1117 replies to this topic

[discoparkinglot]

Jilted by Jason Mesnick on the season finale of The Bachelor, Melissa Rycroft will rebound nicely — on Dancing With the Stars, PEOPLE has learned.

Rycroft, 25, is to fill the slot vacated by Access Hollywood host Nancy O’Dell, who had to withdraw from the competition on March 5 due to a knee injury. According to a source close to the production, the Dallas beauty, who has had only days to rehearse, is expected to perform live on Dancing’s Monday premiere.

[dietcoker]

I am so excited! I first saw Melissa on DCC: Making the Team and thought she was an amazing performer and person. She just seems so genuine and wholesome.

I've never really watched Dancing with the Stars before but I've heard a lot about it. I'm super excited to explore this show and root for Melissa.

[discoparkinglot]

I am excited too! I think she will be awesome!

[PBGamer89]

Don't watch the Bachelor at all.

Does she has a nice personality? is she bitchy??

Who is this girl??

[MusicJunkie85]

I think abc made a good choice in bringing her on, though I won't call her a star. She seems to be really nice and she's pretty. Hopefully she can dance well. I just know that she'll get some sympathy votes.

[dietcoker]

Does she has a nice personality? is she bitchy??

I guess it's impossible for us to really know public people and I know that sometimes fame can really mess with people and turn them into monsters.

But I can say that I religiously watched the DCC shows and I never saw Melissa as anything other than as a sweet, perky and genuine person. She was one of my very favorites and if you were to research my posts for the DCC show, you would see that I don't always like every girl on that show. It was the same for me in watching The Bachelor. I really don't care for some of those women. But I never saw anything negative about Melissa.

[PBGamer89]

Good. I just don't want some bitchy reality star on my screen in place of the wonderful Nancy O Dell.

How old is she? At least Tony is getting a hot young thing this time around and with the success of the latest Bachelor she can go deep in the competition.

[ByTheWay]

From this Access Hollywood report:

In addition to her cheerleading skills, Melissa has a background in ballet — which could help the late addition make up for lost rehearsal time.

Melissa's a good choice with this background, given the handicap she's working under.

[Snark Shark]

Who?

I guess Kelly Ripa said "no".

Man, they are reaching. Reality stars are bad enough, but one among hundreds of cast off Bachelorettes? That's... wow.

I guess ABC had to scramble. And certainly they LOVE the cross promotion angle. But wow, losing the likes of Jewel and O'Dell and replacing them with two sub-par reality show "stars"? Has really put the show back on an unexpected D-List track. Not that anybody above the D-list would have risked their career going on this last minute anyway.

[mjbkrb05]

I hope they don't relentlessly show (episode after episode) Jason!!! I don't want to see that guy on TV one more second! I will excuse them setting up her "story" and who she is the first episode ONLY. Then after that, I don't need to be reminded what a joke this season was or about that tool Jason!!

[lindslvsmaks]

Interesting in having Melissa on. I like this idea but I still wish Nancy could be on=( Oh well there's always next season. Good luck Melissa!

[dandydoodle]

I just don't want some bitchy reality star

Come on, friends, let's give the girl a break. She's riding her 15 seconds of fame and helping ABC out as well as herself. Good on her for keeping her head up. She's lucky to have Tony, and he's finally got someone under 50! It sounds as if she has the background to do well. I'll have an open mind about her until I see how well she dances.

Edited by dandydoodle, Mar 8, 2009 @ 3:35 PM.

[kscatlvr2001]

ABC is saving face. Melissa was supposedly being set up to be the next Bachelorette the entire time; but she was so burned by the show that she turned them down. She has a lot of goodwill and sympathy from the public at the moment, plus some actual dance background, so she's a good fill-in for the opening left by Nancy O'Dell. I'm much happier to see her on DWTS than I would've been to see her as The Bachelorette.

No, she does not seem to be a bitchy reality show fame whore. She seems very likable and girl-next-door. Shame she has to dance with Tony.

[EmbraceTheDark]

Woah. The powers that be at ABC must be thoroughly loving this.

