<p>^^^In the spirit of not making it a dance competition, you DO have to admit, aside from being gorgeous to look at (male perspective), KC didn’t have much in the way of a personality. Was anyone else getting sick of looking at her partner’s spats (as well as his usual over-dancing) for the second or third week in a row? One thing that I will give Mark Ballas credit for: he hasn’t acted like a spoiled child when Len has criticized him this season compared to last. </p>
<p>I think the judging format could stand a minor makeover. Allow the judges to have one save, similar to what they do on American Idol. They might not have used it this week, but what happens if someone like Chaz or Carson make it into the final because they score so well on the “likeability index”?</p>
<p>Whoever gets the most votes is the legitimate winner. It’s not comparable to American Idol in which there are real consequences to getting voted off early. I’ve never voted but if I could vote Mark Ballas off, I would. I had never heard of Kristen. I rarely root for the best dancers because they are often boring. If I wanted to see real professional dancing, I wouldn’t be watching the show. Many times, they come it with such an advantage that it’s not a fair fight. I’d love to see Chaz win, if for no other reason, to stick it to the idiots whose feathers he ruffles by his mere existence.</p>
<p>I would not like to see Chaz win because he can barely dance. I’m willing to not have the best dancer win if he/she is a ringer (Nicole Scherzinger), but the winner needs to be at least a really good dancer. And I’m also OK with worse dancers sticking around longer than better dancers (Chaz vs. KC) if the “better” dancer isnt that great to begin with. I think Chaz needs to go in the next week or two so as not to ruin the concept that this is, indeed, a dance contest.</p>
<p>It wouldn’t surprise me if Kristin’s booting was a result of viewers’ dislike for Mark rather than her. The producers of DWTS might want to keep that in mind when they’re casting next season’s pros.</p>
<p>Now that Cher is getting involved, who knows what will happen. I looked at her Twitter account to see what she had to say but I don’t speak Twitter so I have no idea what was going on. </p>
<p>David Arquette didn’t do any dancing either - he just stepped around a bit. People will vote for his family though.</p>
<p>Got to say I have no idea who that gal was that got voted off. I might not be alone and that might be why she is gone. I “know” the rest of them. But I agree Chaz should go in the next couple of weeks.
Hope Solo is interesting…really not great at the feminine moves. Getting better…but we shall see. It is fascinating to see that she hardly breaks a sweat. The joys of being in super shape.</p>
<p>Well, I was surprised to see Kristin go, because she really was a pleasure to watch. But she really didn’t have a compelling story like the others. </p>
<p>Surprised to see Chaz didn’t go–I wish they would just put him out of his misery. But then, since he made it through to next week, Cher will be able to come next week. THEN we can boot him off.</p>
<p>I agree with cartera about Chaz. However, he seems to be in such pain and really not enjoying the experience physically that it would probably be good for him to go next. </p>
<p>I also agree that part of the reason Kristen left was because of Mark. I was SO happy to see him booted off. I love JR and loved his routine. He is so compelling and charismatic as well as a good dancer. Karina seems to be doing much better with him that she did last season with Ralph Macchio who was perhaps a better dancer than JR but not quite so compelling. </p>
<p>I also can’t stand Derek, although he is probably the best dancer and choreographer on the show. He is a tad better with Rikki that he was in the past with anyone but Lil’ Kim. He’s had so many ringers that it’s really annoying.</p>
<p>This show has never been a dance contest. If you look at how the results are determined, it’s very interesting. The % of their judges’ scores is added to the % of their popular vote to determine final placing. When you get to the final 3, it really all comes down to the popular vote because the %s pretty much work out to less than a % point of difference (ie. 33.1% vs. 33.3%). When there are more dancers, the judges’ scores count a little more. If there are 8 dancers with scores of 16, 22, 23, 24, 24, 24, 28, 28 would have %s of 6.7%, 9.2%, 9.6%, 10%, 10%, 10%, 11.7%, 11.7%. So the 6.7% contestant needs a lot more popular votes to beat the 11.7% one. </p>
