I can help here - our third final 2 was all-female and, for once, they were both good dancers. The man who made it furtherest was Dicko, our former Australian Idol judge, who ended up being surprisingly good for a fairly overweight (to start with) 42-year-old Pom. Dicko did really well because of his extremely good attitude. At no stage did he look like he was embarrassed about not looking cool or making a fool of himself. From all of your comments, none of you would mind Master Pathetic anywhere near as much if he at least made a tiny effort, which he doesn't seem prepared to do. That would really shit me too, I have to say. At least the worst contestants in our comps so far (Dawn Fraser, Derryn Hinch) have certainly done the best they can. Even if their best fell short, WAY short, you couldn't fault their 'tude.

Someone mentioned that one of the hosts of "The View" was wearing a "vote P" shirt. Who in God's name was that?

He may have a fan base, but are enough of them watching to really affect the voting, at least down the road? He barely made it by the skin of his teeth for two weeks now, while the two that were eliminated didn't have much of a pre-existing fan base, bad dancing (at least on Kenny's part) and personalities that may have alienated people. My point is that P obviously had just enough votes to outlast Kenny and Tatum but that wouldn't necessarily take much. I'm afraid for Tia next week because she could fall victim to the same deal, but beyond her everyone else is in pretty good shape against any kind of screwy voting in favor of Master Pain in the ass.

Begging to differ. He's been in some charming and amusing bits of froth. I invite you to watch, for example, Love at First Bite and hear him as Count Dracula in late '70s New York, romancing Susan Saint James in his best campy Transylvanian accent. For example:

Supermodel: We can go to bed, maybe get in a little quickie.
Count Dracula: With you, never a quickie. Always a longie.

While a few of the male celebs this season and last have/had their charms, I don't think I'd want to see any of them doing a striptease. It would be nice to see a young hunk on the show next season, someone who had a great body and wasn't afraid to flaunt it. The male viewers of this show certainly get their eye candy.



Let me guess . . . the always obnoxious Star Jones Reynolds?

BrainyBlonde, the Polish DWTS had two female celebs (both of them terrific dancers) competing against each other in the second season final. In the show's first season, the last three celebs were men.

And I want to see Master Pathetic tango.

George Hamilton has actually appeared in more than 80 movies, some good, some bad. I guess you wouldn't call him a great actor and he's more famous for his tan now, but he's had a career many would envy. He's never been a mega star, but he's always working.

He doesn't have to do this to be famous or make a few bucks, and that's why he's having so much fun. No matter what happens on this show, he's still George Hamilton and he can go back and do Ritz Chips commercials.

I like him, but I'm calling a final four of Giselle, Jerry, Stacy and Drew. The biggest question is how much a handsome, charming Jerry improves in the next few weeks. If he gets to the end as the popular football legend who showed the most signs of improvement, watch out.

It was actually Elisabeth, who, IMO, is much worse than Starr. After they showed his dance clip during the Alicia Keyes interview, Starr said something like (paraphrased) 'he better hope none of his buds from the hood saw that because they'd beat him up.'

The Australian version's never had a battle of the sexes grand final. First series had two women, second had two men, third had two women again. In the first two series, the final two had one person who could dance, one who couldn't. In the lastest season we had two people who could dance in the final, but a lot of people weren't happy because the one who wasn't as good ended up winning (although not as bad as the Kelly/John controversy).

(Hi, by the way, I'm an invader from the Australian forums. I've been lurking on your board for some time and decided it was time to come out of hiding.)

I believe Barry will on the February 3 episode.

Yeah, but not for dancing ballroom, but for showing absolutely no style or rhythm or soul while doing it. :-)

Cheers to all the Aussie fans who came to the rescue. Since the Aussie show doesn't feature video clips the way most of the other versions of DWTS do, it's really been hard for me to follow it as avidly as I have the other versions (Dutch, British, Polish, Danish, Italian--although that show only features clips of the practices, for some reason, never the actual performances!--and the upcoming Mexican version that starts tomorrow night on Univision) outside of the TWOP thread here. I understand, BTW, that France also had a version at some point, but I've never been able to find any information on it.

As for our version, I agree that I'd like to see some real hunkage next season for our celebs, although I also agree that perhaps having any of them do a striptease might be just a little over-the-top. And, of course, there are the other ideas of using judges who, you know, have actually COMPETED in and JUDGED dancesport competitions and TAUGHT dancesport, the way the other versions do (yes, I know Len fits that bill, but Carrie Ann and Bruno?), and using appropriate music selections on a consistent basis.

