calipiano81

I generally feel the same way about Len. To me, he's critical, but I don't consider him harsh. Sometimes he could say something in a nicer way, but I think he's also playing the "cranky old judge" role. And I also agree that sometimes I want to hear something he has to say about a particular technique, but then he gets cut off by either the audience or Tom. I've always liked our DWTS judging panel (CAI, Len, and Bruno) and it's always been my favorite of all the judging panels on reality-competition TV. All three of them have things that annoy me and I don't always agree with them, but I find them all entertaining in their own ways and I like how all three of them know how to point out both the good and the bad in dances and are capable of being specific in their comments.

I already did a spiel on power voting last week, but I wanted to reiterate: Power voting is an option for ALL of the couples. Multiple e-mail accounts are allowed by the show's voting system. So, if we aren't willing to put in the effort (whether it's rational or not), we leave the outcome in the hands of those who ARE willing to put in the effort. (I haven't voted at all this season, so I am including myself in "we")

Yes! I was thinking that too. :)

I was most pleasantly surprised last night by...Sailor! I thought her dancing flowed much better than when she did the rumba. Val gets criticism (not from me) about "stop-and-go" choreography, so maybe that factors in to what people are seeing. I thought her cha cha technique was solid and she looked radiant on the floor. She looked like she was having a blast, although my one complaint is she needs to stop mouthing the lyrics, ASAP! I was also impressed with Hannah. Alan did a good job teaching her paso shaping and posturing and she looked in control of her movements. She did look like she was trying very hard not to smile (although it could be my own projecting...I was willing her not to smile), but overall I was satisfied with her expression. If I were a judge, I might have given her a '9' because I thought her dance quality was above the rest of the field last night. Finally, I was happy for Kel to have his best dance and scores so far.

Someone on Reddit went to a taping of the show in September and gave a full report. The audience is constantly being prompted to give loud reactions to the judges' comments...cheer hard for anything positive and boo hard for anything negative. As for Len, I personally don't find him any more or less grouchy than previous seasons. Perhaps it's the increased manufactured booing that makes it seem like he is being more harsh.

I agree that the song was a big culprit. It is doable for an AT, but that song does not match Kate at all. I think she would have done better with a traditional, or at least an instrumental, AT music. Otherwise, I did like Pasha's choreography, which again, had a respectable amount of content. However, I wish he hadn't allowed Kate to throw in those comedic gestures and worked on AT character more with her.

This is only Brandon's second season as a pro and he already got a "ringer" on his very first season -- Tinashe.

As a former power voter, I'd like to say that power voting doesn't only happen for the mediocre dancers. Some of us power vote for the good dancers too. For those of you wondering about the motivations behind power voting, the best explanation I can come up with is... There are so many things in life that are out of our control, that when you feel like you can influence the outcome of something to your liking, some of us get way more invested than normal. For me and DWTS, it started with Season 8, when Shawn&Mark won over Gilles&Cheryl with less than 1% of the final vote. Because I power voted for Team Shark, I felt like I contributed to that less-than-1% and had a hand in their win. Even though I never got my desired winner again after that season, that one instance of success kept me power voting for my favorites. Also, our choices in life are a reflection of ourselves. Who we vote for says something about us. So pushing for our favorite to win sometimes becomes a form of self-validation or self- justification. Those feelings are stronger for some than for others. As to why we do all this for "just a TV show"...I think it's probably because real life doesn't allow us to indulge in these human irrationalities without major consequences. Finally, power voting does not necessarily have to be that time-consuming. The hundreds and thousands of email addresses can be accumulated over time (for this show, over 28 seasons), not necessarily created in one sitting. And if you have a fast internet connection, it might only take 1-2 hours to cast about a thousand votes, which you could do while watching the show.

Actually, we don't know that Bobby was never in the bottom 2, because the whole season, they always only said "in jeopardy." The fact that they are implementing this judges' save could be an indicator that Bobby at times was the second-to-bottom contestant and could have been gone earlier if they had this format.

After rewatching, I agree that Karamo was solid. Before James danced, I thought he had given the best male performance. I thought the judges comments' made him sound like he danced poorly.

Salsa I take back the "recognizable" then. I usually can tell a cha cha from a salsa and Cheryl had passages that looked more like cha cha to me. Karamo and Jenna's dance before them looked more like a recognizable salsa (even without the lifts) to me.

