I'll take your word on AI because I've never watched that show (or any other reality show). But I think you can distinguish that situation from the DWTS mess because in the latter case, I don't think the phone-in results were what pissed most people off -- it was the judges' scoring on the last dance. Again, rightly or wrongly, people perceived that as the judges throwing the contest.

That may be how it's done in Oz, and personally I don't have a problem with it since it allows a couple to have an off week and still come back with a strong performance. But we're talking about perceptions, which don't always follow logic. Most TV viewers don't have a clue how it was done in other countries. I think tinkering with the phone voting is an easy way for ABC to say to those put off by the results "hey, we're trying!" Obviously, ABC may well disagree and decide to do nothing, but I do think that's all John was saying about making the show "great again." Not that it was "great" when he was winning and "not great" when he wasn't, but that some viewers believe they've seen the Wizard of Oz behind the curtain and that ABC could take steps to tweak the show to try to recapture some of the legitimacy it's lost, and the voting is an obvious place to start since ABC can't very well say "the judging sucked" or "yeah, you're right, we rigged it but we promise not to do it again."

I think you're overestimating the average viewer. As was noted above, the % of viewers online or paying close enough attention to what Tom B was saying is probably tiny compared to the overall viewership.

I think putting the couples in a rank order based on the results of the judges and the results of the audience votes was much more of a problem. In fact the ranking system is what made the judges vote moot in the last show. You could still combine this week's judges scores with last week's audience vote but instead use the raw judges score and the percentage of the audience vote the couple received to determine their total score.

It's just the literal interpretation of his words - if holding onto me is "clinging to the wreckage," then I must be the wreckage. If he'd said "clinging to my lifeline," it would have been totally complimentary.

I should have clarified that I was talking about the contestants, not the viewers.

My point in bringing up the Aussie show was to say that it wasn't like ABC suddenly came up with this format in order to rig the show, they were simply following the way it had been done in other countries with a similar problem of mulitple time zones.

I actually like Bink's idea of combining the judges scores with the percentage from the audience.

Hee! Now that you say it, I can see that. Personally, I wouldn't take offense, since "wreckage" just creates a greater visual of someone who's been through the ringer, but I can see how it could be like calling the wife a battleship. :)

I guess I just don't see how ABC goes about doing that without basically saying Kelly and Alec didn't deserve to win. What is the point in that? There's a basic assumption that the system is broken b/c the couple some people think was superior did not win. But that disregards the fact that obviously the couple most people thought was superior won. And the fact that this system was designed to be based, with some temperance by the judges, upon the audience's taste, as gauged by a vote of the majority. Either have it be judged by three ballroom judges who clearly understand the standards in place (which I don't advocate), or this is the sort of "upset," as some people call it, that can occur.

As someone who was very happy with the final three (though sad to see Rachel go), and very happy with the final two, I can't really relate to the feelings of being cheated. I was entertained for six hours, and frankly, I'm glad that Alec, who I personally found to be the most entertaining of the dancers, has gotten the recognition of coaching the champion. But, had he come in runner-up (and by the way, the runners-up have gotten pretty much the same if not more publicity coverage, which should speak both for the John's own celebrity and Charlotte's reknown in the ballroom world), I would have been glad for him to have gotten the recognition of coaching a finalist.

Also, as far as the judges voting on the last dance, it could just be that the judges, *gasp* actually liked Kelly's performance better. Their thinking could have been that it had more dance steps, more risk, and better showmanship. Carrie Ann said last night that it was the "intangible" that the judges were looking for, and that's what set the couples apart. Did it deserve a 10? Probably not, but it did deserve to score higher than John's dance IMO. John and Charlotte should have done something along the lines of Fred and Ginger instead of trying to "out-Kelly and Alec" Kelly and Alec.

I understand that, and I agree that if there was any rigging, it didn't involve that aspect of the show. Still, I think the only important thing now in the minds of ABC should be viewer perceptions -- and those have taken a big hit from what I can tell from my offline friends and co-workers' comments. And *that* is what I believe John was commenting on. He flat-out stated that he believed the competition to have been a fair one.

But did they? Perhaps in the minds of those who voted, K/A were the 'best" but did Joe Sixpack agree? ABC is concerned about Neilsen viewers -- regardless of whether they voted or not. If they've received enough negative feedback from viewers that has led them to believe that a significant portion of their audience is pissed enough not to want to watch again, you better believe they will take whatever steps they think will lure them back. Even if it diminishes K/A's win. Network execs are all about the current and future viewership.