Oh, and I can totally buy the idea that Master Pathetic is simply trying to pimp his own clothing line, irrelevant as that idea is to the show. It's just one more demonstration of how self-absorbed and unaware he is, and another reason that he is so blasted irritating to watch. I'm not surprised that Elisabeth was the one pimping him on The View--she's also a reality-show veteran, and I guess she felt compelled to support one of her own. *rolls eyes*

Can they do this every week - condense the entire Thursday show to a nice tidy 20 minute pacakage I can watch on Friday, miuse the filler?

Master P? Yep, still a douche.

Jesse McCartney? Fire you agent, now. For a performer whose appeal, let's face it, is largely based on his looks, to do what amounts to background noise for ballroom dancing can't be helping your career. Seriously, was his mug on screen for more than 30 seconds total?

(Long time lurker, first time poster... love your comments, you guys are brilliant)

I have this burning question that I was wondering if someone here can answer and that is why I am posting.

Could it be possible that the reason MP is even on the show is because of the contract Romeo had? Wouldn't Romeo have had to pay when he backed out? Perhaps MP just stepped in to avoid that and his bad attitude is because he doesn't want to be there at all (yeah, we all know that) and is intentional because he wants to be voted off. If he is voted off then he fulfills the contract without having to pay anyone to get out of it.

Does that make sense?

Editted to add:

legaleagle44: I love Gocha from Ballroom Bootcamp. I can hear/see him now "Wear the right freaking shoes!" He could even put that hanger around his neck to make him hold his posture better (goes off into a lovely daydream of Gocha whipping MP into shape)

That's a fantastic theory, and makes comeplete sense.

It's like a Hip Hop "Producers"! He's so bad, he's brilliant!

People keep talking about the final two - but I thought that they were going down to three celebrities for the last show, and then picking a winner from that (which solves the judges'-votes-don't-count-in-the-last-show problem).

It’s not nice to make someone as sick as I am laugh so hard, it starts a horrible coughing attack.



That is something I never want to see.



I second this.

And as another Fanilow, can’t wait to see Barry.

Here is my theory about this alleged "basketball injury": He is not injured, he is rebelling! Little Romeo would like to have a hip hop career. Despite the fact that he hasnt had anything that would resimble a hit in YEARS! Some genious convinced him to go on the show and then after practocomg with Ashley li l Romeo realized that if he did the show, that would be the end of lil romeo's career FOREVER. Lil Romeo would have become Vanilla Ice the Second. And being the teenager that he is, he told Master P, the joe jackson of the hip hop world, that he wasn't doing the show

Joe Jackson stepped in probably to cover contract issues. I am sure there was something in the contract saying thou shall not do stupid shit that might cause injury and prevent you from dancing on the show.

P didn't expect to have to actually do this more than one week. Little Romeo is not injured. He is hiding out. I wouldn't be surprised if someone got a shot of lil romeo playing basketball and riding a skateboard.

OK so we are suggesting Colby from Survivor as next season's beefcake?

Reg the hood beating up MP...I actually wish somebody would point out that if Ashley were dating somebody from the hood when he "dissed" her by throwing her gift and kicking it, he'd have gotten shot! I swear I think some "gangstas" take advantage of white guilt to get away with rudeness. Reg Carrie Ann and others kissing an Ass's ass for a job... if I wanted to watch that I'd watch The Apprentice and I don't. For the love of God why don't you have Trump on, get corporate toadies to judge, and give the bozo straight 10's? I do not watch this show to be angered or watch an entire panel of French judges for figure skating.

ETA I'm hoping they let George do the Tango. At least he'll look good. He deserves at least that much for trying.

I think that's the episode where they'll have to do the Mandy

Another quick little comment:

I am from Louisiana, my entire family lives 45 minutes northwest of New Orleans and I am SICK of hearing MP and his spill about Katrina.

That being said, why isn't anyone saying anything about the fact that Jerry Rice came out of the poor South? I keep reading about how I'm supposed to admire MP because he came out of the New Orleans 'hood and became a millionaire who is keeping it "real" (excessive eyerolls).... well I admire Rice MORE because he came out of the poor rural South (Crawford, MS) and managed to have a long career with little controversy (this is a quote from the Mr so if its wrong tar and feather him! HEHE) and sincerely puts forth an effort when he commits to something instead of picking on a young sweet girl (MP is just a bully and should have paid to get Romeo out of the contract rather than agree to do it and act up to be eliminated... buh bye MP)

I'm sad to see Tatum go, it seemed the competition was emotionally taxing on her, but she seemed very invested. I think I'll miss seeing Nick the most though, I've had a man-crush on him since seeing him dance with Charlotte last season.

