I think at the end of their dance today, Kelly's dress had gotten pulled down and she was trying to fix herself back up before facing the audience. She had some embarassed look on her face, and Ripa ran over to comfort her. I was sort of surprised at how nice Ripa was -- I thought she might be all "listen here, honey, there's only room for one plucky ex-soaper named Kelly in this business, so you just stay where you are." But that was a very fun segment, and, finally, an interview with an interviewer who had watched and enjoyed the show. I think it went long b/c Peyton Manning was stuck in traffic -- thanks, Peyton!

They do end up in that almost-kiss/whisper in ear pose a lot. Maybe it's pretty standard for latin dances? But please feel free to make of it what you will!

Anything else re: fan club day?

ETA:
Hee! And so true. I know Alec isn't terribly comfortable giving interviews and talking on camera and all, but he did well, and I think Ripa had fun dancing with him -- hard to tell, with Regis fighting like mad for camera time.

When asked about why he and Kelly aren't together, Alec said something about how it's best to just keep a dancing partnership professional. Which would be a better answer if he weren't, you know, engaged to his dancing partner, hehe.

It was so refreshing to see Kelly and Alec laughing with Regis and Ripa without Captain Blowhard O'Hurley constantly interrupting and mugging for the camera.

Welcome to the ship SleepDeprived!


I caught that too, I liked to imagine her inflection sounded like "And I don't know why were not!", lol. I don't know what it is about this two that turns me into a silly 7th grader... but speaking of marriage, the first thought I had when I saw this pic was how it would be funny to photoshop Kelly's dress white and plop them on top of a cake, hee!


Yup. Did you see when Regis grabs Kelly and started showing off in front of the camera, Alec grabs Kelly Rippa and started playing to the camera too? Our little hottie is getting used to being on tv! Maybe GH is really not too far away... maybe he can be the lover of Kelly's identical twin sister! It will give Kelly something nice to play with 'cuz apparently her current co-star doesn't like to take his shirt off ever (oh the things you learn from message boards...)

I seriously need to see more of this two. Maybe ABC should produce a made-for-tv-movie-pseudo-Dirty-Dancing starring Kelly and Alec, I would so watch though I think my screen would spontaneously combust!

I at least really hope they come out with a DVD, especially because I would like to [Simon]watch-back[/Simon] the dances now that I've seen how well the couples progressed throughout the season. And it would be nice to get more behind-the-scenes/rehearsal glimpses, as well as give the pros whose partners were voted off early more exposure. It would be really cool to see competition video of the pros in action, though getting rights to that might prove too costly for ABC to mess with. I don't know that this show would be one ABC would consider doing a DVD for, though Kelly's comments make it seem like it's a possibility.

You know, with all the "ABC fixed the result to get the storyline they wanted, because they knew Kelly would win anyway," it seems to me that if ABC wanted to fix things, they had a "better" storyline available. They could have had the judges give Kelly a 29, instead of a 30, so the couples were tied with the judges. Then they could make a big frickin' deal about how "it's all up to you, the viewers - the winner will depend on how you voted!" And they could play up how important it is to watch, and to vote, and use it to drive up viewership for next season.

The fact that they didn't do this suggests to me that the fix was not in.

Waiting, waiting, waiting for the blooper DVD.......

It's so nice to see the lurve still going on for Alec and Kelly! I still think overall DwtS was a fun show despite the discussions about votes and all. I had been following the ratings the show got throughout the six week run and truthfully, I think more people watched the last two weeks because of the hotness and suxy Alec and Kelly. John/Charlotte were great, but people wanted to see that sizzling smoke that I felt came from Alec/Kelly.

As someone upthread said, maybe the contestants/stars in the next edition will "stage" feistiness and a never-give-up attitude to get votes, unlike Kelly (whom I've always felt was showing her real self) This is what disturbs me about ALL "reality" shows though. It's never going to be "real" when the cameras are on.

On tomorrow's Access Hollywood, Kelly is supposed to give her "side" of the story in regards to DanceGate (or whatever the press is calling it now.)

ETA: Are we sure that Alec isn't already married to Edyta? My mother called me up freaking out because she noticed that Alec had what looked like a wedding band on his left ring finger when he was on Regis and Kelly this AM.

