“Dancing with the Stars” - Week 3 Competition
Tuesday, October 9th, 2007
Remember last week? How bad Wayne sucked? And then Albert was the one voted out? Yeah, that sorta sucked. So we’ll see how bad Wayne is tonight and if his fans can honestly bring themselves to vote for him yet again.
Oh geeze. Wayne has a ’stache this week. AND A PONYTAIL. Save me. Good to see Jane back, though what’s with her HAIR? That better be a wig. What’s with the hair?? Are these people on dope?
Sabrina and Mark are up first this week, dancing the jive. So I’m pretty sure Sabrina is gonna mop up the floor with it. We get started with some impressive gymnastics from Mark and the dance as a whole is cute and fun to watch. As usual. It’s a fantastic dance, just nothing bad to say about it. Of course, I’m not a judge. Len didn’t like some of the strange, modern moves but he liked it over all, called it their best dance so far. Bruno is enthusiastic in his response, of course, and loved it. Carrie Ann thought the dance completely suited her. Scores? 9, 9 and 9 for a total of 27. Great score.
Cameron and Edyta are up next, dancing the Tango. Hmm! He promises that this will be his dance. He comes to the floor literally looking like Clark Kent, glasses and all. As for the dance, I’m literally distracted by Edyta. She’s just stunning and I mean that. And I’m a GIRL, so you know the men have to love it. But I think he did pretty good. It was fun to watch. Carrie Ann says she’s surprised, she didn’t think it wasn’t too passionate. But she liked it otherwise. Len thought it lacked the tango character. Bruno, who can’t help but interrupt, thought it was fabulous. Scores? 8, 7 and 8 for a total of 23 which is pretty nice. I hope they return next week.
Mark and Kym take the dance floor, dancing the jive. Apparently, the jive hurts Mark. To me this says that we’ll see another wooden Mark this week. It certainly doesn’t compare to Sabrina’s jive, but it’s not so bad. I just don’t find him charismatic at all. But yeah, I think he’s pretty stiff for a dance that requires some looseness. Bruno thought he was dancing better, but needs to be lighter. Carrie Ann thinks he needs to not dance as much with this face (ha!). Len thought the choreography was good but that the timing was poor. Scores? 6, 7, and 7 for a total of 20. Appropriate.
Jennie and Derek are up dancing the tango, trying to recover from last week’s quick step fall fiasco. Jennie is very hard on herself about it and Derek is hoping to move her past that. It’s definitely an angry dance, I’ll give it that. I don’t know if it’s passionate. I think I may have liked Cameron’s tango better. But really, she does a very good job. Len thought it was sharp and tangy like a pickle. Carrie Ann gives Jennie a high five and thought it was very well done. Bruno called it the call back of the season. So shows what I know. Scores? 9, 8 and 9 for a total of 26. Wow. Wasn’t expecting that.
Mel B and Maksim are up with the jive. It’s pretty good, actually. I think this dance plays to a lot of Mel’s strengths. She’s able to incorporate a lot of her natural athleticism (and that’s not a joke about Sporty Spice, believe it or not) (anyhow, Mel was Scary Spice, not Sporty Spice) (why was she Scary Spice anyhow? She’s not scary at all!). Bruno says she was excitement on legs. Len says the B is for “bounce” and it was her best dance. Carrie Ann agrees with the other guys. Scores? 9, 9 and 9 for 27 and a tie with Sabrina and Mark.
Wayne and Cheryl are next doing the tango. Wayne came close to getting cut (WHY wasn’t he cut?? Damn yous!) and it humbled him (something has to). Wayne sees a lot of the cowboy in the tango. I’m going WHAT? They’re dancing to traditional tango music, so there’s that. Wayne pretty much looks like a coat rack next to Cheryl. It’s bad, ya’ll. Just take my word for it. He HAS to be gone this week. Carrie Ann loves his look (what??), but thought Cheryl was leading him a lot (ya think?). Bruno thinks Wayne has to take over. Len thought the dance disappeared. Scores? 6, 6, and 6 for a total of 18. I think that’s kind, considering.
Floyd and Karina dance next doing the jive. He’s determined to act more like a dancer than a boxer and even has a riff on that in the beginning with a jump rope. I think he does great, to be honest. It’s fun, bouncy and sexy all at once. The man is definitely good on his feet, I’ll give him that. Len says it was fun and energetic. Carrie Ann thought it needed more structure. Bruno thought he had a ton of potential and that needs to apply it. Scores? 7, 7 and 7 for a total of 21. Fair.