That surprises me. Elisabeth strikes me as a goody-two-shoes prim tight-assed stepford wife. Doubt she'd ever heard or listened to Master P.

I think the reason that ditzabeth is wearing that shirt is becuase she wants to be funny and with the "in croud". But really she is just hurting this shows outcome.

Once again, Regis and Kelly will have the latest castoff from DWtS on their show Monday. Most likely, Tatum's partner, Nick, will be there with her too, as Kenny and Andrea were on last week.

Tatum frankly made me nervous. As in 'way-too-fragile-for-this-show' nervous. Better she go now.

Stace's long legs made a terrific line, and her partner was the best at conceptualizing the dance. Drew also has a good teacher & the right attitude. Giselle wasn't bad, and Rice embraced it. But the rest!

So what does everyone think of the new co-host? Mr. Barkley said that she's hot but ruins it when she opens her mouth. She seems to be forcing her voice way too much.

I like her...at least when compared to Lisa Canning. She seems to have a bit more on screen rapport with Tom, too.

Her voice grate at times, but IMO 1) she's allowing the dancers to speak and 2) seems to banter a lot more with Tom, two areas where Lisa lacked. Plus her loud sigh when Master P gave his "I'm being true to myself" blather made me crack up.

Lisa Canning made me very nervous. I'm glad they replaced her.

I also like that she allows the pros to speak. Before, Lisa always seemed like "Shut up, no one asked you" when one of them began to speak. Which really irritated me. I too like how she lets them speak, and that one time she interrupted she sounded really sorry that she had to.

And Tatum was weird to watch near the end. I don't know what happened to her.

I like this new host, too. She's not totally annoying.

As for the "celebrity" status of the celebrities, it was Master P and Drew that made me watch this second season. I agree that Master P has huge fan base, and I'm not exactly his target audience - I'm a white suburban thirtysomething mom, which i think is the exact opposite of his target audience. I got my husband sucked in on the Master P angle! And Drew, honestly I couldn't name a 98 degrees song, but I just loved him and Lea on Newlyweds.

I knew George, of course, that vampire movie is such a classic, and Tatum O'Neil because she was an Oscar winner. But Lisa, knew she was an actress, no idea what she was on, Stacey - no clue, I only know wrestlers from the 80's...I didn't really even know Jerry Rice, except that he was a football player. My husband (horrorified by this) says he's the best of the best and a wonderful person to boot, so i'm going to agree that he's probably the best loved "celebrity". i think he's totally cute and charming.

It would be interesting to find out the "Q" ratings of these celebs and see who people actually know of.

My biggest puzzlement is the music. Such strange choices.

I'm so excited for Feb 3rd! I'm such a Fanilow I have tickets for Barry in Vegas. Isn't that the perfect cheesy Vegas show?

A friend of mine quipped that the new co-host sounds like she should be announcing wrestling matches.

Or monster truck rallies, come to think of it: "sunday Sunday SUNDAY!!!!"

I am sure this was mentioned on the first episode and I missed it; how long is each dance? What with the great gobs of filler material, it seems each dance is only about 60 seconds. I hope I am underestimating.

Whatever excitement and enthusiasm that I had for this show is now LONG GONE. "P" should have been ELIMINATED the first night, and ASHLY, if she has ANY respect for her profession, should have refused to continue so that "P" would have been gone!

If this were a real dance competition, "P" would have been DISQUALIFIED, period, for violating the dress code. Every competition requires dance attire, including SHOES.

The voting system on this show is ATROTIOUS! Two weeks in a row "P" was voted dead last, yet he has survived and Tatum (who had one of the BEST scores the first week) wasn't last this week, by the judges, and yet gets ELIMINATED. "P" should have been given ZEROES across the board because:

(1). He had no ballroom posture
(2). He didn't DANCE QS, he WALKED, and then RAN.
(3). Ashly vocally and physically CUED him through the whole thing.
(4). He had NO FOOTWORK, implying NO Rise and Fall, he took HEEL leads in outside partner steps.
(5). He had NO body swing, the essence of even basic QuickStep.
(6). He refuses to TRY, refuses to show ANY respect for the judges, for his partner and teacher, for the art-form in general. He is an EMBARRASSMENT to the U.S. (which is already considered to be as culturally illiterate by even some of our strongest allies).

Even had "P" been given ZEROES by the judges, this STUPID voting system would have had him continue! (Judges votes should ACCUMULATE, and no one should be eliminated the first night).

I am very dissappointed that ABC is allowing this to continue. They should STOP this current show, bring back Kenny and Tatum, revamp the voting so that the judges vote could NEVER be completely UNDONE by the audience (who is not voting on the DANCING, but on the PERSONALITIES), find a willing replacement for "P", and apologize to the ballroom community for their incredible ignorance.

