couples ranked, again no scoring, just ordinal placement. Which is pretty much more equivalent to the designation of points in DwtS, that is the final couples are ranked 1 or 2.


A number of posters have already pointed this out. The problem is that I believe the judges thought K & A had an overall better performance than J & C -- already accounting for mistakes made by both couples, but where restricted with the fact they gave J & C all 9's. They had no option but to give K & A 10's. Again, we cannot assume these 10's have an equivalence to the perfect 10's in gymnastics or skating because ballroom judging does not work that way. To me it is a relative score, and the only way the judges could arrive at the ordinal placing they thought was appropriate.


Kelly had performed syllabus Standard and Latin steps mixed with many common open-level moves, as with all the celebrities. None of them were just twirling in circles.

Now that is not true. I missed the moment Kelly told Alec to carry her pack, or blamed him for their low scores. Flo would never have crossed the finish line without Zach. I don't think Kelly was the best dancer, and I don't think she should have won, but I do believe she took this contest seriously and worked very hard at it. She and Alec were a team, and she did all of her share of the work and more. Comparing her to Flo-there's simply no basis for that.

I got a nicer trophy when I was a kid for winning the Pinewood Derby in Cub Scouts. What was that piece of crap?

Did I hear John say something in an interview about this contest demonstrating something about the human spirit? Blech. I love you, but, shut up, John.

Did Patrick Swayze go to the same plastic surgeon as Joan Rivers?

And I'll certainly be tuning in next season. Loved the show in all its cheesy goodness, and while I disagree with the final result, I'm not that upset about it either. I LIKE Kelly and I LOVE this show. There, I said it.

Silly twit. I never have liked him or his stupid mugging, but I thought he was being extra ridiculous with all the woebegone expressions. You're an "actor," dude -- get a fucking grip. Charlotte, at least, managed to smile and be gracious towards the winners.

I personally liked Ashly and Joey the best, but since I found the show fairly boring, forgot to watch half the time and never bothered to vote, obviously I wasn't very invested in the outcome.

What I did enjoy was watching the relationshps develop between the pros and "stars" -- and good for Alec if he really did learn something from Kelly's chin-up attitude when the judges were harshing on her. Frankly, that was her best performance.

Was it me or did she look kind of pissed at the finale?

Dancing is an art and art is subjective. You can have 100 people all look at the same painting and get 100 different reasons on why someone likes it or doesn't. I can appreciate a piece of art without having to analyze every single brush stroke or method of composition. An at expert can help me appreciate the technique or get into the head of the artist, but it all comes down to an emotional reaction on my part. Mr. Barkley and I went to an exhibit at the Guggenheim where it looked like the artist had cleaned out his garage, glued everything to a canvas, and dumped paint all over it. People were standing there oohing and aahing at every display and I even had someone explain the whole concept to me, but I ended up giving them the "ummm hmmmm" and still left the museum thinking it was crap stuck to canvas covered by paint.

All the ballroom experts we've had here have helped me understand the dances better and appreciate the techniques, but when push came to shove, I voted for Kelly and Alec because I wanted to see them keep dancing one more week. I don't know if I would have even gotten off the couch to vote for any of the other couples because even though I loved John and Charlotte, they weren't inspiring enough to make me want to vote multiple times from multiple phones.

FWIW, I cringed through John and Charlotte's freestyle especially with the grinding at the beginning.

Reminds me of the Olympic skating debacle.......



Djork - I never said that anybody was just twirling in circles.

Feh. It's just Dancing With the Stars, which ultimately is going to be a just a blip in the pop culture annals, so while I was a bit disappointed in Kelly and Alec's win, I wasn't broken up or surprised about it.

I love John and Charlotte and thought they were the best, but as soon as I saw that clip with John saying he "has" to win, I thought they were doomed. Too obvious a winner with them.

And as much as I tried to hate Kelly, I couldn't. I thought they did well last night, even though Alec still skeeves me out something fierce. He looks like a seductive killer in a Lifetime movie. The three 10's were more of a way to cap the show, I think, to make the finale "exciting." And Kelly's fans were probably the ones more likely to log on-line votes.

And once more with feeling: "Swayze!!!"

barkley I totally agree. This is what I meant when I said dancing is a subjective experience, but you put it much better. Yes, art for me is much greater than the sum of its parts that can be objectively critiqued -- be it technical proficiency, vocal range or brush stroke.