I like Cheryl, but I agree that this is becoming a bad habit of hers. I remember having similar thoughts from time to time even when she was dancing with Juan Pablo. She and Ray had a recognizable cha cha, but that's only because she was the one dancing all of the cha cha!

As always, I enjoyed the show, but to me, the overall level of dancing seemed lower than past premieres. Also, there weren't really any surprises for me. Even James, who clearly had the strongest performance, I was expecting to do well with a tango, since I pegged him beforehand as someone who would be better at Standard than Latin. I thought new pro Pasha had a really nice first outing. He had good rapport with Kate and he gave her a good amount of cha cha content, which she handled decently.

Madison didn't bother me (I think she's just not used to partnering) but I agree that partnering with someone else might have made the viewers appreciate Ezra more. Also, I wish the judges would have praised Ezra's versatility and performance ability more instead of just saying he's a great partner.

THANK YOU Pasha for choreographing a no-frills, content-filled samba (as Len Goodman would say, "no messing about") for the show. I wasn't impressed with Sophie's cha cha during the Academy, but I thought she did a solid, respectable job with the samba (although she looked like she was concentrating very hard on the technique during most of the routine) and I liked her and Kiki together. It was the pleasant surprise of the evening for me.

I was preparing myself for Ezra to be sent home tonight, so I'm mainly just happy to get see him dance one more week. Out of all the guys, I think Ezra was the best choice to do the A Tango. So Sophie has now done jazz, contemporary, contemporary, jazz for her duets. I'm gonna need to see something else before I consider Sophie part of a "couple to beat." I'm surprisingly liking Dominic as a judge.

If there are surprise contestants, the rumors, according to Pure, are that it will possibly be Rob Gronkowski and his girlfriend Camille Kostek. If that is true, Daniella and Pasha likely become their partners.

The main demographic of this show is white, female conservatives, which, according to this article, is likely a big reason why Spicer was cast (https://variety.com/2019/tv/news/sean-spicer-dancing-with-the-stars-nielsen-ratings-trump-1203310722/). I doubt a lot of them are even aware of Tom's tweet, but I also don't think it was wise for him to potentially paint himself against a big chunk of the audience. I'm sure we expect the PRO who will be working with Sean Spicer to suck it up and be a professional. If SHE can, then Tom certainly can too.

Throughout the show's history, I would argue that fanbases of other types of contestants (e.g. football, country music, Olympians) have had much more of a stronghold on DWTS voting than politicians. Regarding always having Republican contestants, I think I remember reading that the show invited the Clintons and Michelle Obama in the past, but they always declined. And frankly, it seems like Republican figures tend to be more controversial and bring the buzz the show wants.

I agree with your entire post. Even if you don't like or agree with them, Trump affiliates and supporters are Americans too. A lot of them are probably also DWTS viewers and are happy to see Spicer on. All of the political figures who have been on the show have never brought politics with them. As long as Spicer doesn't either, I don't think his inclusion should be an issue. If one doesn't want to watch him dance, just skip ahead.

And Ezra's only 18! To me, he looks older and dances with much maturity. I hate that the ballroom dancers are always early outs.

I don't have any issues with Madison. The little flub that happened didn't take away from the dance for me. I can understand people liking other dancers more, but for me, she dances well enough. And during the Top 10 girls ep, I thought she did the best ballroom dance, which earns points with me.

I am still on the Ezra train. I like the confidence in his movements and commitment to the performance across the styles. Love Shack was a cute number, but Bailey's personality outshone Mariah's, IMO. I think Gino and Stephanie's costumes got in the way a little bit and made it harder for me to judge how well they did. I prefer Emma and Sasha's work on DWTS. On this show, I feel like they try too hard sometimes with the tricks and flashy moves. If Benjamin has trained in ballroom, it didn't look like it to me with this cha cha (or his salsa with Koine last week)...technique was a little clunky. I didn't think Eddie was as bad as the judges made him out to be, although I must admit I was paying more attention to Sophie.

During Koine and Benjamin's salsa, I was very impressed with Koine. I thought she danced it like an official ballroom All-Star.

I would have switched Gino and Eddie's routines...have Gino do hip hop and Eddie do jazz. Gino was the only one of the Top 20 to not be fully out of his/her style.