Also in response to earlier posts, I also don't think any of the competitors were using their weaknesses as an excuse or as a plea to sympathy. I think they're just talking about what they found most difficult or what they were struggling with the most during the week -- e.g. Rachel's fighting the lead, inhibition; Kelly's klutziness, lack of extension, time constraints; John building his stamina, being able to lead Char, problems with lifting her... typical things dancers would cite as their difficulties. It shows dancing's not easy and makes you appreciate what you do see when they manage to pull it off.

I use to be one of the complainers of the voting for the previous dance, I'm still not too happy about it, but then again I'm not sure I'm ready to watch a separate results show every week. I don't know if DwtS can succeed in asking that much of their audience.

AI is a bit different, in the sense that there is quite a bit of fan payoff, the winner gets to record an album, the fans get to see their favs in concert. What do we get for a 2-day/week investment? That our favorite gets a disco ball, after that they just go back to their day jobs.

If by chance they happen to have Alec in something tight and skimpy during the results show, I might reconsider ;) Actually having the pros perform during the results show would be acceptable filler and I would watch... not sure how much extra time these guys would have though to put together something.

Interesting...I think if your post is a certain length the quote tags suddenly stop working.

Sure, it could be. But the issue for ABC is whether the audience thought so. Not whether the judges thought so, or whether you or I thought so, but whether the audience as a whole thought so. Remember, 61% of the 39000+ people who bothered to vote in the MSNBC poll afterwards felt J/C should have won vs. only 39% for K/A.

I wonder they didn't give him a screen credit then? He's not listed in the credits at all, neither on IMDb nor in the movie itself. The various listed choreographers, assistants, and coordinators from these two sources are Liz Curtis (also played "Kim"), Daryl Matthews (also wrote the screen play), Rick Valenzuela (also played "Julian"), Tony Meredith & Melanie Lapatin (also played "Pro Latin Finalists"), Enio Cordoba & Terryl Jones (I believe Enio did the Salsa Casino Rueda scenes), and Ty Donaldson & Danika Kohler.

The 'bullpen' is called the "on-deck area" in competitive dancing.

You've got great eyes for spotting Alec in that scene, though! Was he the one in the grey shirt over the black shirt? I couldn't tell for sure. I also think I saw one of Ashly DelGrosso's ex-partners. Three of my ex-teachers are visible at various times, too. It's so fun to try to pick everyone out of the background.



How rookie can it be? Len & Bruno both judged "Strictly Come Dancing," the original version of DwtS, back in the UK. So I don't agree that they've not done this before, in this exact same format in fact.



Was it really enforced, or was it just that people tend to dress up for ballroom competitions anyway? When I went down for the 2nd episode I just dressed like I usually do for the evening session at a competition. There didn't seem to be any "audience dress code police" hanging around. Even the people waiting out on the street to see if they could snag a last-minute seat were in suits or cocktail dresses. Some guy did show up wearing jeans, I think it might have been Trista's husband, and so of course they're not going to make him change :-)

If you quote too many times it stops working.

I would like to think even Joe Sixpack can figure out that if he doesn't vote, then that goes to explain why his favorite didn't win. I don't see how you retool the system -- how do you compel people to vote? Emit an annoying high-frequency sound that at once disables the remote and is so annoying people get up to vote? I mean, I just don't see how you can solve that particular problem. AI hasn't had to retool its formula over Tamyra, Clay, Bo, etc. All you can go by is the vote.

And on a shallow note:
Love it!


There were a ton of uncredited dancers. Only the main ones at the studio, at the latin club, at the competition were credited. Again, I think that is him in the silver/grey silky shirt over black tee. When he's behind Vanessa in the on-deck area (thanks!), it's pretty clearly him, I think. Thank goodness for pause!

And by "rookie mistake," I just meant in general, I most gymanastics/ice skating judges start low to prevent having to give an inflated score later if a subsequent competitor does better. Not that Len and Bruno are rookies.


I think it would be cool if for at least a few weeks, they didn't eliminate anyone, but averaged the scores over a few weeks, so that 1) you get to see six couples dancing, 2) you get to see improvement, 3) you have a better chance to get to know the couples before they get the boot.

