calipiano81

All the talk about Ezra coming out from "Stephanie's shadow " and how he's the younger brother proving himself...I actually have preferred Ezra since their audition together. From what I have seen of them this season, Ezra has a little bit more spark to me. He seems versatile and I was impressed watching the montage of him in the different Academy rounds. I enjoyed his hip hop with Comfort (I agree with Mary that he had great musicality) much more than Stephanie's contemporary last week.

I thought Madison and Nazz both deserved to make it in. It was Anna (Ray Leeper jazz) and Sophie (Sharna Burgess cha cha) who I thought should have been cut. I thought, of the three ballroom routines, Madison had the best technique and showed the most confidence. I liked how she straightened her legs and also had good hip action and rhythm. Madison seems to be getting a lot of attention, but at least for this episode, I thought it was deserved.

Big Meredith/DeLuca fan here...thought they were HOT this episode, yet adorable at the same time. MERLUCA FTW! As for the rest of the episode, I enjoyed it a lot. There were a lot of funny bits from everyone. Especially Alex being so thrilled that "It's a real fire!" LOL

I have been aboard the Meredith/DeLuca train since the beginning of the season...this was another good episode for the Merluca shippers. Loved them speaking Italian, but I also liked DeLuca teasing Meredith's whole "learning from my mistakes" bit. Their slow-build approach is also refreshing from the usual Grey's Anatomy "have sex first, talk later" situation. The one negative for me is that I don't really have respect or interest in flings (in real life nor fiction), and it seems like that is the ultimate endgame for Meredith and this so-called triangle.

Whether or not the ratings or viewership changes, it is obvious that the reaction to this season's winner (at least online) has been more negative, intense, and longer-lasting than any other season, and moreso than if any of the other finalists had won. I understand Bobby supporters scoffing at the naysayers, but if it's just a matter of feeling neutral or nonchalant about the outcome, IMO, I would just let people express their disappointment with the show and desire to see changes, without dismissing their opinions.

I think this season IS different than all the previous seasons. The outcome will be remembered for a long time. It is not just some people being mad that their favorite didn't win or was eliminated early...there seems to be widespread sentiment and agreement among different camps that Bobby is the weakest and least satisfying winner in DWTS history and, because of his win, the show has lost a lot of the little dance credibility it had to begin with. Bobby's fanbase is certainly happy, but not the rest of the viewership (who may have outnumbered Bobby's fanbase, but were split among all the good dancers we had this season). TV shows, in general, tend to already lose viewers year-to-year. I don't think this season helped DWTS' cause in slowing the decline. People may still watch, but with less regularity and with less investment.

I just want to say...WOW, what an episode! This was the type of show I was hoping for when the idea of DWTS Juniors was first introduced. While there are always things that could be criticized, I was just genuinely impressed by all four pairs. The amount and difficulty of the dance content required of the kids was incredible and they were all so dedicated in performing them to the best of their abilities. The fact that they taped two episodes a week, which means these kids had half the time as the adult show to prepare these dances, is even more incredible. This show obviously draws comparisons with the adult DWTS show, but I want to hold it as a model for SYTYCD as well. There is no excuse for a show with experienced dance contestants to have ballroom routines with watered-down content and technique when these kids can show you how it's done!

You may be right on the no dance aptitude part, but there have been many winners with no previous dance experience, including all of the male athlete winners, Brooke Burke, J.R. Martinez, Bindi Irwin, Nyle DiMarco...

In Week 4 of Season 11, as a special feature of the week, they did give out separate technical and performance scores. I specifically remember Bristol Palin being criticized for doing a clean, yet lackluster, passion-less rumba, which was reflected in her performance scores being lower than her technical ones. I never understood why the separate scoring couldn't have been made into a regular thing after that time.

I think the idea of having a separate technical score and performance score for each dance would be a logical and very easy change to implement. The 50/50 split stays the same, but the judges have more numbers to work with and can put a greater distinction in scoring the dances. That way, for example, a Bobby freestyle doesn't get the same score as a Milo or Evanna freestyle, even if the judges were thoroughly entertained. It also allows for more specific acknowledgement of what the couple did well and what was not done well...Len's dislike for lack of content and "messing about" and CAI's "lift police" could factor into the technical score. Things like "you were thinking about the steps," "it was too careful," and "lack of chemistry" would go into the performance score. If anything, it would give us all more to talk about! I can't imagine it taking more effort than, for instance, when they had a 4th judge's score to add in or when the couples are each dancing twice in the show and get two sets of scores. They have done it on the show before...what was the problem that they had to get rid of it?

Just wondering...if Bobby was more universally liked and if he hadn't said so many things that rubbed people the wrong way over the course of the season...would the reaction to his winning be the same? Because while I am up for changes in the scores+votes system, it would likely mean the end of everyone's fan favorites surprising and placing higher than expected...just wondering how people would feel about that?

I thought there was a satisfactory amount of content as well. I saw swivels, I saw kicks and footwork that often show up in quicksteps.