Jane and Tony are next with a saucy tango. We hear and see Jane’s reaction to learning about her mother’s death after the last performance show. She used the passion from her feelings about her mother and channeled them into her tango. The dance is dedicated to her. You go Jane! As for the dance? It was very deliberate and very structured and very well done. Bruno says her dance was worthy of a silent movie queen. Len says it could have been on pay per view (eh?). Carrie Ann says she witness a very special moment (near tears, even!). Scores? 9, 9 and 9 for a total of 27. Very good show.
Helio and Julianne are next with a jive and hopes are high that he’ll do well yet again. He hurt his ankle trying to do a jump, so hopefully that won’t cause too many troubles. The dance is pretty good, I thought. I mean, they seem to hit all the moves and Helio had charm and charisma as always. Carrie Ann thought his fun was contagious. Bruno didn’t think tonight that he was quite “on it” tonight. Len thought he gave a good performance. Scores? 8, 8, and 8 for a total of 24. A decent score, but not at the top of the pack as they usually are.
Lastly we have Marie and Jonathon dancing the tango. They have a lot to live up to after last week’s fabulous dance. Jonathon tells Marie she’s the queen of drama, which causes my eyebrow to raise just a hair. If I have one complaint about Marie’s look so far this season it’s that she looks excessively matronly. Their tango, however, is pretty decent. Marie does it well, the acting portion of the dance. Her disinterest is charming. They have a splashy finish too, which helps. Len says it was absolutely elegant. Carrie Ann says it worked completely. Bruno says she’s the mistress of characters, absolutely right. Scores? 9, 8 and 9 for a total of 26. Very good.
Wow, we had some good scores tonight! But I think it’s obvious who needs to go. BYE WAYNE!
I missed the first half of this, so I’m not going to do my “Big Brother” style recap for this episode, unfortunately. I will give you a list of recap sites so you can catch up if you missed out (like I did! *sheepish look*). And I’ll give you my impressions from where I picked up.
After the break, we get to see Jane Seymour. I adore her. I used to be a big “Dr. Quinn” fan so I’d like to see her do well. She’s very excited to be on the show and I think she has some great potential. Her dress…. eh. Not so much. It’s a little PINK and the length is pretty long but it’s still a lot better than Marie’s. Her dancing, however, seems awesome. Not terribly energetic, but the foxtrot doesn’t seem to call for much energy. The judges had some pretty nice things to say too, very elegant and beautiful. Watch the turns. Their scores? 8, 8, and 8 for a total of 24. Not shabby.
Then, we moved on to “American Idol”. Talk about being down to the wire. After some banter about Paula’s broken nose, we get to the nitty gritty. Blake won the coin toss last episode so he chose to go first. He starts off with his completely awesome rendition of “You Give Love a Bad Name” by Bon Jovi which is even awesomer than the last time. Even Simon is effusive about the performance. Jordin chose to sing “Fighter” by Christina Aquilera and I thought she got a little “screechy” during the middle of the song. Definitely wasn’t her best song. So round one went to Blake, hands down. But the next round, he chose “She Will Be Loved” by Maroon 5 and she chose “A Broken Wing” by Martina McBride, which you’ll remember she rocked rather soundly the first time she sang it. So even though he did a great job with his song, Jordin smoked him during this round. The last round, I thought, was rather unfair. The Idols were told to sing the winner of the songwriter competition’s song, called “This is My Now”. I wouldn’t say it was made for a woman (because it wasn’t), but it was definitely far better suited to Jordin’s style of singing rather than Blake’s. He was frustrated with the song, obviously, but shrugged it off. Jordin did a little better (but I still thought she sounded flat, probably the song’s fault and not hers) and finished off with tears in her eyes, guaranteeing her a healthy chunk of the sympathy vote. Whatever. I so voted for Blake, it’s not even funny. We are treated to Daughtry singing “Home” live on the stage at the end of the show, a very fitting tribute. And I’m still upset that he didn’t win his season. Taylor Hicks is a frickin’ hack. Ahem. 
On “Dancing with the Stars”, what else is there to talk about other than who won? I was pleased to see Apolo and Julianne take home the trophy. They deserved it. Laila was a good dancer, but she and Maks lacked the chemistry and all around enjoyment that Apolo and Julianne had. Joey had flair up the ying yang, but he lacked the skills to beat Apolo. Overall, it was a very satisfying end to the show. Just don’t tell that to Laila or Joey. In her words, Laila was pissed to be booted out in third place. And Joey looked very obviously disappointed to come in second. But they had to know the audience loved Apolo. So yay! That’s the sort of reality finale I like to see. However, maybe in the future they can cut it back to one hour tops because two hours for that stuff was TORTURE. They didn’t have near enough content to fill a full two hours and it was awful having to suffer through the drivel to get to the good stuff. Think about that next season, ABC.