ETA Sorry Razziegal if I misconstrued your post. It was more I guess a general statement on my part in response to many posts I've read that Kelly is not actually dancing. So I apologize if I pinned that on your post :)

So people voted for Kelly because she's got boobs, appeared in Playboy, and has a role in GH? Ha. I mean, I don't like boobs, have never watched a second of GH, or read a page of playboy, hated soap stars, and have voted for Kelly in the first and the last 2 weeks. The first week I voted for her because I didn't think she was the worst, and I wanted Alec to stay on my TV. I missed the next 2 shows, and then watched the Samba, and was fully impressed with Kelly's improvement and the dance itself. With last week's performance I also thought that their dances were more difficult and intricute, or should I say, crowd pleasing. J & C were elegant, but that's about it for me. Now I know absolutely nothing about dancing, which is probably why I don't see what most people see in John. I can only judge whether a dance is good or bad based on how much I liked the dance--which is what makes this show different from professional dance competitions.

I didn't watch regularly, but enjoyed every minute I did. I was kind of rooting for J/C because he obviously gained so much (except for what he lost - 13 lbs?) and I found him really funny and she was so elegant and they had such fun together. But the right two couples made it to the end, so it was fun that we got to see them dance the most. Whoever the stars are has a lot to do with how entertaining the show is, so I hope they attract good people in the future. I really like how hard the stars worked - for the most part they seemed to enjoy it, except of course if they were married and it would be sinful to Rumba with someone not your spouse!

Basing my opinion strictly on the dancing abilities of the celebrities alone, then yeah, I think John became a much better dancer than Kelly and should've won.

But I'm not surprised the other team won, because...Alec. I don't even think he's attractive, but damn, I just couldn't take my eyes off him when he was dancing. He was so mesmerizingly fluid out there that I barely noticed Kelly's improvement or lack of it. Did she show flesh? Didn't notice. Did her top almost fall off? Barely registered. Did she stumble? Beats me. No wonder people voted for them.

What a great, unexpectedly entertaining show. And even though I'd rather J&C had won, I'll definitely tune in again.

I suspect JohnO will be just fine with the 2nd place finish. I betcha he's tapped to host the next installment, or judge, or do color commentary, or all of the above. Kelly'll be fine, but it'll be John that really gets to ride this train...

I have to ask because I keep seeing GH fans bringing up how "hated" Kelly is....are soap opera watchers so involved in this make believe world that they've lost the ability to differentiate between a character on a show and the actress who is paid to play that role? That in real life Kelly isn't the slut/man-stealer/liar/whatever (I don't watch soaps so I'm just guessing here) that she portrays on the show? I mean, I was scared shitless by Anthony Hopkins in The Silence of the Lambs but I understand that in real life he's not a face-eating serial killer.

Of course my question breaks down a bit when we consider that John O'Hurley actually *is* J. Peterman now.

The highlight of the finale? Shirtless Alec in the pool. (I permanently reside in the shallow end. C'mon in -- the water's fine.)

And how can anyone not love the disco ball on a stick? [/sarcasm] I mean really, ABC, since you're not donating bucks to a charity on behalf of the winner? At least spring for some Waterford or Lalique for the trophy!

Watching Joey and Ashly's cha-cha reminded me of the high hopes I had for them at the very beginning. Too bad their focus shifted from technique to performance.

I was really surprised when Kelly appeared in a fairly modest dress at the beginning of their freestyle. Which quickly turned to "of course!" when she whipped off the overwrap.

Ah well, even though I was rooting for John and Charlotte, it was okay.

Hee. I was actually hoping he would also come out of the pool. Alec is not only figuratively a hot piece of ass, he literally has a hot piece of ass (and thighs)... that split at the end of their Foxtrot is drool-worthy.

Sometimes I forget to wade in the shallow pool with all the dancing analysis going on. Weeeeeeee!

Just dawned on me why Kelly appealed a lot to me though I've never seen her before this show, she looks a little like Piper and her attitude reminds me a lot of Buffy!

aw, I'm sad this little show is over :(

I would have been happy with a John or kelly win, so I couldn't have been disappointed. Loved both dances from both couples. I def. saw some screwups in Kelly and Alec's freestyle, but overall it looked great and was definitely the hardest dance they did.

I honestly think that the reason both couples made it this far, besides, you know, the dancing, whas they they had the best couple chemistry out of all the couples, and that adds a lot to when you are watching them.

Kelly's practice outfit cracked me up. Get this girl off GH!

What I said was, "Wow. That's beautiful. Do you think it's going to come o--?" And at that second it did. And no one in my living room was shocked. Heh.