She seems very likable and girl-next-door. Shame she has to dance with Tony.

LMAO. I like watching Tony dance but his choreography is questionable and just plain underwhelming at times. I wish she was paired with Dmitry, but I'm sorta curious as to what Tony can do with her.

While it is indeed sketchy that she's been on a couple of reality shows, I just don't get that desperate famewhore vibe from her (I do hope she's not trying to milk too much sympathy out of that Jason debacle). On both shows, she seemed to be a genuinely sweet, perky, down-to-earth person - she has exactly the type of personality that fits well on this show and will probably appeal to a lot of viewers. So, I'm looking forward to seeing how she'll do.

I just hope we're spared continuous talk about Jason because I cannot stand to hear about his trifling, boring ass every single week - the first week I can understand but from then on, ugh. Nor do I want to see her getting a bunch of sympathy votes if her dancing flat out sucks.

Edited by EmbraceTheDark, Mar 8, 2009 @ 5:12 PM.

[Lady V]

What in the world will Tony do with a young, sweet, in shape partner? I hope he can step it up a bit, because Melissa is probably the first Bachelor contestant I have ever kinda liked. Killer smile too.

[peaches222]

I'm so happy that Tony gets her. He got an emmy nomination with Stacy, I can't wait to see what he can do with her.. I hope they make it to the finals.

[Zuleikha]

I'm pretty sick of Melissa because I don't really think anything that bad or mean happened to her, but I think she's a smart choice for a last-minute replacement. She has name recognition right now, making her as legit a star as many of the other past contestants, and she has enough of a dance background that she should be able to learn a credible routine in time. She's also likable enough--particularly right now--that viewers are likely to forgive a shaky first week routine given the circumstances. I think she's a good choice--much better than Holly. Later down the road her dance background may give her the ringer backlash, but I think that will just depend on how the other celebs do, dance chemistry, and other intangibles.

[MeggieMeg]

What in the world will Tony do with a young, sweet, in shape partner?

He did great with Stacy. I'm sure he'd be great with Melissa too.

[easleylivingood]

What in the world will Tony do with a young, sweet, in shape partner?

I'm thinking something like this

http://www.youtube.c...feature=related

I think Melissa will bring out the fun and fresh stuff Tony's been doing since retiring from competition.

[Senor Audacity]

No!

Are you kidding me???

I like(d) Melissa. From all I've heard, she is an innocent victim to what went down on The Bachelor. It looked like she forevermore wanted nothing to do with reality TV. So she swoops in and does this?

At best -- at best -- the folks at ABC are striking while the iron is hot and giving "America's Sweetheart" a running start in popularity in a contest where her competitors have been hard at work for more than a month. At best -- at best -- Melissa is now a famewhore that we can throw onto the top of a pile so big we can see it from space. But at worst, and please correct me if this scenario is implausible or impractical, this reeks of premeditation. Melissa agreed to be dumped on TV, and in exchange she gets to extend her career by appearing on the other popular reality show on the same network (which just so happens to air on the same day; if she goes all the way, Melissa will have been on our screens for, what, five months' worth of Mondays?).

No one, IMHO, looks good from this, but I feel really sad for DWTS. There is a hell of a lot of stink emanating from The Bachelor. You think Melissa came off unscathed, but I for one think that her immediately coming onto this show a week after getting dumped in the MSATFRE (Most! Shocking! After! The ... I'm too tired to type out the rest) actually confirms the conniving and manipulation many of us suspect Mike Fleiss of doing. The powers that be running Dancing With The Stars don't seem to care that a show rumored to be completely staged is importing a figure that was shaped, by that show, to be its martyr. Or, they might believe that the surge behind TB's ratings might mean a lift for their own if they bring Melissa in as a substitute. Or, this was a whole deal planned from the start. Bottom line is, this show shouldn't have anything to do with a conspiracy, and now they are willingly waist-deep in it. And silly me, I thought this was one of the last genuine reality shows on TV.

This feels like a set-up, yo.