Well, I went into last night’s show a little nervous. I’ve been rooting for Apolo and Julianne all along and I was afraid they would drop the ball this evening. This is a very important performance, being the last one before the finale tonight and I was worried that either the pressure would get to this energetic duo or that the judges would backlash against them. And after the first round of dances, a “judge’s choice”, it seemed like my fears were well founded. 
Firstly, we have last night’s “Deadliest Catch” episode. I LOVE the snow crab season. LOVE it. It always seems to be a big ramp up from the king crab season. The weather is nastier, for one thing. We were introduced to a bunch of new greenhorns tonight. Which, correct me if I’m wrong, but wouldn’t you rather be a greenhorn during king crab season than snow crab season? Seriously? Should be interesting to see how they all do. There was also a sequence tonight where someone on another boat got gravely ill and the coast guard had to be called out to rescue him. The guy was literally on his last legs. Lord knows what was wrong with him. But it was intense. We should have some good moments coming up, looks like the weather is going to make things interesting sooner rather than later. 
“American Idol” is really getting down to the wire and I’m a little scared. Because I love everyone who is left and I don’t want to see any of them go. But one of them HAS to go and that really bums me out. Tonight, the first songs were selected by the judges. And the contestants did pretty well with them, but Melinda is the only one to really hit it out of the park. Fair enough. The next songs were selected by the producers and Jordin didn’t do maybe as well, Blake did better and Melinda, yet again, did a fabulous job. Tonight we had THREE songs and the third set were the contestants favorite songs. Aww! Fun! Melinda and Jordin did okay and Blake did a really fantastic job and wowed even Simon. But when it comes down to it, it looks as if the judges favor the women in the final two. Simon especially hopes to see Melinda in the final two, no matter what happens. I hate to think of any of these talented people leaving, but I fear it will be Blake. Which is a shame because he’s a fantastic singer and he takes wonderful risks and really tries to keep himself modern in a competition that will often “age” and make corny your average talent-seeker. But I guess we’ll have to wait for the results show. *bites nails nervously*
Yep, it was as expected. Ian and Cheryl were sent packing tonight and rightly so. I mean, how could they overcome the sheer awesomeness that was the other three dancing teams from Monday night? I mean, COME ON. Though I’m still smarting over Len calling Apolo’s fantastic cha cha “raunchy” because it was probably the single most awesome dance I’ve ever seen on that show. I’m hoping he wins because he’s simply fantastic. But then again, the judges have a thing for Laila. She’s good, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t know. Her partner, Maksim, kinda bugs me. I think he’s sort of a jerk. So if I had to predict, I’d say it’ll be Apolo for the win. But then again, I’ve been saying that for weeks now so this should be no surprise to you. I was not sad to Ian go, but I will be sad next week. I feel it might be Joey going home (as it should) and that sorta makes me sad because he’s so much fun to watch. But we are getting down to the wire and it’s time to get serious. Dangit. 
On “American Idol”, we had “disco night” courtesy of the Bee Gee’s and Barry Gibb in particular. And was I the only one who was surprised at how much Barry Gibb sounded exactly like Sean Connery when he spoke? That distracted me all episode long. Anyhow, many of the idols chose Bee Gee’s songs even though Bee Gee’s songs should be sung only by Bee Gee’s. And judges realized this when their ears were assaulted not once, but twice by each of the contestants. Not all the songs were Bee Gee’s however. But I’m still smarting from LaKisha’s unfortunate rendition of “Stayin’ Alive”. And that is just a crime against nature. A lot of our favorites did not have good night’s last night. Melinda didn’t have a very good night. LaKisha had a horrible night. Even dear, dear Blake didn’t impress anyone with his beatboxed disco classics. Though I had to give him props for taking another chance. I did find myself agreeing with Randy when he told Blake that he didn’t have to beatbox EVERY song. You know, feel free to switch it up some. Gah. But he did pretty well with the material he had. Jordin scored the only high praise of the evening. And it was high praise indeed. Barry Gibb himself said that her rendition of “To Love Somebody” is the best version of the song he’s ever heard sung and he’s heard hundreds of artists sing it. The judges practically fell all over themselves with the raves on her performance. Unfortunately her second song of the evening wasn’t as fantastic, but we forgive her for the first song was loverly. Now, who will be going home? I want to say it’s going to be LaKisha. A lot of people feel like Blake is in the hot seat and I really hope he is not. I honestly feel it is LaKisha’s time to go home. 