I do think that Kelly's freestyle was much better than Peterman's. As Len pointed out, there were lots of basic dance moves, and she did them well. I was very entertained by her freestyle. It was fast and fluid and exciting. On the other hand, I found Peterman's to be a lot of flash combined with walking and Charlotte-humping. Since when did hopping constitute dancing? It's not Kelly's fault that the judges went all gaga over Peterman's routine, only to realize that Kelly's was even better.

Another thing... didn't Kelly wear two new dresses tonight? Why did Charlotte have to wear that same blue thing that she wore the first time they did the quickstep?

I would have enjoyed Peterman all the more without the mugging. And that's partly why I not only voted for Kelly, but against Peterman. That montage of all the faces he makes was disturbing to me.

I'm a little disturbed at how attached Peterman and Charlotte are to each other. She seems really into him, and he seems to really care for her. I thought she was going to kiss him on the mouth when they were finished. He's a married man, and he's not a professional dancer, so I don't think it's going to be as easy for him to separate "work" from "home". I could envision Charlotte coming by the Peterman home every week to continue their dancing. I'm sure his wife had no idea what she was getting herself into.

I missed watching GMA this morning (how could I choose sleep over seeing Alec's hotness?!). Can anyone recap for me or direct me to a video link?

Don't care one way or the other for Kelly, but I must say with the 'retrospective' clips they showed, she improved tremendously. (I hadn't seen the early shows - she was a piece of awkward brittle cardboard in that early clip they showed).

But for last night's dances: When she was doing all those spins I went "Weeee! Pretty!" and then went she got slammed down on her knees I went "OUCH!" I think I actually had knee sympathy pain.

How can Charlotte look so young and fresh in rehearsals, and then so Painted DragonLady OOOOOOOLD in performances? Who's doing their makeup?

Was hypnotized yet again by Edyta's body. Holy crap.

And seeing Ashly again made me smile. I just like her. So pretty, too.

Trista? Just HURT. It HURT watching her. So uncomfortable.

I read on one of the dance forums that the judges called Ashly over during the commercial break and told her that if Joey had danced like that every week they would be in the finale.



GMA devoted the entire 2 hours to the bombings in London.



Kelly wore the "wardrobe malfunction" Samba dress, but she didn't have the necklace on this time.

I knew John had lost when Kelly passed him on the leaderboard, but really perfect 10's? That's being a little generous. No doubt they rocked, but I really enjoyed John & Charlotte old timey ballroom dancing style better than a Vegas showgirl style. The ending wasn't suspensful and the trophy prize was a little lame, but overall enjoyable show.

Trista looks like she has alot of grace, I would have liked to seen her dance a bit more, I don't think she is a horrible person at all. (Not a popular opinion on this board), but I loved her & Ryan & knew during her run as Bachelorette they had something oh so special.

I'm John O'Hurley's newest fan. My friend said he comes to the Jimmy V most years (a big fundraiser in memory of Coach Valvano- for cancer research) and said he has the most wonderful singing voice. Best of all, he did it for free.

I love love love Kelly Monaco... I'm not a soap fan, but I may start watching just because of her. She's a delight. I really love her spirit and she is just so beautiful. I hope she is able to get better acting jobs from this exposure.

I think Kelly got a bit too used to men picking up her wee self/swinging her around - when she ran over to John at the end it was like she hit an unresponsive brick wall. Bonk!

Watching Trista dance was like having pushpins stuck in my eyes. SO UNCOMFORTABLE AND PAINFUL. So uptight she was about to snap in half. Ouch.

There had to be 10s at the end. It’s a cheesefest. Every made-for-TV gymnastics/skating cheesefest since 1996 (the “Magnificent Seven”) ends in 10s. The scores must gradually climb, culminating in 10s. (Not a true 10 – a cheesefest 10.)

It’s a rule.

The 10 business especially irked me, though, because the judges are supposedly professional judges, not "celebrity judges." I lost much respect for them.

But they still wouldn't have had a chance in Hades to win.


Sgtbecktar, thanks for the reminder. I do remember reading your posts about the mathematics behind how Kelly would win no matter what scores they all actually received. Math seems to go in one eye and out the other!

blackwing, I believe Kelly was wearing her old Samba outfit, but I think they added this gold-lining tether to prevent any mishap :)

-Did it seem like both the quickstep and samba were slowed down a bit? The samba definitely had different instrumentation, less upbeat than I remembered.
-What the heck are those neck tweaks Trista was doing during her Rumba? She would throw her head to the side and it was not pretty.
-Evander made me tear up. He is such a good sport and so great to see him smile while he was dancing. He enjoyed this performance!
-Stacy's mom has really got it going on! I love me some Rachel...
-Joey & Ashly are adorable as always.