Thanks for the explanation Barkley. And here I was trying to be good and combine all my comments into one big post rather than making a bunch of little ones.



I'd lay this difference at the feet of the people doing the choreography...Alec for Kelly, and Liz Curtis & Rick Valenzuela for Vanessa. It certainly does show some of the different stylistic approaches possible for competition Latin dancing.



That's for sure. It's getting to be like religion or politics that way :-)



I recall him saying something that expressed degree of dissatisfaction with how things were going when he was eliminated. I wish I still had it on my TiVo so I could get the quote. But then he wasn't on Larry King either.



Jonathan Roberts told me at the second show that Rachel Hunter was shooting a movie and so their practice time was severely curtailed.



America *LOVES* underdogs. We're all about second chances, come backs, and hot celebrity couple gossip. Kelly was perfect for all of this.

General note: being 6'2" or 6'3" is not a hinderance to dancing Standard or Smooth. In fact, the men two of the top Pro Smooth couples in the country are both 6'2". And I'd love to see them both on DwtS in the future, along with their glorious wives/dance partners. Anyway, the desired aesthetic for Standard and Smooth dancers is tall and thin. Latin dancers tend to be more compact. Evander's issues weren't with his height or weight, but with his inability to figure out how to move his feet. I've seen it before with beginners, it's not that uncommon and it takes a while to get past. Evander's case is much more common than Joey's or John's.



Me too. I think all the "out of rehearsal" clips were set up to create an interesting and fun story line. This is "reality" TV, which I've long thought has little to do with reality and a lot to do with making shows that don't have expensive production budgets.



I took that to mean that he was the wreckage and she was clinging to him as he dragged her under with his newbie dancing.



...or more, if you've also been reading and posting here! :-)

It's a complete phenonmeon and we're all hooked. Heh heh heh.

Tinkering with the voting system is not about getting more people to vote. It's about ABC doing what it can to create the perception for the average viewer that it has done *something* and hopefully that will mollify a good many of the disaffected viewers (whether or not they are more likely to vote than before).

I was cracking up last night over Alec's comment that the green outfit made him look like a figure skater. Even Larry King said that he looked like the Green Lantern from Spiderman.



The only thing I think ABC needs to do is remind people that if they didn't like the results last season, to get off their butts and vote. Perceptions about the voting are as subjective as the judging. AI is still going very strong even with the huge controversies it's had in their previous seasons.

The lack of correlation between the headline and the text/quotes in the article is staggering. I saw on JOH's website he has a background in public relations. If the conspiracy theorists continue in this vein, I wouldn't be surprised to see his lawyer people calling their lawyer people.


Just my rendering of what I heard said in the interviews.


And this from someone's blog:


LOL. Okay, here's at least one guy who never heard the music. (Found the quote while I was looking for the LKL transcript.)

If the majority of the vote went to Kelly, the simplest explanation is that Joe Sixpack, the casual viewer, did agree.

Anyway, I think it's more what Livia said upthread, I think Joe Sixpack probably popped open a beer and just enjoyed the show. Maybe they quietly rooted for one over the other, but liked both performances enough that they feel sufficiently entertained, snarked on the trophy, then watched something else.


Again, I think people like myself who post about this show are a bit admitted fangirls, there are also the rabid fans or detractors, but we probably represent a small percentage of the viewing audience.

Casual viewers or people happy with the result tend not to look through the internet for a poll to vote whether they are disappointed with the result. There is no reason to compel them. I didn't vote on that poll.

Not too mention the 39000+ who chose to give their opinion is a small percentage of the actual audience. So by the above argument, only less than 0.2% of the actual viewers (21 mil) cared enough about the result one way or the other.

And obviously we can keep going around and around about this (and why not, it's fun!), but that some of us don't feel ABC needs to do *something,* that we are fine with the results and the way they were achieved. There will always be disaffected viewers. There will always be fans that believe a referee made a bad call, their team was robbed, etc. There's no way to make everyone happy in a competition setting. As long as there is someone winning, someone else will be unhappy about it.

You may well be right and they will decide that that is all they need to do. But I am sure they will first consider whether their audience is the same audience that watches AI, or if they tapped into a different viewer who maybe has less patience with such controversies. To be able to remind people to vote requires them to tune in first to begin with. Personally, I don't plan to do that. It's up to the ABC brass to decide whether I'm alone or whether a significant enough number of others agree with me. I am sure they will comb through Nielsen numbers and conduct marketing research before making that decision.