I don't think they're married -- Kelly said they were both unmarried, and his blurb on ABC just mentioned a girlfriend. European men often wear their wedding rings on their right hand, so sometimes it's tricky to tell what is what.

Oh yes, Alec is married. He's married to me, and we live in a magical castle made of rainbows and moonbeams. We dance all day and love all night. It's the truth.




Sorry. This board is way too earnest. I just felt the need to dork it up a little.

I first spotted the ring on his ring finger during the finale show, and some folks here mentioned he'd had it on even before then, and people seemed to think it was just personal jewelry.

Since he's referred to Edyta as his girlfriend in interviews after the finale, I assume that's the case. And Kelly did say neither of them were married. Tell your mom it's ok, the ship hasn't hit an iceburg yet, heheh.

Oh, my! I feel like a 12 year old again :)

I couldn't believe that giggle fest I was having while watching Regis and Kelly this morning. It's a good thing no one witnessed it.

I'll have to watch my tape but I think it was Alec who realized at first that there was a wardrobe malfunction and tried to help her but realized he'd have to touch her there(!).

Anyway, it was nice how Ripa threw herself at Kelly so she could "adjust" herself. You know Alec wanted to be the one to throw himself on her. Hee! I just thought the whole thing was heee(!)larious

I can't believe that I'm still all fangirly about Kelly and Alec. Even Kelly Ripa is a fangirl! I thought it was hilarious that Kelly just couldn't just plainly say no when asked if she and Alec were dating. Hee. I found myself smiling through thier segments and thankful that there was traffic and that Peyton Manning was late so I can see more Kelly and Alec. I'm sure going to miss seeing the two of them together on my TV.

Well, this is the second week they haven't had to practice together 5 hours a day and I think they are starting to miss each other.

I love that Kelly Ripa is a fangirl too.

Regis and Kelly was so gratifying -- finally a nice interview that wasn't all "tell me about how you didn't deserve to win." It was fun and obviously there is a lot of residual suxiness between the two. But hell, Alec was bringing the suxy with Ripa, so maybe it's all him... He needs to get back on my tv stat!

Anyone succumbed and bought the Star K/A are in? Anything interesting? I hear that they are also in Soap Opera Digest, for you totally obsessed ones out there.

Continuation of Fan Club Recap

Apparently Alec went with Kelly to her fan club VIP dinner after the fan club thing. He, of course, sat next to her.

(also from the above link)

I just got the new TV Guide, and there is an article about DwtS and Kelly's comments. There's also brief talk about season 2. They are going to have it like AI, with a results show. Judges give their scores the first night and then the second night they reveal viewer vote. I think they should have judges' comments, but not reveal the judges votes until the second night too. That way, no "I HAVE to save so and so" frantic dialing.

I'm sure this article will be linked in the Insider section of their site, so when it goes up I'll post it if someone hasn't done so yet.

I found this site last week on advice from a friend, became completely sucked in, and I finally got an account set up. So sorry if this comment is a little stale:

When I was watching Larry King Live, I felt that Tom Bergeron, the main host of DWTS, was lobbing a little salvo at the DWTS producers to have him on season two as a "star". He just jumped in at one point to assert that he has *never* had any dance training but would *love* to try and has a great interest now. Plus he threw in that completely random comment about having mime training like John O'Hurley (perhaps to parallel how the two fit a similar demographic/certain niche in the show and emphasize he has no training except perhaps in comedic movement). All just in time to start practicing in the fall for the new season.

Over the course of the show itself, I would cringe - or turn the channel - whenever he and the other host would talk, but he came across nicely on Larry King.

Hope they put season one on DVD and soon, and I appreciate all the information being provided by everyone here (esp. upcoming tv appearances, etc.).

But, how can this be? I thought she didn't have a built-in fanbase or did all the other competitors also have fans outside the studio supporting them too?


Tell me, did other competitors have this kind of support from ABC or was it just Kelly?

Seems to me Kelly's own comments indicate that she did get support both from ABC and from fans which was not given to other competitors on the show. Makes JOH's comments about her fanbase seem accurate. Presuming every time he went to the studio he saw Kelly's fanclub whooping it up outside as well as ABC employees openly supporting her over the others, it is the logical conclusion, she was ABC's favorite and got support the others didn't have available to them.