The Friday show was an hour-long exercise in TEDIUM. The first 30 minutes were nothing but a recap of Thursday night. Since the voting was already in, this was a complete waste of time and airspace.

The Lindy-Hop dancers have NOTHING to do with the show. They may be World-Champions, but that certainly was not a World-class performance. I have seen better amateur Lindy-Hop dancers, at least based on Friday's performance.

The singer was absolutely WRETCHED, the Pro dancing was excellent, although it seemed many times they were simply waiting for something in the music that they could dance to. (Of course, they could dance to a metronome and make it look good; in fact, it would probably have been better).

No demonstration of Jive by one of the Pro couples; no demonstration of Tango by one of the pro couples. I thought ABC had their act together after the first week, but this second results show was a complete let-down. I hope that somebody wakes them up, and fast; the country wants to see EXCELLENT dancing, EXCELLENT music, exhibitions by the PROS actually participating in the show, and a FAIR voting system where the judges' vote actually MEANS something.

I'm glad you mentioned that. They really weren't that good. Well, the guy was but the girl looked like a frog. Her legs had a frog like position when she was in the air, is that proper? I didn't like their costumes either.

I can't get my husband to watch most of the TV I like with me (other than soccer, which we are both into). So I adore Stacy and am rooting for her to go far. Mr. Foci watches both nights willingly thanks to his Stacy crush. I myself continue with my girlcrush on Anna.

I have to add that as much as Master P disgusts me, I did not mind seeing Tatum go. You know that feeling when you are embarrassed for someone else and get all uncomfortable? That's how she made me feel.

Just out of curiosity, where? I do agree, though, that Lindy Hop has nothing to do with ballroom.

Is it just me, or did Lisa get a refill on her collagen between the Thursday and Friday shows? She was positively cringe-inducing, look-away-from-the-TV, put-a-bag-over-your-head-already, why-do-you-have-an-ass-for-a-face ghastly (or, rather, more than usual) in that backstage interview with Samantha on Friday. As my friend who's a health care professional put it, the uber-fishy lips looked like she gave someone a blowjob before the collagen set.

Yeah, the guy looked like he was dressed for the world's hippest cranberry bog.


Haw! I always have trouble looking at Lisa's cube-like, mannish head, and especially so now that she has the same creepy unisex haircut as her husband.


She might have been deafened by the audience, which will scream at the drop of a (top) hat. Heck, I give her points just for not constantly flubbing her lines, like the last co-host did.

Thank you for saying that. I liked the swing on the Gap commercials much better.

The fact that most of us dislike Master P is the reason he is there. The Lindy people were boring but I did like the pro dancers. This year has been very different for me when it comes to the couples. I really like most of the celebs and have enjoyed myself. Last year I only really liked John and Charlotte and Joey and Ashly(they were my fav) then the others I didn't care about. It seems to me that this year they got celebs with better personlities and who have more commitment to doing well. I was watching my tape of the episode Friday and I have to say I am extremely jealous of Giselle I mean I am like half her age and I can't do half of what she did. Also I love Edyta and George they are cute and work so well together. I cannot stand Drews pro partner though since the first rehersal tape I have disliked her. I decided that since I am already so nervous when Friday comes that I will be skipping AI this year. I don't need to give myself an ulcer worrying about a contestant or two on AI and my fav contestants on Dancing.

A friend of mine was once introduced to George Hamilton by her boss, who worked in TV, and got to have lunch with him. She reports that he was so charming and wonderful that her already perfect opinion of him still went up. And that's what he conveys so well on TV, that amazing charm. Even though he can't win by actually dancing, I do hope he stays around for a good long time because he's just so darn fun to watch.

I too wish the judges would just give Master P zeroes for refusing to wear proper dance attire. Of course, it's all about pimping HIS line of shoes. Who cares that you're being completely disrespectful to everyone else in the competition by being a total and complete ass, especially to poor Ashly? You just KNOW they showed him being so incredibly rude to her about the shoes because he'd already dissed her live on camera for "snitching" on him; frankly, he deserved to be shown as the rude asshole that he is. HATE cannot even come close to what I feel about him!

Frankly, I just refuse to watch him, even for Ashly, who is a doll, and far, FAR nicer to him than I would be; if I were here, I'd stop the music, refuse to go out there on the floor with him, and explain to the judges that you can't dance with someone who refuses to cooperate. He wants to dish out public embarrassment? It's time he be on the receiving end of some!