Then, on “Dancing with the Stars”, everyone’s fondest wish was granted when Billy Ray was FINALLY sent packing. But first, we had to endure some nailbiting as Joey was in the bottom two with him. Joey, honestly? Not Ian? That didn’t make any sense to me. And, yet again, we had to endure an entire hour of fluff to get to the meat of the show. I’m starting to get really annoyed with this overblown results shows. I have half a mind to only tune into the last ten minutes and call it good. But at any rate, Billy Ray is gone and we don’t have to watch him slack his way through any more dances. Praise the Lord! We don’t have to hear him complain about having to learn new steps either. Double Bonus! I’m really scared for Joey though. I hope last night served as a wakeup call and the fans will be calling in for him in droves next week. I’d sure hate for him to leave before Ian, who I feel is the next who should go. 
So it was an interesting show last night. Apolo was fantastic as usual and despite Samantha flubbing the scores, requiring a quick commercial break to sort things out, his evening went more than smoothly as the judges made it clear he’s the clear favorite in this competition. Laila and Joey were both very good last night as well. They got good scores for good dancing and Joey is just as charismatic as usual, in case you were wondering. Ian danced better than his scores would lead you to believe, but even he could not out-bad Billy Ray Cyrus. Folks, he stunk up the joint. And I’m surprised it didn’t come to fisticuffs with Bruno after Bruno called his routine “crap”. Which, come on, it was. The man needs to go home. I’m sure he’s got some very loyal fans out there and that’s to be commended and all. But the time to stroke his ego is over and he needs to be going home tonight. 
It was “rock week” on “American Idol” last night, headed by the fabulous Jon Bon Jovi. All the contestants had to sing Bon Jovi songs and I couldn’t have been happier. Of course, I wasn’t so happy when I heard what Chris Richardson did to “Wanted Dead or Alive”. I’m embarrassed that this guy is from San Jose, my hometown. Please tell me he’s leaving this week? I didn’t enjoy LaKisha too much this week either. She tended to yell her song and her outfit was especially distracting. But I enjoyed her “spicier” attitude and the kiss with Simon was TV gold. So I’ll forgive her. Jordin just needs to not ever do that to her hair ever, ever again. It was NOT her week. No, the best singers of the night were Blake, who with hair dyed black, sang a completely different and awesome rendition of “You Give Love a Bad Name”. I didn’t think that was a song you could beatbox, but apparently if you’re Blake it is. He rocked it and then some. And of course, Melinda was the bomb. I was half expecting her to end up like LaKisha but she really knocked it out of the park. She sang “Have a Nice Day” and she seriously ROCKED. I was very impressed with her performance. She and Blake are the clear front runners to me. I’m sure Jordin is up there too, but Blake and Melinda have a very bright future ahead of them, regardless. I thought last night was a great night on “Idol”. 
I don’t have very long so let me quickly sum up the results for “Dancing with the Stars”: I was wrong. BOO. BOOOOOO!!!! I thought that Billy Ray so should have been the one to go home. Even BILLY RAY thought he should have been the one to go home, judging from the look on his face. Two more dances to learn? That’s got to be hell for him. No, poor Cliff Clavin was sent packing and I am all about BOOOing that. The results show didn’t seem overly padded for a change, and that was nice. It should be like that every week as far as I’m concerned. So yeah, John went home. BOOO!! (I’m still not over it).
I wrote up a long, and if I do say so myself, rather brilliant post recapping last night’s “Dancing with the Stars”. It was filled with lots of deep, insightful comments and witty, biting comments. And you know what happened? Just as I was typing the very last sentance of this brilliant recap, my youngest child (a 10 month old baby) banged on the keyboard and amazingly hit a series of keys that entirely deleted all that I had written. (weep) After having a small fit and cursing the 451Press Gods for not upgrading to WordPress 2.1 already (the autosave feature would have certainly saved me), I am back. But am I going to write out another long, brilliant and witty recap? NOPE. I’m suffering from a particularly nasty flu and am laid up and feeling more than a little awful today. I’m amazed I’m even alive this morning, after how I felt last night. So what I’m going to do instead is point you two 
The important information first: The lowest score (a 19) went to John Ratzenberger and Edyta Sliwinska who danced the mambo. It’s not that he’s that bad, but he’s not that good either. We’re getting down to the wire here and his performances, no matter how charming, just don’t measure up to Laila, Joey or Apolo. And the judges are letting him know that with his score. It’s either get better or get going. And I’m going to predict that John gets going this week. It’s time. 