So what if Kelly's fanclub was whooping it up outside the studio. John's fanclub (if he has one) would have been afforded the same opportunity.

It wasn't ABC employees as much as it was GH employees. I would expect the people Kelly works with every day to be suportive of her.

ABC asked both Kelly and Joey to take down the phone numbers from their official websites because it was presumed to be unfair to the other competitors. Kelly's was taken down immediately. Later, ABC determined that everyone left in the competition had an official website and the numbers were allowed back up.

DWTS filmed at the CBS studios, so John wouldn't have seen anything going on at the GH studio.

All of the stars had fanbases, or else they wouldn't have been stars, and the show would have been "Dancing with the Complete Unknowns," which may very well be a spin-off in a year or two. Kelly fans just knew where to track her down, as she keeps regular hours on the GH set. Not sure someone would know where to wait to catch John, Joey, or Rachel, other than figuring out where the studio they practiced was located.

And as for the signs on the doors -- that was done by the GH crew to show support for her, not by the ABC press machine or corporate office. I don't know that this is an indication of favoritism by ABC as much as she had a regular job and her coworkers and crew were supporting her. Again, I don't know what the other stars did with their time outside of practicing, so I don't know if they had similar support from whatever undertakings they were doing.

At the end of the day, anyone who tuned into the show to watch Kelly was free to decide they liked John or Joey better. I started watching for Joey, but ended up being pretty ambivalent over who won out of the final three.

I don't think it's fair to blame Kelly for having her fans show up outside the studio. I doubt she made all those supposed fans turn up and picket. More likely, there was a GH fan group who posted something on a soap opera site, and people show up. It's no different than what TWoPers do - just look at the TARcons.

Also, I wonder if when they say "every door at ABC" they mean "every door at General Hospital". Is GH shot in an ABC studio? I don't see anything wrong with her co-workers and friends putting up signs on doors in the studio in which they work. It's like campaigning, and it's how campaigns have always worked, I think. The only difference is that of all the "celebrities", Kelly is the only one who is actively employed in a 9 to 5 job right now. If any of these other people had had regular jobs, I think it's likely there would be campaigning there too.

Some JOH news from today's Variety:

DANCING TO A NEW BEAT
O'Hurley pacts with GRB for skein

The afterglow from ABC summer smash "Dancing With the Stars" lingers on for thesp John O'Hurley, who has inked a deal to topline his own unscripted skein. GRB Entertainment, producer of Fox summer skein "Princes of Malibu," has pacted with O'Hurley to develop and produce a similar unscripted laffer.

Here's an interesting music review from today's New York Times, if anyone wants "nonathletic ballroom dance" music to practice with.

Mentions DwTS and Clive Davis (AI). (Made me feel a bit elderly thinking of Carly Simon and Rod Stewart as 60, though).

".....In the most seductive cut on "Moonlight Serenade," Carly Simon's likable new collection of popular standards, the album's brisk foxtrot rhythms are briefly interrupted by a silky pop-samba arrangement of the Howard Dietz-Arthur Schwartz ballad......(This album) "Moonlight Serenade" belongs to an emergent subgenre of traditional pop albums created for stress-free listening and nonathletic ballroom dancing. Arriving on the heels of the summer's surprise television hit, "Dancing With the Stars," its release is fortunate.

This sedate, homogenized ballroom style of traditional pop was dreamed up by the record mogul Clive Davis and introduced 15 years ago on the all-but-forgotten album "Dionne Warwick Sings Cole Porter" (Arista)."

I'm not blaming Kelly, just pointing out that John O'Hurley's comments about her built-in fan base were correct. She had fans who were able to mobilize and support her in an organized way from the very start of the competition. His comments don't look like sour grapes to me now that we have confirmation from Kelly herself that this was indeed the case.

Just because the show wasn't filmed at ABC doesn't mean that John and all the other competitors weren't aware of Kelly's picketers as well as the posters which ABC apparently allowed to be posted on the GH set and perhaps elsewhere on the premises. Kelly's coworkers may have instigated them, but the post specifically says they were put on 'every door' so presumably more than just GH employees saw them. Once again, this points to Kelly having advantages that the others did not.