<p>I think JR will take it all. He’s good enough and has the personality and personal story as well as a lot of people will vote for a veteran. I don’t think Rikki will win, no matter how well she dances, because I don’t think she has the popular support. That’s why football players always do so well. It’s why Donny Osmond won and Marie got so far.</p>
<p>I thought Carrie Ann was a little unfair to JR and Karina, in giving them only an 8 for their Foxtrot, on the show’s last dance of the evening. Is that her way of trying to level the playing field with some of the other guys?</p>
<p>I really liked the routine from Rikki and Derek. Derek was once again in top form with the most inventive routine of the night. </p>
<p>I thought Hope proved that she is a contender. I really liked her Toy Story number.</p>
<p>I’m not getting all the buzz for Rob K. Even his “humility” act is getting old. I guess the fact that he was accepted and GRADUATED from USC confirms it really IS the university of spoiled children. Glad my Kid chose Kal…</p>
<p>I thought it was total BS that Chynna got 7s. Totally negated the other scores. My family thought she was getting a 15 tops. Kind of ruined the rest of the show for me.</p>
<p>Chaz needs to go. His routine was horrible. I missed Carson, but my guess is it was pretty bad.</p>
<p>^Carson was his usual “bad”… but in a “good” way! His interpretation of Jack Sparrow was hysterical and Carrie Ann had the funniest line of the evening saying he had his “butchest” performance of the season! Johnny Depp doesn’t have anything to be worried about…</p>
<p>Just read commentary by Louis Van Amstel. It was very interesting. He said the Chynna’s dance looked better than it should/would have because she didn’t screw up steps, she simply didn’t do many. It would have looked a lot worse if she had tried to do things she didn’t remember badly and Tony had to compensate. Do agree that her scores were really high, but it looks like she might go anyway. </p>
<p>It was obvious to me very quickly that Ricki and Derek’s tango was going to get 10’s. It was very good and great choreography. It hurts me to say that because I really don’t like Derek. However, I thought JR and Karina should have gotten at least one 10. I think it was nearly as good as Derek and Ricki but not as dramatic a dance. I think it also would have been more effective were he not all in pink. He really had the footwork down.</p>
<p>I’ve done lots of ballroom dancing but I know little about the Tango - I don’t particularly like it. I didn’t even notice that she lost her way. She still did a better job than most of the couples. That’s the problem with judging people who don’t know how to dance. A real dancer would have been able to rely somewhat on following Tony’s lead, but they don’t have time to learn to follow. They just memorize choreography.</p>
<p>I can’t believe Chynna was voted off - she is one of the better dancers left. Not in the same league with Ricki or JR, though.</p>
<p>Ricki and her partner’s dance this week was stunning - can’t believe they were made to use the Psycho theme. But they turned it into something incredible.</p>
<p>I though JR was good this week, although I could have done without the pink tux.</p>
<p>cartera45, H & I had our dance lesson this afternoon and I mentioned it to our teacher. In the ballroom dances that are in closed position, a more trained dancer (even one of the celebs later in the season) could do a lot just following the pro’s lead. Remember when Maks had the ESPN girl dance the waltz blindfolded. But I think she just completely panicked. It was obvious to me in the first sequence that she wasn’t doing anything. Tony was doing his best to move her around and dance around her, but she just wasn’t getting back into it. Also that music was really hard to do regular steps to. The show tunes almost have to be choreographed. As Derek said, their song didn’t have a solid beat and changed time signatures during the sequence. </p>
<p>I think that was about the worst “going blank” episode I’ve seen on DWTS. Others have missed steps or sequences that were off, but they always manage to get back on by the end. </p>
<p>As I’ve said previously, I think JR will win it. The final 3, IMHO, will be JR, Ricki (because of Derek), and Hope (although she could be replaced by David or Rob if she falters and one of them has a breakthrough). I think Chaz or Nancy will be next to go. Carson will probably stay on WAY longer than warranted because of his showmanship. I thought the bit with Richard Simmons was hysterical.</p>