You know, you can really develop strong dancing intimacy. It can be real intense and sensual in a non-sexual way esp. when you have an amazing bond with your partner and connection to the music and performance. But from experience, even when I was new at dancing, I think you learn right away to leave that in the dance floor while maintaining friendship and affection for your dance partner, esp. if you have a significant other. But for the single among us, it could become a step to something more.

But most dance couple are careful because it is horrible to end up braking a wonderful dance partnership you've built due to a failed personal relationship.

Afterall, most women claim it is harder to find a suitable male dance partner than it is to find a husband! lol.

barkley thanks for the head's up about GMA. Yikes, I was all ready to bask in mmmmmAlec shallowness, but man, that was stark reality -- very sad.

I just started watching the show three weeks ago, and immediately thought they were having an affair. And I wondered what his wife thought watching the show.



Agreed. It's the American way, I suppose, rooting for the underdog.

I knew that Kelly would probably win because of TFGH voters. But what I found appalling and beyond the pale was that the so-called experts scored her dancing above John's. Was she most improved? Absolutely. And if the contest was to determine most improved then she deserved to win. But I thought the contest was to determine the best dancer. If that was the case, then John and Charlotte got jobbed. It seems clear to me that the judges and/or the producers decided to make Kelly the winner no matter how poorly she 'danced.' They probably figured it made for a better story -- maligned underdog perseveres and wins the prize. What colossal bullshit. And let's be clear here. While her partner Alex definitely danced, Kelly did not. Alex pulled her around the dance floor, occasionally flinging her in the air.

This whole thing was a bunch of hooey. Congrats to ABC for perpetrating a fraud upon the US public.

Like I said in the other forum, Her character on GH is going to get a lot of screen time and that is CRAP!!!!!!

Well, clearly cancer isn't being cured on this show! But, still, some of us get invested emotionally in the shows we watch...and/or, we just look for the snarkability factors.

I cared (and care) that Kelly/Alex won because I simply disagree that they should have. Doesn't mean others aren't entitled to their opinions, it's just that I disagree.

Kelly/Alex have improved as a team, and I grudgingly admit that I enjoyed their routines last night. However, they did not merit a single 10 score (and I don't care if those scores counted/didn't count towards deciding who was crowned the champions)...never mind 3 10's. At that moment, I had a very sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. I think that I'd have been able to more easily accept a Kelly/Alex win if the scores the judges had given them were reasonable. But, I don't believe that they were. And the whole thing left a bad taste in my mouth.

Kelly's whole "we worked soooooo hard" bit was old weeks ago, and I rolled my eyes ShiAnn style when she went down that road again last night. Yeah, you worked hard. Everyone there worked hard. Fine, you're the underdog who's never won anything in her whole life. Most people never win anything their whole lives! It's statistically improbable that they would.

And, if someone comes into a competition like this...it should be on even ground with the other competitors. Not "well, I'm also working another full-time job" and "well, I've got a bad back...and lousy hearing". Meh. Either sign on & quit looking for things to whine about, or don't join up. [/rant]

For me, what it boils down to is that John/Charlotte were the most consistent team the entire way through the competition. Kelly/Alex improved each week, but they were far from consistently good. And last night's missteps were really evident.

I hope it's back this fall.

Fair enough. I think I was just too caught up in the moment and that was a bad comparison which shows I got way too emotionally invested into this. But in a way it still feels like TAR3 that it was fabulous until the last minute, though this was more of an inevitable outcome.

Which leads me to this and please correct me if I'm wrong: In week one, they got their scores. In week two, they combined the scores of the first 2 weeks to determine the ranking from the judges. Based on that, I was under the impression that they were going to be cummulative until the end. So I was a bit surprised that decided to forget about that angle in week 3. If you base it on that, John was WAY ahead of Kelly in terms of cummulative scores even with adding the scores from last night. Even Joey was several points ahead of her by the time he was given the boot. Not to say that John still would have won last night but it seems that all that scoring was really a moot point in the end. If they insist on using both the judges and audience votes, I think the judges scores should be worth more.




Word on both counts. He FINALLY got the posture down and footwork
down ("storytelling" criticism aside) but even if he made it in 1) that means John would have been out based on the mathematic analysis Sgtbecktar mentioned which would have been a shame and 2) Kelly would have won based on the audience vote.

ABC had their judging rules on their website from day 1. They never deviated from those rules and IIRC they are also the same rules that were used in the other versions of the series (UK and Australia).

I'm glad they didn't use cumulative scores because I enjoyed the suspense at the end of the show seeing who might get voted off.