People have commented before that Kelly Monaco has never been one of the more popular stars of GH, I thought. I think it's a testament to the fanaticism of the people who do like her though, and how they were able to organize and mobilize to keep her in the competition.

If John O'Hurley is criticizing the fact that she had or acquired more fans than him, then tough beans. He was certainly free to try and get people to mobilize around him too. It's not Kelly's fault that she's the only one actively working a regular job, and that viewers of her genre are more likely to be fanatical about something than others.

I think if he's going to criticize her supposed "advantages", then what is the solution? To do away with the entire voting process? Some people are just going to be more popular than others. It's the same with American Idol. Clay had his fans, and Ruben had his fans, and both groups seemed fanatical enough to mobilize the forces and call in and vote. Unfortunately, I thought the best singer was Kimberley Locke, who didn't have the same fan base, and she was eliminated. Too bad, but that's how it is.

I read in Variety that John has signed on with a producer to put a reality show on to showcase his comedic talents....see, he IS benefiting from all the media coverage/press and DwtS helped revive his TV career....seriously, I still don't think anyone should be upset over Kelly winning, least of all John. Best of luck to all...

I'd be curious to know how many Kelly fans picketed outside ABC. Maybe 100? So what? The support of those fans probably meant a lot to Kelly, but 100 votes didn't win her the contest. How many people belong to her fan club and how many attended her FC event last weekend? A few thousand? I'm sure that there are more people than that at the yearly NKOTB fan gathering (assuming there is one.)

The press keeps talking about Kelly's "huge" fan base, but the numbers just don't add up for me. Even if every one of those 4 million people who watch GH every day voted for Kelly (which is highly unlikely), that still only accounts for 1/5th of the viewers of DWtS. The fact that Kelly stars on GH which is a show I absolutely loathe with every fibre of my being actually worked against her in my eyes. I was not at all inclined to vote for her, but I gave her a chance along with the other 5 contestants and she ended up being the dancer I enjoyed watching the most. End of story. I'm tired of the press acting like everyone who voted for Kelly is some ballot box-stuffin', soap-obsessed, bonbon-eatin' couch potato who had no mind of her own and would have voted for Kelly even if she'd totally sucked (which she didn't.)

I would say John had a built-in fan base that was able to mobilize and support him in an organized way. He has a fansite, too, and a fan club. They may not have been able to track him down as easily as Kelly's fan club could, as it doesn't sound like he has a fixed schedule of where he is and when, unlike Kelly's. But that doesn't mean they couldn't pick up the phone and vote for him.

I think that it is a trade-off: he's not currently involved in filming a television show as Kelly is, so there is not a place for his fans to show up and show support, and save for commercials and voicework, he wasn't currently in the public eye. However, he did have time to devote himself to practicing fulltime for DWTS (seven hours a day), and Kelly was pushing it to get 5 hours in after GH.

The quote about signs being on "every door at ABC" was from Kelly to her fan club at a GH event, so it may be hyperbolic to show how great her friends at GH were to her.

I just have a hard time believing that Joey MacIntire, Evander Holyfield, and Rachel Hunter were quaking in their boots b/c of an actress on a soap (not a Susan Lucci, mind you) was competing with them because she would have more fans than they. Most everyone has heard of at least the first two of those names, if not all three. They have been top in their respective fields at at least some point in their lives. I briefly turned on GH and barely saw Kelly in the credits.

As has been pointed out before, it's probably not the same 4 million people watching GH every day, a lot of viewers only tune in once or twice a week, so the actual audience is probably much larger.

Also, while I agree that a few pickets and posters at ABC did not amount to much in terms of actual votes, I can see how the other competitors might have been discouraged to see such visible support for Kelly right at the show's own network, since presumably none of them had fans outside cheering for them or signs throughout the building encouraging votes for them. I think we also know that for every one of the pickets at ABC, there were at least a thousand more people who read about it on a soap fan site and vowed to vote for Kelly no matter what. Those picketers were representative of a much larger fanbase, which Kelly obviously had since we've got no reports of any such public outpouring of love for any of the other competitors. Therefore, JOH seems to have been speaking the truth when he pointed to Kelly's larger fanbase as a major factor in her victory. Maybe he shouldn't have said it, but it appears he was right, and, from what Kelly has said, it appears she knows it, too.