Why oh why oh WHY does Lisa do that to her lips? She's almost as bad as that police officer on Wife Swap a couple months ago who had so much collagen in her upper lip she could hardly talk. Do people really think that's attractive? Gah.

I wasn't sorry to see Tatum go, but I still think both she and Kenny got screwed by the judging system. The audience vote should count 25%, with the other three judges' votes each counting 25% as well. That way the travesty wouldn't be allowed to continue this long.

Here's how I think the elimination will go(in order up to the top 4):
Kenny
Tatum
Tia
Giselle
Lisa
George
Final 4 will be: Jerry, Master P, Stacy and Drew.

Edited because I forgot Lisa.

Oh you think Giselle will be eliminated that soon? I hope not!

ITA with everyone on the rudeness that is Master P. Poor Ashly! I wish she got paired up with Drew, but maybe they didn't want to make her 'the boyband girl'.

Does anyone know if Ashly and Louis are partners in real life? I just saw the video of them dancing on the results show (that professional medley was fabulous!), and I love the way they dance together. I remember they danced together last year too, in an exhibition number.

In the US, neither the NDCA nor the USA Dance rule books require any kind of specific shoe for dancing in competition. I agree he should wear dance shoes -- the suede soles will actually make it easier on him -- but there are no rules requiring it. And the free advertising for his own shoes is just annoying and inappropriate. We don't hear Lisa Rinna constantly bringing up her plastic surgeon, do we?

I read on another board that the Lindy Hoppers were trained by Frankie Manning (the high king of LIndy, one of the original hoppers from Haarlem back in the day). The "frog" position is considered proper for Lindy.



Romantically? Never. Won't happen either. Dance-wise? No, but he is her coach.

LOL, I meant dance-wise. He's her coach? Well, that's nice. They just seem like they dance together really well.

I've never seen or heard of Samantha Harris before but I'm really getting into her; I agree with your husband, Foci, about her being easy on the eyes although I never really noticed anything weird or annoying about her voice. I love it when one of the celebrities start whining about how they aren't professional dancers and she immediately points out that none of the celebrity dancers are; she's done that to both Master P and Tatum.

I didn't see much of the first season except towards the end when the hype factor really went into overdrive so I have this question about Tom Bergeron. This season he seems to be cutting off the judges when they start getting too critical and nit-picky and tries to move things along. I was wondering if this happened in the first season as well; I'm divided between thinking is this Tom on his own initiative trying to spare the contestants from the sometimes overbearing judges or is he just getting a message from the producers to speed things along for time reasons?

I'm pretty sure the producers call all of the shots leaving only a tiny bit of room for his ad libbing.

Jesse's mom called. She thought there were too many shots of the dancers.

Okay, seriously, why can't they just cameo the singer up in the right or left hand corner of the screen (like they do for open sign translation on some programs) so we don't miss the dancers, which is why we're watching. It's Dancing With the Stars, not Watching Someone Sing While Dancers are Swirling Around Off Screen.

Thanks for the comments about the Lindy Hop because I was confused as well. It looked to be more a demo of jitterbug than anything else but yes, I do have a tendency to get confused easily. I thought the pair were amazing atheletes but that's not the dancing I want to see. My paranoid little mind thinks ABC is doing marketing research to see how the fans react to different forms of dancing. You never know when they might want to do a spinoff series.

Bergeron is an amazingly gifted real-time host, but like anyone else in such a position, he's taking his cues from the booth, where someone is sitting with a clock and making sure everything follows along tick by tock. It's live television which is an incredibly complex team effort which is the only way to pull it off.

I thought Lisa's makeup on the Thursday show had been applied to minimize the appearance of her lips. I noticed right off they didn't seem as big, and yet if you looked very closely (the horror!) they were still the same size. Someone who taped or TIVOed could perhaps go back and give a second opinion.

I'm tending to like Samantha. I thought her dresses so far were stunning and she's doing a good job of staying in the moment and not appearing to need a lot of written cues. She must be a twig off-camera to look that good but that's television. Now that I think about it, I kind of wonder why they didn't get Laurie Hibberd to cohost (she and Tom worked together for years on another live show), and she's wonderful.

If Ashly is under contract, she can't just bag P and walk away. She may want to but it would be unprofessional at best and career-damaging sooner than later. I give her credit for gamely hanging in and I hope the producers are able to stage some sort of dance-intervention to slap P upside the head. Oooooooo, what about getting Debbie Allen on his mojo? She won't take any of that "I'm too sexy for my shoes" crap.

ashleigh I like Giselle but becuase of what I call the Master Pathetic factor I think she will be outed quickly. Also becuase she doesn't have a strong fan base like some of the others.