YMMV, but I think Milo's height makes him look a little older than 17...maybe even 20 or 21. Or at least old enough to where I found his dances with Witney believable. I think Milo and Alexis are just friends and are just excited about being friends. If there was something going on, I don't think they would be so open about it. Milo has said in interviews that Alan and Alexis are a real thing and that Alan is like a big brother to him.

There has been a lot of criticism since the winner announcement, but I think that the unfairness of this season's one-night, live finale voting is a legitimate and valid complaint, regardless of who won. IMO, it's something the show should not just ignore and should take steps not to repeat in the future. Half the country was left out of the loop about the live voting and then just told who their "winner" was. Even if the live voting were communicated clearly during the previous show, Pacific/Mountain zones should not have been forced to vote blindly (even if we would have anyway). Having the usual two-night finale may not have made a difference, but we'll never know. It is telling that this is the first time in 27 seasons with this setup and we get the most controversial result. Of course, this is probably what the show wanted all along...people talking about the show. Unfortunately, I think it will come with some repercussions. There has been vocal dissent every season about the results, but this time it goes beyond people being angry that their favorite didn't win.

If you think about it, the vote splitting that likely occurred could be viewed as a consolation for this season's outcome. It's not that the DWTS audience doesn't care about good dancing. The chunk of voting audience that cares about good dancing could actually have largely outnumbered Bobby's fanbase. It's just that the "good dancing" voters had as many as 8 options to choose from (Milo, Evanna, Alexis, Juan Pablo, Demarcus, Tinashe, and even John and Mary Lou were quite decent dancers). This made for a great show early on. Unfortunately, as you said, no single "good dancer" got enough votes to overtake Bobby in the end.

Sharna did her job and earned the win, but really, Bobby didn't even need to dance at all. He could have just caught up on all he sleep he was missing, because it is evident that dancing was not a factor at all for his voters. I think that's something Sharna needs to realize...a lot of people are irritated because, since dancing did not play a role in a show called "Dancing" with the Stars, this season almost feels like a big waste of time for everyone involved.

Alan also answered "Milo" to the same question LOL

When the finalists appeared on GMA yesterday morning, Milo was shown a video congratulations message from "Milo's parents" Camryn Manheim and Jeffrey Brezovar (although Camryn did all of the talking). Afterwards, Milo said how great it was for his dad to come out from Wisconsin to see him in the finale. There are clips as well as a full length video of the Tuesday morning GMA DWTS After Party on YouTube if you want to check it out.

I think there needs to be some YouTube rewatching of Helio dances because while there were stronger female dancers in Season 5, Helio was a GOOD dancer and it astounds me that he is being compared to Bobby in terms of dance ability. Helio scored a 25 for his Week 1 foxtrot and then a 27 for his Week 2 Mambo. His banana suit "The Mask" quickstep got a perfect score and is considered an iconic dance in DWTS history. No, Bobby is, by far, the weakest dancer to ever win DWTS.

The first few weeks, I wasn't sold on this show because a lot of the dances were not displaying enough content and/or technique and I was getting peeved at a lot of the pro mentors for not doing right by their kids. However, as the season has gone on, the dances have increased in substance and quality, and now I am really enjoying this junior edition. This is why I never had a problem (in fact, I welcome it) with the judges calling out lack of content in their critiques and reflecting it in their scores. Ariana/Artyon and Sky/JT are still my favorite couples and both are just stinkin' adorable. I agree with everyone that Alan and Brandon have been the most impressive coaches. I also want to give special props to JT for whatever ballroom training he undertook between his stint on SYTYCD: Next Generation and now. I am so impressed with how much he has improved and even looks like he has a command of the style.

What do you all think about a cumulative system? Meaning no weekly eliminations, everyone stays for the entire duration of the show, but the scores and votes from each week get added up. At the end of the season, the couple with the highest cumulative total of scores and votes wins. It might be less interesting that way, but at least we all would get to see our favorites dance every week.

A poster named Jason made the following suggestion on the Pure site and I actually find it a viable idea... Right now, we vote FOR who we want to stay/win. With this kind of system, I think you would be helping your favorite(s), but you would also have a say in who gets eliminated. What do you all think?

West Coast was able to vote, you just had to vote without watching the show....I voted for Milo almost two hours straight from 5-6:55pm PST. The voting info was in the Disney press release and discussed here in General Gabbery over the weekend, but I'm sure the majority of the fandom didn't know. I wonder if they had done the usual 2-night finale, with full Monday night voting for the whole country, if it would have made a difference in the results?

THIS. I wonder if TPTB realize how bad this is for them. For all the manipulation they do, they couldn't have done something to prevent this? I was preparing myself to be upset tonight with Milo not winning. But when I found out that the winner was BOBBY, I started cracking up and I am still laughing right now on the inside, it's so unbelievable. On a positive, I think this might be the most concensus this message forum (and many other DWTS forums across the web) has had in all the years of this show.

I am completely on board the Meredith/DeLuca train. I think they have plenty of chemistry and I like that, while hesitant to go there, Meredith is at least (for now) not being rude or playing hard-to-get like she was with Riggs and even Linc to an extent. (Also, with his hot factor, charisma, and sincerity...it's DeLuca over Linc for me, hands-down, no contest.)