I don't disagree. That's why I say it's up to ABC to decide, based on the information available to them and not us, whether there is a serious enough problem to warrant "tweaking."

I just got into this discussion (and it *is* fun -- I should be working ;) ) because of people attacking John's "great again" comment.

I think by Carrie Ann saying the final dance was judged differently (on intangibles) - she's pretty much acknowledging the b.s.

everyone knew the rules going in which is why the judges should have played by them and let things fall out the way they might, even if it meant John and Charlotte won the judging and Kelly won the event overall due to decent scores of her own plus winning viewer voting.

Nothing wrong with that. But as said upthread, the judges rolled over. They punted. Kelly did a lot of stuff they'd busted her for before only in the final episode it was suddenly the best dancing of the series.

The tanking of the judges at the end was the problem for a lot of people.

I think in a viewer voting contest there is NO reason Kelly shouldn't justify anymore than John shouldn't complain. I don't see what's wrong with it.

For those casually lurking, the Larry King Live transcript is here.


Joey apparently has not read the ABC boards. He also probably doesn't know some of his fans are squeeing about his impending honeymoon with Ashly. Hee-hee.


Some viewers might think that, some dancers might think that, but there are also some viewers like myself, including also some dancers, that agree with the judges that Kelly's freestyle was better than John's. It's a subjective opinion.

Well, ABC may be waving at you through the rear view mirror as it motors to Season 2. Who is this great disaffected mass of viewers you keep referring to in your posts? I don't think your coworkers are a scientific sample. I'm not trying to be a smartass; I'm just curious. In my opinion, ABC would be foolish to change a damn thing about the show. Other than O'Hurley's comments, I've seen nothing in the media claiming the show was rigged for Kelly or that people were marching on ABC headquarters in protest over the results. (please point me to some if they're out there).

All O'Hurley has done is sink his own ship regarding rumors that he may replace Bergeron as host. ABC is not going to hire someone that goes on Larry King Live and says the network's most popular summer show needs tweaking.

That was actually pretty cute. Joey said it like, "What? Surely not my fans!!!" I don't know if that translates the way it's supposed to sound, but that was my attempt. Basically faux-scoffing that his well-mannered fans would say anything mean.


But you're making the rather big assumption that the judges didn't prefer Kelly/Alec's freestyle performance. And that's all been discussed in length, by people much more experienced with ballroom than I, whether or not John's or Kelly's was better. All I can say is that they were both good performances, but it really bugged me that John spent the first 30 secs or so just standing and walking.

I think John would be foolish to accept a position as host with that show. He's gotten a lot of mileage out of his showing, and I'd be very happy if ABC was pursuing him as the host, and he told them "Thank you very much, but no. Charlotte and I will be performing on Broadway."

I thought that CarrieAnn looked very uncomfortable on the show last night and she was caught off guard when LK asked her if her favorites had won.

Well, I'm no AI fan...but, having seen at least a few episodes of it, I don't really think that AI is about anyone seriously trying to find the next Elvis. It's about AI. If they discover someone & that person ends up doing well, then great. But I maintain that all of these shows are about the exposure, the money (mainly made from advertisers), and the hoopla. But are they really vehicles for ongoing jobs in that field? Is the next great boxer going to come out of The Contender? The next great entrepeneur going to come from The Apprentice or The Rebel Billionaire? The next great chef from Hell's Kitchen? I just don't think so.

So, no, this show isn't about finding the next great ballroom dancer. I agree. But since it's a show about dancing, I did expect to see some great attempts at dancing. And I expected to see the judging based upon the quality that they'd expect from an amateur. To some degree, that's always going to be a subjective thing. But the main problem is that no one can control the way that the public votes, so that part of the equation is potentially problematic.

So the final dance was judged on intangibles? Doesn't that mean that John & Charlotte's freestyle was also judged on intangibles so they too got the benefit from that? I agree the final dance should have been judged like the rest of the series but I contend that if it had been Alec and Kelly would have still scored higher. Both couples had screw-ups in their routine. I think I am correct in saying that in almost any competition there are points awarded for degree of difficulty. Seems to me if things were judged according to the way the rest of the dances were judges Kelly & alec would have gotten points taken off because of their screw-ups but points added for their degree of difficulty while John & Charlotte would have gotten points taken off for their screw-ups and Kelly & Alec would have still scored higher on that final dance.