[QUOTE]I'm not blaming Kelly, just pointing out that John O'Hurley's comments about her built-in fan base were correct. She had fans who were able to mobilize and support her in an organized way from the very start of the competition. [/QUOTE]

Had I lived nearby I might have picketed too, because of the judge's scoring and comments. I became a fan of Kelly's as a direct result of DWTS. Huge assumption being made here that the picketers were Kelly's fans prior to the show.

[QUOTE]His comments don't look like sour grapes to me now that we have confirmation from Kelly herself that this was indeed the case.[/QUOTE]

It's still sour grapes. Everyone had fans. John's had no reason to picket ABC after the first show because he won. I am sure I read a "hometown" article somewhere urging people to vote for John because he was from there. Charlotte's students were all voting for her and urging friends to vote for her. Utah papers promoted Ashly's participation, and there is nothing wrong with any of that.

[/QUOTE]Kelly's coworkers may have instigated them, but the post specifically says they were put on 'every door' so presumably more than just GH employees saw them. Once again, this points to Kelly having advantages that the others did not.[QUOTE]

No it doesn't. I am sure all of Joey's relatives were promoting him at work. ABC employees didn't have any extra access to voting that others didn't. Ashly's mom has a dance studio and I am willing to bet she had plenty of signs up promoting her daughter's participation in DWTS.

If you participated in a contest like this wouldn't your friends, family and co-workers promote you?

There's no way to equalize the "built-in fanbases" of all the stars on this show. If you're going for a celebrities from a variety of backgrounds, they are each going to bring in their own personal advantages and baggage (personal fan clubs, skeletons in closets), as well as the advantages and baggage associated with whatever their celebrity stems from (soap fans, grown-up NKOTB fans, Seinfeld fans, boxing fans) that is independent of the celebrity himself. So I think if a star is going to go on DWTS, he should just accept that the vagueries of these things may influence the results, and not bemoan it.

It's just one of those many "unfair" things in life, and I really can't get too worked up or outraged at this particular unfairness, b/c it is so insignificant. I know it was a big time commitment for John, but there are greater tragedies than that DWTS voting needs tweaking, and I wouldn't have thought it worth making an issue of. Just be a good sport about it and promote your new Broadway and reality shows.

Any other DWTS stuff in the media?

Good grief! Besides playing one-note J. Peterman, where has he displayed his comedic talents? I heard mention on Larry King that O'Hurley studied mime. Are we going to be subjected to O'Hurley miming as Peterman? The mind reels. This show has stinker stamped on it.

The funny thing is that in the UK, the DwtS equivalent was a spinoff of "Dancing with the Complete Unknowns."

I agree. It's going to be the perfect outlet for his disingenuous mugging and pre-planned one-liners. Exactly what are they going to do on this show? Is it just going to be "a day in the life" show like Newlyweds? Somehow I have a feeling his "unscripted" show is going to be a lot more scripted than most. To me, he comes across as a showboat in dire need of attention. Then again, that's how all class clowns are.

Out of the John/Charlotte partnership, I'd be much more interested in a reality show about Charlotte. Or one of the professionals that is still competing on the professional circuit. Watching them teach kids (a bit of Mad Hot Ballroom), teach adults (some Shall We Dance), and at the same time, try to find time to work on their own routines, deal with competition anxieties, fighting with their partner, etc. (a dash of Strictly Ballroom).

I'd be totally down for a reality show based on the ballroom circuit. The way those in the know talk about it would be ripe with plenty of people and behavior and results to boo and hiss to our hearts' content. It'd be like Dynasty but without the bombs and season endings full of death.

I'd watch a ballroom circuit show too.

As I have little to do in the summer, I've been thinking more about the scoring system. I would even propose eliminating the audience vote altogether. Why? On American Idol, it's a perfect system because the end goal is finding a singer whose record people will buy. I seriously doubt that any of these stars (or "stars") will establish a career where people buy DVDs of their dancing. I realize it makes some viewers feel "more involved", but voting was a largely indifferent process for me.

Also, I happen to think John is funny and I don't even like Seinfeld. (I was a fan from, get this, "To Tell The Truth".) So, I, for one, will be watching whatever show he ends up on.