[jonaswan2]

ou think Melissa came off unscathed, but I for one think that her immediately coming onto this show a week after getting dumped in the MSATFRE (Most! Shocking! After! The ... I'm too tired to type out the rest)

While I agree with most of what you're saying about Melissa's character, she didn't get dumped last week. That first After the Final Rose was taped over six weeks ago. She's had a little bit of time to get over that ass.

[Bekalynn]

At best -- at best -- the folks at ABC are striking while the iron is hot and giving "America's Sweetheart" a running start in popularity in a contest where her competitors have been hard at work for more than a month. At best -- at best -- Melissa is now a famewhore that we can throw onto the top of a pile so big we can see it from space. But at worst, and please correct me if this scenario is implausible or impractical, this reeks of premeditation. Melissa agreed to be dumped on TV, and in exchange she gets to extend her career by appearing on the other popular reality show on the same network (which just so happens to air on the same day; if she goes all the way, Melissa will have been on our screens for, what, five months' worth of Mondays?).

Melissa was offered a LOT of money, to be the Bachelorette. I bet more guaranteed money than Dancing. She said NO...

However, Melissa is a dancer, she has a ballet and Jazz background along with her Dallas Cheerleading experience. So when she was offered this chance, why wouldn't she jump at the opportunity to make some money doing something she loves?

So while yes her competitors have been hard at work for months, but that gives them an advantage. It also if she really is a good dancer, levels the playing field just a bit.

But she's not a horrible person for taking this offer. She at least showed a lot of cajones for refusing the Bachelorette. There's nothing wrong with wanting exposure anyways, that's hardly a crime.

[Slacker]

This is an inspired bit of stunt casting. I've never watched the Bachelor until the finale this year, when my wife made me pull it up so she could see why the Facebook statuses of every one of her female friends changed to "WTF BASTARD" on Monday night. But from what little I saw she's sweet as hell, and if her background helps her pick up the dances quickly, she could be an easy contender for the finals. Yes, she's barely a "celebrity," but she'll win over a big fanbase in a hurry.

And on a shallow male note, she's not too tough on the eyes. ;) She definitely helps make up for replacing weird-hot Jewel with that hunk of plastic from the Playboy show.

[Snark Shark]

The real victim here? Poor Access Hollywood!

They seemed to have all of these elaborate plans to show Nancy's every breath for the next few months on air. And now? Boo hoo! Back to normal crappy celebrity reports.

I'm so happy that Tony gets her. He got an emmy nomination with Stacy

The performers can get Emmys for this? REALLY?

[njbarmaid]

I don't see how people can perceive her being conniving when it's been less than a week since we found out about Nancy O'Dell needing to be replaced.

I'm sure DWTS had to have some backup names for situations like this, but IMO don't think it's that calcuated on Melissa's part.

I loved her on the DCC Making the Team seasons, so I am looking forward to seeing her.

[harvestbasket]

This is an inspired bit of stunt casting.

While I question her status as a celeb or star, this is a great network move by ABC. The Bachelor was doing better ratings wise and they got a huge buzz when Melissa got dumped on television. She is going to be coming in with lots of sympathy and viewer support. Though I think the ringer discussion may come up if she is too good early on.

[peaches222]

I hope she does better than expected tonight. She only had one day to train.

[ByTheWay]

I'm so happy that Tony gets her. He got an emmy nomination with Stacy

The performers can get Emmys for this? REALLY?

Yes, but as choreographers.

In Season 2, Tony was nominated for Outstanding Choreography for the Jive. In the same season, Cheryl was nominated for outstanding choreography for the "Thriller" Paso Doble and "Save A Horse, Ride A Cowboy" freestyle. Louise was nominated for outstanding choreography for a group Paso Doble.

[willmore]

I'm more happy she's Tony's partner. She can give Shawn Johnson a serious run for America's votes, and has apparent dance experience to boot.

[moonmarked]

I hope she does better than expected tonight. She only had one day to train.

I think it's possible that the replacements were given a few days of meet/greet & practice--possibly even to help in their decision-making--before the announcement was actually made; it's not in the best interest of ABC or the show's producers to bring on last-minute folks who will look completely horrible.