The backwalk had about as much to do with dancing as Charlotte straddling John for the second time or John standing in place as she stalked around him or forced his hips back and forth. I think both freestyles incorporated as much "performance" as they did dance.



I think LK spoke to John the most because he had this uncanny way of intercepting or interrupting anyone else who tried to talk (including his partner). I remember several occasions of "Alec, what did you think...", or "What about you, Joey" that ended in John pitching out yet another punchline. I think he even interrupted Bergeron at one point.

O'Hurley made that panel all about him last night and I thought it was pretty selfish considering there were 4 other people at that table who worked just as hard as he did. Those of you who saw it live (or taped) - think back on it. Whose voice do you remember hearing more than anyone else's?



I thought her point was that the final dance had no established rubric or criteria. So intangibles had to matter more. There was no checklist or syllabus to go by because it was whatever the dancers put in. So the questions were (a) how much did they put in and (b) how well did they pull off what they put in.

Good point!

And good point whoever said J/C were led astray by trying to out-K/A Kelly and Alec. They should have stock to a waltz/foxtrot/quickstep mix and done what their fans liked and expected. Instead, it was sort of a mess.

My complaint all along has been the couples don't do enough basic steps to give an indication of what dance they are doing (to my very untrained eyes -- some ballroom back in high school, but just basic lessons). It's all flash and show. John and Charlotte were good at doing some basics (probably b/c of his limitations at lifting), but abandoned that for the freestyle. It's very telling that at the "last dance" of most couples was spent awkwardly shuffling around like most 17-year olds slow-dancing at their Proms -- I wonder if the "star" even learned how to do a basic step, or just memorized [Ross]The Routine[/Ross]. You would hope after a month of practicing ballroom, you could at least do something more dance-like than that. Joey at least spinned and clapped for Ashly. Kelly and Alec samba-lited (or something, before dissolving into passionate embraces, hee).

I had first read somewhere that the freestyle dance was going to be the couples chosing, say, the rhumba, and then having random rhumba music played that they would have to dance to. I thought that was a fantastic idea, but sadly, that wasn't to be.

You're right -- he would overtalk, answer questions for other people, finish sentences. It was a bit overbearing, esp. for someone who wasn't, you know, the winner. I remember specifically, one question thrown to Alec was about his costumes, and Alec was actually relaxed and answering, and John and Joey interrupted to joke about how tight Alec's clothes were. And maybe it was just nerves or adrenaline or whatever, but it was a bit much for those of us who turned in to see Kelly and Alec speak, seeing as, unless it was to talk about Kelly's costumes, or Kelly's costume's breaking, or Kelly's chest about to be exposed by her costume's breaking, or how everyone on the internet hates Kelly and thinks she didn't deserve to win, Kelly and Alec didn't really get to say much.

Based on reading some of the conspiracy theories on this board, I had succumbed to the idea that John O'Hurley was robbed in the final dance by some evil plot by the bigwigs at ABC. Of course, I was helped in believing that by my liking him and Charlotte over Kelly.

However, the day after the finals, I went out with my realtor to look at houses, and he said that his wife had been watching DWTS since it's inception and she kept borrowing his cell phone to make more of the 5 allotted calls - for Kelly. The next to last week, my realtor started watching the show and he told me that (a) he would've been watching the whole time if he had known there was somebody wearing that skimpy of clothes and looking that hot with the T&A and (b) he voluntarily used his cell phone to vote for Kelly that week.

While this may not be true of the entire population, I think it is a valid point and I am happy to believe that, no matter what, Kelly and Alec would have won.

My own opinion is that Charlotte could have given Kelly a run for her hotness money if she were trying. Because I think Charlotte is extremely gorgeous.

So much about the words... I still have yet to hear reports regarding any Kelly/Alec physical interaction! lol.

Probably too many people around for any tender lovin between the two :)

oops. misread.

I feel I must state my opinion about all this because it's the only one that counts. Just kidding...

I too, felt that JOH took the spotlight off the winners as well as the other guests. I think part of the problem was LK's fault. This is only the second time I watched LKL - the first time was when that model who survived the tsunami was on. In that interview, I felt like LK didn't even take her seriously or wasn't listening to what she was saying because he would ask her a question that she had clearly just answered, amongst other things.

