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Of course they don't all expect to win, but the ones that are going in with talent have a hope of it and at the absolute very bottom line IMO, it's about ego. Ego means not wanting to look super unpopular while standing next to whatever conservative man with no talent they put in the line up that season. At the end of the day, the celebs have fragile egos and don't want to look like fools. Also maybe I should have said, you will not get ringer types, which means a lot of mediocre dancing. It's still a popularity contest and ones that celebs are not going to want to lose. I'd also add it's also going to look like bad PR for most celebs to say yes to a show won by Spicer. DWTS was always fairly low brow anyway, but PR people are going to be steering their clients away from it even more. Especially with the reaction from the industry when Spicer was cast this season. The rest of this seasons celebs could dodge most of the fallout because they of course signed on not knowing who else would be on this season, but everyone else will be willingly going onto a show where Spicer was invited and won despite no discernable talent.

Personally I don't think people expressing shock that a horrible dancer with next to no skills not being in the B2 based on skill equals revulsion. Maybe it's shock that good dancers who are growing and can dance to some degree keep going home while a person who barely moves their feet moves on. I know that is part of the game, but I haven't seen anything from the judges or etc. where they are acting like they revile Sean as a human being. Even though I would. I do think a Spicer win is going to kill the show in some way. It might be renewed and come back revamped, but they are sure going to have a harder and harder time getting celebs to sign up for fear they will be competing against Spicers. Especially when they look at the winner before that too. No celeb unless they are absolutely desperate is going to sign up for a popularity contest that they can't win they are uber conservative.

I can't fault Sean for shilling for himself, it's the how he does it that bothers me. If you're equating your DWTS run to family values and making America great again, that is a problem. But I agree on the rest. I think a strategic celeb endorsement during voting hours can help somewhat if a celeb blatantly spells out how to vote, but I don't think most celeb endorsements do all that much and especially since often they will post something at like the beginning of the day and so it's buried by the time the show is on. A well timed one can be a reminder to somebody who maybe was going to vote and forgot, but that is about it.

I think you are severely overestimating some of our pros. Many of them are apolitical at best and/or are conservative or come from conservative families (see the Utah folks). They might not like the attention being around Sean brings them, but I'd be surprised if most had an actual issue with Sean. Which is why the whole owning the libs crap makes no sense in this particular context. Cheryl wrote a whole blog and how great Sean is and how he's a different person and blah blah. I'm fairly certain most of the Utah girls come from families that support Trump. Alan too. I don't know if they do, but their families do. These are not people that ever speak out about anything political ever. In our current crop of pros, Peta is the only one I can think of who is vocally anti Trump. Val is questionable as he's a "both sides" guy more than anything and Pasha/Daniella are too new for me to know. The celebs, yes, I think some of them may be putting on a front to get through this. Off the top of my head, I know Hannah, Sailor, Karamo and Kate are politically at the opposite end of the spectrum from Sean's former boss. Probably others too, but those are the ones who have posted things that make it pretty clear.

That is not the contestants fault. They have to do that and of course they will employ their fanbases. The setup of the show this season means that if a contestant goes last or towards the end that viewers have less time to vote for them based on merit, so it's not technically fair the other way either. If people are only voting based on having seen the dances, then if person X goes first, that person has almost two full hours of voting based on merit and person Y going last has 15 minutes. So that setup isn't fair either. Plus if people were really voting fairly in that way, then viewers would have to wait until the end of the show to vote since it would be fair to watch everyone dance before making a decision. But that has never been how fans react to this show. I understand being upset at the structure TPTB created. I can't be upset at the contestants (besides Spicy) for having to work an impossible system to try and stay in the game.

Cheryl even before this strikes me as fairly apolitical and she does come from a rich family, which I have no idea how they lean. But yeah, I don't expect people to be mean to the guy and I understand not trashing him but the excessive tongue baths from some about how he's misunderstood is jarring. It is interesting as the celebs and others get kicked of to get vibes on the whole Sean mess. Karamo keeps waffling back and forth but has finally started walking back his "we're friends" crap he was peddling at his elimination and Kate clearly has no use for him. I don't know that she hates him but I'm pretty sure she hates what he stands for from context clues and is mostly trying to avoid the topic, except of course the media keeps asking her directly.

I don't know if it was all for show on Karamo's part or if he feels like he just can't win so he keeps telling different stories in different situations. The part that bothered me with Karamo is around the time he was eliminated he was going to extremes to talk about all the head to heads he had with Sean in his trailer and how he's a great guy and etc. I'm not saying anyone on set should be mean to Sean's face for no reason but there is a difference between just co-existing with the guy and having sit down head to heads with him in his trailer, like Karamo was claiming he did.