BIG WORD. Can you spell b r o w l i f t? He should've let himself alone. He ruined his face.
Kelly has a figure to die for. Her boobs are real, are they not? Anyone have a weblink for some yummy photos of Alec? He doesn't seem to have too much personality does he? It would be kewl if they got together. Yes, I am 13.
Isn't that true?? She looked gorgoeus in the rehearsals. And her hair is either natural blonde or she has a damn fine colorist.

I saw last night's show and I don't agree they deserved 10's, but Kelly and Alex's performance was good, IMO. I enjoyed it and was very impressed with the latin free-style. Flaws and all, it was enjoyable.

John and Charlotte was great as always and should have won.

Overall, the show was a treat! I don't feel my time was wasted because I was entertained.

QUESTION: Who will be watching the dance show on Fox (July 20th)? It looked interesting and since it is like AI, it seems the viewers will have the most control over who wins/moves forward.

I hope this brings more dancesport shows (pro and am).

When I first saw Charlotte dancing, I thought she was in her mid-40s. But she's only about 32 or 33. My wife said the same thing. Oh, she's so pretty, but why does she look so old during the performances? I think they had to make Charlotte look older, because since John is 50 with white hair, they want to make them physically match more. It would look creepy if the guy is pawing at a girl who looks young enough to be his daughter.

They showed John's wife in the audience last night and she looks a lot like Charlotte.

parsleysage
Here are some beautiful B&W's of Alec and Kelly I have not seen before. Scroll down. The 2nd pic is really cute, they look like a couple in an embrace, except he's pinching her ear, lol.
I don't think he has his own site yet, though he says he might start one. But he will be starting a school in LA - Genesis Ballroom where those photos are from.

Here are competition pics of Alec & Edyta. You can also see Jonathan & Anna at that site, as well as our other pro's. Don't be scared, most pro's take their tanning lotion really seriously! Unfortunately to some garrish consequences... Exhibit A, Alec's also hot younger bro Genya & his partner. Can you say ORANGE!

And then one of Kelly's site has screen caps of all their performances, though you have to log in. Great caps and are worth it.

Yes, I've done my Alec research. I am also 13 ;)

I wonder; am leaning towards no. She's only I think 5 feet tall, and she lost at least 8 pounds...on someone so small you would see natural boob shrinkage, too. I didn't see any of that!

How long before there is a 'dance studio' plotline on GH, I wonder?

Final Ratings for last night's show from The Programming Insider:



I'm not disgusted enough not to watch next season, but I hope there will be some tweaking to the scoring like making the judges scores worth 66% instead of just 50%. Otherwise, what's the point? By the time we get to the third episode, we'll know the winner.

John O'Hurley is 49, a little young to be Charlotte's father, but he does look older than 49/50. I think there was about the same age difference between Edyta and Evander.

I would have liked to have seen John & Joey in the finals. It would have been a better competition, not just the dance-off that it turned out to be.

I think the judges were absolutely right. Kelly and Alec's performance really did epitomize what Dancing With the Stars is all about: sloppy footwork, missed choreography, and a routine that is more sizzle than steak. Aren't those the hallmarks of this show? I don't buy the idea that it was intentional one little bit. It looked so awkward. Once again, it felt like Alec was dancing his heart out and Kelly was on the floor, too. I'm sure she's a lovely person, and I did enjoy watching her dance for the past few weeks, particularly the samba from three weeks ago (but, curiously, not the same samba last night). I'm happy for her that she won.

However, I am not happy for me, because I really think that both of John and Charlotte's performances were better. I liked their freestyle because it played with the things they've been criticized for in the past. I also liked it because it incorporated so many forms of dance, not just what they feel comfortable with. And they used the whole floor, which was very cool. As for the straddling, it happened, what? Once? That's too much?

I thought John and Charlotte deserved their straight nines. I thought Kelly and Alec deserved nines, too. However, since the audience scores had already been tallied, I think that someone informed the judges of it before the freestyle was scored, and they gave tens because Kelly already had it in the bag. There's no denying that tens make for good television.

I'll watch if it's on again next summer. Cheesy and over the top is what summer television is all about. I won't watch if it's on during the regular season. My fall schedule is already packed as it is.

Those competition photos are scary. They make the television makeup look almost fresh and natural in comparison. Holy frosted eyeshadow Batman. Edyta looks like she's going to sub for an 80s Duran Duran video.

Kelly's boobs are real.

WORD nola44. I agree. I also think the judges were gutless, and basically voted as they did to give themselves relevancy, as sgtbecktar noted.

I was firmly on the J/C train, so I am disappointed. The three 10s were just bullshit.