But anyway, my point is that LK kept queing JOH to answer first most of the time as if he was the winner - there was even a point where he asked a question for everyone to answer but he totally forgot to take Kelly's answer!

However, I'm not defending JOH. This interview was a group thing and others may have been quieter but that was because they were being gracious enough not to chime in and interrupt while someone else was talking and it seemed to me that they were waiting for LKL to direct a question to them.

All in all, I'm glad that Kelly was able to get the last comment in (I'd have to rewatch to be sure, but it was what she said that I liked).

Also, LKL interview was fine with me - I felt it could've gone a different direction but I blame LK mostly for that.

Why Kelly/Alec won:

I think they won fair and square - as much as one can based on the show's criteria. They were very appealing (for many different reasons). John/Charlotte were also very appealing but apparently not as much as K/A and they got more votes The judges gave them tens not because that last dance was perfect (even Kelly says on the Leno interview something like "They gave us tens even though I landed on my knees"). The tens were given based on how it compared to the other freestyle. I guess K/A's freestyle had more elements in it that they liked compared to J/C's.

One last thing. Kelly's underdog status. ABC may have used it to full advantage (I don't think it was much of a setup - more like they saw the potential for the story and they played it up), but so what? They were trying to get as much viewers as possible. It's like a character death or pregnancy during sweeps.

I've got more to say but I realize that I've spent too much time on this already. It's a tv show and I'm not gonna get too upset over it, especially when the prize was a disco ball on a stick.

Can we talk about Mr. and Mrs. Smith 2: Electric Boogaloo again?

She didn't say that the last dance was judged differently. Judging on the "intangibles" was part of judging every dance. The judges, all throughout the show, based part of their judgment on their gut - whether they "felt" the dance or not. Carrie Ann did say that the last dance was different in that it was a freestyle - so maybe she was implying that "intangibles" carried a little more weight, given that the dancers had a lot of freedom to show what they were made of.

BTW - Did anyone understand John's point about "tweaking" due to time zones? I get that in Britain there's only one time zone, so everyone gets to vote live. But how does that change anything? He said something about the US having several time zones, and so the votes couldn't be cast immediately after the live show and that's why they were rolled into the next week's performance. But I didn't understand that. Is he saying that in Britain the votes for couples are received and tabulated live, while the show is still on the air?

John said he and Charlotte were dancing seven hours a day, seven days a week. No way Kelly could have done that with the hours she's at the GH studio five days a week, or the time outside the studio that she had to spend memorizing dozens of new pages of script five days a week.

Yeah, they were just sitting next to each other, relatively close, but couldn't see any touching or the like. Maybe some under-the-table kicking/nudging re: annoying people who shall remain nameless. As someone said, there was some talk of chemistry that was edited out apparently. They seemed comfortable/friendly with each other (they weren't leaning away from each other or anything), but nothing much else.

They weren't matching this time (on Leno they were both in all-black). She had a black tanktop on and he had cream shirt with some sort of design on it.

I don't think there was anything to understand -- his complaint/critique didn't make any sense, as far as I could tell. The time zones have nothing to do with why the audience vote is carried forward. It's impracticable, unless you want to just do a Star Search type in-house audience vote, to have a live elimination on performance night.

Finally, someone who agreed with me about that! Hehe.

ETA: Sounds like Joey may know more about the new season than he lets on:
"MCINTYRE: It's going to be nice to sit back, though, and watch, you know, six or ten other people like go at it [on the next season]. You know what I mean? Get some popcorn and just relax."
10 other people? Expanded season, anyone?

And ABC is perfectly free to do so. I have made no pretense that I or my coworkers/friends or any of the others on the 'net who do feel used/cheated are a true barometer of public opinion. As I said above, that is for ABC to decide.

Please point me to something where 1) JOH said the show was rigged or 2) I said that people were marching on ABC. Please don't attribute opinions to others. Do *I* think the show was rigged? Yes, I do. Did *I* write a letter to ABC? Yes, I did. Am I alone? Perhaps. Only time (and Neilsens) will tell.

1. One word: generalization. John also said someone recognized him as JOH in an airport. Hard to do if he was literally practising 7/7. I wouldn't be surprised if he averaged 45-50 hours a week, though. But some crazy people work 100 hours a week, so what?