All the more reason to make it audience vote. The only reason for watching is to see people dancing that you want to see dancing. For example, the judges wanted Rachel to stay but clearly the public didn't. If the people the public wants to see get voted off, and the people they don't want to see stay, then why bother watching the show at all?

I've heard that Kelly is going to be on Access Hollywood tonight. I'll watch it and report back if there is anything interesting.

I do think this is a perfectly valid point, but, then, why not introduce audience voting for Jeopardy? Certaintly, enough people watch Survivor without an audience voting component. And Big Brother became, I believe, more popular after they eliminated the audience vote, and they're not even dancing.

At the least, though, I think they should not have the variation in dances in the first few weeks. By this I mean, some people (if I remember correctly) did a Latin dance, while others did a "standard" dance. I believe that Latin and the "standard" dances are so remarkably different that it's too difficult to legitimately compare dancers during one week when they are dancing such different styles. For instance, if this were solely a Latin competition, I think Kelly should have won. Were it just a "standard" competition, then I believe John should have won.

(Also, I've become fascinated with this idea of Jeopardy with audience voting. Perhaps Paul Lynde and Louis could dance in the background?)

Survivor and Big Brother are different because it is the contestants themselves who are voting to eliminate. I suppose you could have the celebrities vote to evict one of their number, but you'd need to start with a lot more of them. I don't want this show to turn into another Survivor or Big Brother. I hate all the backstabbing and strategy of those shows, and those elements have no place in DwtS. Above all, this show is supposed to be fun. We don't need political games added to the mix.

If you eliminate audience vote, then we are left with judging solely on the judges' votes. And then we'd have even more complaints than we do now. At least with audience vote, it gives viewers a chance to be heard.

They already have the 5 call limit per number, which prevents spamming. I don't know what other changes would make Peterman happy that would make him think the "show can be great", unless we were to reverse time and award him the title.

I've been thinking some more about why John O'Hurley apparently chose to speak his mind regarding the results of this show. It didn't really make sense to me from the PR point of view that he would. Conventional wisdom would seem to very obviously dictate that it would have been much smarter for him to just extend enthusiastic congratulations, smile widely and otherwise remain silent.

But after doing some reading about him, I'm wondering if being politic is not something on which he places especially high priority.

Apparently when he was 17, his sister died. And then at age 24, his best friend died. The impact of these losses convinced him to turn away from the safe route he had chosen of working in public relations and instead to head out to Manhattan to try to do what he really wanted which was to act.

So maybe John came to the realization very early that life could all be over instantaneously and so he would pay attention to the things that were important to him rather than trying to figure out what was most politic.

I think he ended up taking this show very seriously both because of the fans and all the warmth they directed his way and because of Charlotte. She seemed to awaken in him an appreciation for the discipline, beauty and artistry of ballroom dance. And I think he minded the loss mostly for her sake because he had come to have such enormous respect for her talents as a dancer and as a teacher.

Entertainment Weekly had an article recently about writers on reality shows agitating for greater pay because of how much influence they have in determining the story line. It just made me think back to how often it seemed to be repeated on DWtS that John and Charlotte were the "couple to beat." And Kelly was the little engine that could. As if it were a setup to make Kelly's win even more dramatic.

As much as I wanted John and Charlotte to take it, I must admit that their freestyle was considerably weaker. I know they were trying to have some fun with Bruno's prior hip action comments but it just didn't translate very well. There was almost a coarseness to the choreography.

On the other hand, and this may be my John bias affecting my perspective, I wonder if some of the camera angles may have contributed to this. I initially started to get a bad feeling about the evening when Lisa Canning came out in the same color dress as Charlotte's for their first number. This could not have been accidental and I saw it as maybe a subtle way for the producers to try to diminish Charlotte.

And when I rewatch the videos on Raphael Pungin's site and compare the camera work from John and Charlotte's first quickstep performance with the one they did on finale night, I don't know, but the selection of camera angles and long shots etc. just does not have the same finesse and again to my biased eye does not present them at their best. But all of this is just after the fact picking through the carnage speculation.

I really do not want to take anything away from Kelly and Alec's freestyle which was, IMO, superior nor from their win this season. I hope it leads to increased oopportunities for them especially for Alec.

But I also would hope that in the future all the audience voting could be handled by an independent entity so that there will be no questions about conflict of interest and integrity of the ballot box.