So TPTB are going to make their employees act like robots? Also I don't think anyone is acting shocked over Sean's politics on the show (even though I know it is killing Tom) but acting shocked over his non dancing ass not even being in the B2. I also don't think them acting as if everything is fine and dandy would be making things any better. Because the other common theme I see among Sean "fans" besides owning the libs or whatever is they are butthurt on Sean's behalf because the judges are so mean to him. Which honestly I don't think they have been. IMO they have mostly been nicer than necessary for a dance competition. There is this really weird belief out there among a certain segment of the population that any critique based on lack of actual talent is bullying and mean and unfair. It's why I always laugh at the supposed snowflake culture because lets just say usually the ones accusing the others of being the snowflakes are the actual snowflakes. They all think Sean deserves rainbows and ponies for effort despite him willingly coming into a competition where he knew there was a judging component. So in order to appease his base, Sean would need to be getting all positive comments and high scores and everyone will smile at everything he says, but if that were the case he still wouldn't be B2 because his scores would be even higher than they are now. And his base would probably find something else to complain about. I have seen that Karamo has started walking back his comments about Sean and saying they aren't friends and he was just being civil for the competition.

Also Sean doesn't control his own edits, so to the poster saying he's not talking about politics, we really don't know that. He's just not being edited by the show to talk about politics. The thing about the show is I think they want the controversy and to bring the guy on, but then won't make him appear controversial on the show. They want to make him a teddy bear every man nice guy. I think the show leaving politics out of it is their way of attempting to humanize him. The other part about owning the show I don't understand is from Sean's angle, he himself is claiming that he is becoming friends with these people. He likes Lindsay and likes the pros and crew and etc. Taking him at face value, what his fans are trying to do is get the show cancelled. So they are trying to get the show cancelled so that Sean's friends all lose their livelihood? What a great friend.

Well, yeah, but the hosts and judges don't cast the show. What is a host going to do about it? Same with fans. We have no say over the cast so of course people that were fans of the show are going to whine over a show we once like feeling ruined. The fans whining is probably the only way TPTB will change anything going forward. And yeah, again we have had tons of controversial people before but we are still in new territory when they are being backed by the leader of the free world on a weekly basis. Anyway, without knowledge of personal politics (though I know which way Kate leans from her own social media), I am gaining even more respect for Pasha and Kate in terms of how they are brushing aside the Spicer questions right now. Sure that might change I guess and they aren't going to badmouth the guy, but so far they are one of the only couples that aren't acting like Sean is their new best friend. It's also not because they are bitter because they come off as anything but and just keep saying the votes are the votes, but it's a world of difference from Karamo last week acting like he and Sean are about to star in their own buddy comedy.

I agree on that too. I think Lauren had so much confidence out there shaking it that they also didn't want to entirely crap on her effort and kill her vibe. But as you said, on the other side Lauren looked a little bummed when she didn't get even one vote. I was also glad Kate got to go out at least after the dance off where she got a win and also I thought she seemed a lot more carefree and confident in the cha cha, which was a nice vibe to go out on. Though maybe she was confident going against Spicer. Ha. She was having a ball during that one.

Because they determined it I believe based on cumulative scores from the season. James was safe from the dance off because he was the highest scorer across the entire season, not last night. I could be wrong, but I assumed that was how they determined the rest of the pairings as well though that wasn't specifically said.

I get what you are trying to say and it certainly is a possibility, but the thing is that the judges are acting shocked every week when he's announced safe. I don't think any of them are great actors and plus after hearing CA kind of freaking out after the show about it, I just don't think the judges would know that about the scoring. I guess it's possible TPTB are whispering in their ear the range of scores to give for contestants but not telling them the why, but I don't think the judges know or they wouldn't be acting the way they are acting. The only part I don't get at this point is why everyone is acting shocked week to week. I knew going in that Spicer would still be safe this week and Kate was likely toast landing in the B2 with anyone else. Yet my mother freaks out every week at the end of the show when he's still there. Speaking of this, I'm sure they had Jenna stand in because she had more experience and Lindsay may have asked her directly, but I thought the whole point of Daniella/Keo this season was that they were swing pros to step in where necessary if somebody had to be out. Don't get me wrong in that I'm happy to spare poor Daniella from having to be anywhere near Spicer, but isn't that what she's there to do?

Can ABC put this woman in a tv show in the near future? I would like her back on my tv sooner rather than later. Signed, a fan.

In lighter topics, Len's love for Pasha knows no bounds. He crashed their interview to praise Pasha some more. I'm not sure I've ever seen Len love a pro more. I also just love both of their attitudes. Someone needs to bottle this woman's energy. Kate, Pasha & Len Also in the same set of interviews, Carrie Anne did an incredulous one about how she's so upset about the voting and Spicy still being here, without saying his name of course, and she thought the whole Bobby thing was a one off last season. Which I will say it's not the judges fault idiot Spicer got cast because clearly they don't have that kind of say, but is she also not the same woman giving Spicer a 7 when she gave both Lauren & Kate 8's last night. I'm not saying scoring him lower would necessarily work, but the judges could be trying a little harder to separate some room.