2. How do you know Kelly was at the GH studio 5 days a week, or that she had to remember 5 days worth of dialogue every week? It's been years since I've watched a soap, but seems to me that any given character was either part of the "A" story line and appeared 3x a week or the "B" story line and appeared 2x a week. If an actor wanted to go on vacation or had other commitments (like an outside acting gig), they could film his scenes ahead of time. Also, in acting, there is a lot of down time when you're just standing around waiting for the lighting or sound guys to get set up. It's not a 9-5 job like you or I might have. I'm not saying Kelly didn't work hard. I'm just saying that we cannot (and should not) try to compare what she may/may not have done to what the others may/may not have done in addition to learning the dances. It should be a non-issue.

Yeah, too bad the lovers apparently didn't give us much to work with during the interview, sigh. Maybe if John didn't talk so much they could have made googly eyes at each other while talking about their dancing.

I'm just kidding John. I think some people are just naturally chatty and gregarious story tellers, I don't think it was intentional on his part. But Larry, really as the host, should moderate better given the number of guests he had.


Wow, when did this come up... didn't see it on the transcript. Seems like important info to exclude ;)

I always thought it was cool of Sarah Michelle Gellar that she, when asked about her days at All My Children, defended the soaps, saying it was the hardest acting job she had ever had -- memorizing scripts, rehearsing, performing five days a week. Not a lot of takes, not a lot of time for error; you just have to be "on" or you're gone. So I guess I tend to think Kelly's GH commitments may be more strenuous than some people are giving her credit for. But, not being a GH-watcher, I don't know whether she's in many scenes or not.

I think the Alec being ready part wasn't part of the interview, but part of clips of the Samba that were shown.

ETA: Zigletto wrote

That seems even more unfair -- whoever goes last only gets, what, 5 minutes of votes? You need more than the space of a few minutes or hours to get a big enough disparity in the votes to make it meaningful. If lines are only open for 20 minutes, I bet it'd be almost a dead heat.

I thought that was precisely what JOH was referring to...that in Britian the voting was live and the result could be announced at the end of that show. Therefore the judges' vote and the public vote were all tied to the SAME performance, unlike here where the judges judged one performance and the public another. This isn't plausible where the show can't be viewed simultaneously by all voters, so unless we completely disenfranchise all west coast voters, I don't see how the voting system can be "tweaked" to everyone's satisfaction (although I'm open to ideas).

I believe what Carrie Ann said about intangibles applied to every performance, and I agree that in the final that would swing the vote strongly to Kelly. And so while I agree that K/A should have won, and defended that win to my friends, to the people saying that Kelly's routines were more difficult than John's...some were, some weren't...(very softly)...flashy trickier moves aren't necessarily more difficult...sometimes they're just...flashier....(ducking).

Sometimes I'm a bit thickheaded, so I'm trying to grasp this...truly. How long are the British viewers given to vote and it seems as if tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of viewers all trying to call the same four or five numbers in a matter of minutes would crash the phone company's infrastructure, so to speak. Combined with the dancing, it seems like an awful lot to fit into an hour.

Can anyone who's watched the British version clear this up for us?

Alec sneaked into a questions forum at Kelly's DWTS website yesterday and answered a few here (scroll down). I didn't see it because his answers weren't neatly boxed into a new thread as they were before.

Among his answers are a few things to look forward to --



And one that may dampen the mood around here --

Not on General Hospital. To be on the front burner means 5 times a week in most cases. They have a pattern when it comes to women, that vacations and extra time off are not allowed, but the men can have whatever they want. During the DWTS time, Kelly was onscreen almost every day (the show tapes 3 weeks ahead of time). Her immediate costars and onscreen partners are notorious assholes who more than likely gave Kelly and even harder time because of the success of the show and probably would have refused to do any shooting of the tape ahead variety.

The only concession I think GH gave her is Wednesdays off to dance and a late start on Thursday. She said the day of the finale that she had to go home and memorize pages of dialogue.

From Alec's Answers on Kelly's site:

Aww, he's so cute!

Y'all, keep the conversation at a nice, calm level, okay? I mean, reread the title of the show. It's not worth getting into arguments over.

Woah!



Woah!

So it is coming, and now we have an idea as to when. January is also a better time of year for the pros, as they'll have time to do 6-8 weeks on the show and still get ready for Blackpool (the British Open Championships, the world's most prestigious competition).