I think you could be onto something here, Calli. If votes were tabulated by Price Waterhouse Cooper, and no one knew in advance who had one the audience vote until it is opened in the last five minutes of the show, then it would at least take eliminate the issue of things being skewed for the entire hour.

There is also the issue of balancing audience vote against judge's scores, where both matter.

Maybe, at least for the finale, instead of having there be a strict ranking of the votes received, have each 10,000 phone votes count as one point and add them to the scores, again, with no one involved with the show knowing the numbers until all the dancing has been finished and judged.

I just don't see that the outcome of DWTS should be something of such great importance to a participant, esp. when compared to larger life issues.

Anyone catch Access Hollywood?

I must not be very observant because I can't remember at all what either of them wore that first night. I would be surprised if the producers dressed Lisa Canning in the same color in an attempt to hurt Charlotte. There doesn't seem to be any reason for that. Did anyone really not vote for Peterman and Charlotte because she was in the same color dress as Lisa Canning?

I have yet to see Access Hollywood (for some reason it doesn't air until tomorrow) but here is a link to a post someone made who saw the show. All I have to say is poor Kelly. She is probably regretting ever winning in the first place.

http://officialkellymonaco.com/board/index...showtopic=18741

On a brighter note, was it just me or was Lisa Canning totally high out of her mind during the show? My goodness, no wonder she kept referring to her cue cards - even tho she was just repeating the same thing on every episode. I think she should stay on the show coz it gives more to snark on :)

Correct me if I'm wrong, calli, but I think calli meant that JOH probably values being honest over being politic. So, when asked his opinion, he offers it. For example, LK asks him how Kelly won. He responds that a lot of it had to do with her fan base. That the voting should be tweaked to address perceived problems. To me, that's not "criticizing" or "demeaning" Kelly; it's a simple statement of fact. Obviously, others see it differently.

I thought I had read that he was 14 and his sister was 17 when she died as the result of an epileptic seizure while sleeping. Either way, I agree that it would necessarily shape a person's personality.

Also, as he readily admits, he's a very competitive person. (Perhaps again the result of the "seize the day" mentality?) But I've also seen him easily joke about his own limitations in golf and otherwise, so I don't doubt he would have shrugged DWTS off as well, had it not been for the *way* it all happened at the end.

This is what I've been trying to say all along. A friend of mine is a TV writer/producer in LA, and he's always joking about how "reality" shows are anything but. His stories about network execs also lead me to not put anything past them, if they thought they could make a buck out of it.

I didn't get the courseness, although I did get a sense that they approached it with the mindset that they had already lost, so they might as well have fun.

I actually began to suspect something from the get go, because the house band played the "quickstep" in Week 6 much more slowly than in Week 2. If you compare the 2 clips, you'll see that the finale version took 10 seconds longer. Although J/C's technical execution was better, there's no way they could recapture the liveliness and spark of the first performance when the music was dragging so much. And the singer was horrible. If you turn off the sound, I think the performance looks a lot better. (Of course, I can't prove anything by it, but I did notice that they either didn't use the same singer for the other performances or else he suddenly got better.)

Suffice to say, I share your suspicion of TV networks/producers.

Glad the thread is still going strong!

If anything, I would think the slower music would have helped John more than hurt him. For all we know J/C could have requested a slower speed b/c they had to dance two dances.

I read that John has been co-hosting Good Day Live, so John fans can try to catch more of him there.

Kelly's gotten a cover of Maxim.

ETA:

Hmm, I was just going on what I know from my limited experience that it is always seems easier to do steps slowly rather than quickly. You often learn tricky dances sequences in half-time, then when you've got it down, speed it up to real time. But whether the quickstep is more easily performed at a faster clip will be a question for one of the ballroomers in our midst, so I'll defer to them! I would imagine that doing the quickstep at a slightly slower pace would not only be easier as far as getting the precision of the steps correct, but would make you less tired for the second dance.

True, we don't know. It could just as easily be that the dance is actually *easier* to do when it's faster. Like lifts -- hard to do slowly, but with speed, the momentum helps you.

Either way, I can't imagine why he and Charlotte would request a slower speed when they did so well the first time. I'm no expert, but I thought that the "quick" light steps of that particular dance was the key. That's very hard to pull off when the tempo drags.