Competitive dancing hands out some cheezy looking trophies, that's for sure. But at least they get a little envelope with a check in it after they dance the final :-)

I saw at least two articles (Orlando Sentinel and I think Boston Herald) and I haven't talked to anyone who DIDN'T think that. For the little bit that it's worth. YMMV

Here's an explanation of how the voting is done in England:

So, it is done live during the show, not the way we have it here.

What I'm confused about is whether they had separate phone numbers for the EST and PST airings. Because if it was only one number per couple, then that would eliminate any voting in the Mountain and Pacific zones, since they don't see it live. I never watch these kind of call-in reality shows, so I have no idea how the phone voting works.

I re-watched both performances a couple of times last weekend after reading a lot of the posts in this thread and giving myself time for my temper to cool off. It did look different to me. Some of the errors that I saw in Kelly and Alec's performance mysteriously disappeared! There were still some hiccups, but it was a much better dance than I gave them credit for. I ended up thinking it was as good as John and Charlotte's, if not slightly better, but I still enjoyed J/C's dance more and thought they were better overall in the competition. Now my biggest complaint about K/A's routine was that their final two lifts were so close together and so close to the end, that they made the end of the routine kind of busy and overdone. Otherwise, I'm willing to admit that I was wrong.

Thank you for pinpointing what bothered me so much about him on LK. I kind of expected he would talk the most & throw out as many one-liners as possible, that just seems to be his thing. I didn’t agree with the way he seemed to dominate the conversation, but it seemed the others sort of gave up. Yet it was the smugness, that was what really annoyed me. Almost like an entitlement. With all that being said, I still would have been happy with a John/Charlotte win just like I’ve been happy with this Kelly/Alec win. Fortunate for me, it was all good.

Even though I found Tom Bergeron fine as a host I think I like him a lot more after hearing him on LK last night. He seemed to truly like the concept of the show & really enjoyed his gig. Now if they will just get him a new sidekick...
I agree with Livia on this I think the majority of the viewers enjoyed the show for what it was & while many may have been disappointed in the results it quickly faded from their radar. I imagine that if they enjoyed the show overall they would tune in again.

<waving hand> I will, I will! I am ready to let go of the “controversy” and just talk about the fun that this show was & apparently will be again (come on, January!). Oh, & I'm more than ready to re-mention the hotness that is Alec. BTW, after seeing a few shots of Jonathan last night I was reminded that he’s not too bad either. I’m still shipping for K/A over here. It may be stupid & totally pointless, but it’s fun for me & that’s a good enough excuse for now.

When I rewatched both freestyles I thought the level of either John or Kelly's actual dance steps were more fairly basic -- not that there's anything wrong about that, basics are good. I think they have done more difficult steps in their previous dances though and maybe was expecting more of that.

All John's side-by-side were Swing/Jazz basics (it's the FAME basic, it's the FOOTLOOSE basic, hee-hee), all Kelly's side-by-side were salsa basics sequenced well. Their partner dancing were not that complicated either. John did a grapevine and travelling pivots, while Kelly spun, did crossbody leads, chasses and some shines at the corner. All the degree of difficulty for both couples came in the lifts they performed. The only extra degree of difficulty for Kelly was the aerials.

In terms of execution, I thought Kelly had most difficulty with the speed of their first side-by-side as she got thrown off towards the end (Alec does a sol basic, she inadvertently does a cumbia-like basic). John had most difficulty with their last side-by-side (Footloose style) since John is a little flatfooted and backweighted, so hopping around was not his forte, he ended up flailing a bit.

I preferred Kelly's freestyle because I thought it had more elements and flowed better, while John kinda just stood around for a good part of the beginning. But both sufficiently enjoyable.

I guess we now know when the next DwtS will be, or at least tentatively planned... hmnn January is so far away!

Rats, I guess I missed his Q&A. I wanted to post questions for Alec, but I wanted to collect my thoughts to prevent excessive fawning. I hope he comes back again. And yeah, la-la-la, I didn't hear that last reply :)

From the A&Q of Alec on Kelly's site:
This? Is just the tiny bit of info a shipper needs to get by on. He hopes to continue teaching her, he wants to, he is dreaming of it daily. Okay, okay, maybe not, but it sounds good! It takes so little for me.