Flick

Any talk of ALM having a lasting negative impact on the show's ratings were unnecessary. When it was up against the regular line up (so without the premiere of the launch of a miniseries of a massively popular show), ratings were right back where they've been all season.

I think that's probably spot on and Charlie has voiced his agreement, too. He didn't really appreciate it, either. Source

I'd kind of like to see them have to merge the two. Or maybe I just want to see Meryl dance with Maks and Val. As a sidenote, it took me 3 times to not type Mal and Vaks.

Yes.

As soon as we got the bonus mini package of Charlie, I knew he was a goner. That said, it was incredibly entertaining. I'm kind of livid about Amy's jazz scores and bored by the level of praise heaped on Derek. I've been pulling for a Meryl or Charlie win, but now I'm kind of just pulling for Amy to lose. I never wanted her to win but I wasn't actively routing against her before tonight. That jazz and the choreographer of the generation finally did me in.

How... tacky. I've never been in love with them but I've never been overly bothered by them, but there's something about that blatant air of desperation that I don't know if I should applaud their honesty or recoil. I'm kind of doing both. Like, "Good for you, but that's like white shoes after Labor Day."

Mostly that appear is the key word in that phrase. There's also the fact that even if the dynamic between her and Maks is different, Meryl is used to keeping her professional commitments professional. Fedor might be an exception because I know he does occasionally work with his mother but I don't know that he did anything with D/W. He's also just... I don't know how to put it but to say that he's Fedor and he's notorious. Maybe they want to date but agreed to wait until after the show. Maybe one of them is smitten and the other isn't. Maybe they are dating already. Maybe this is Maks' craftiest season yet and he's cooked up a grand scheme to have a showmance that alienates fewer people because it isn't as glaringly showmance-y as others we've seen. There's a lot of maybes and they're all fairly reasonable (aside from one that'd involve them having been secretly married for years with a child being raised by their families) at this point. I think the only thing we can say for sure is that Maks is happy he got Meryl and Meryl doesn't seem to want to murder him in his sleep.

That's an Internet rabbit hole you don't want to fall down. I generally try and follow Wheaton's Law but the people over on there are psychotic and generally make me want to punch things/respond to their immense dickitude in kind. They hate everything about everything but particularly Meryl. And to make this semi on topic, I agree that Maks is prone to hyperbole. I also agree that he's prone to being very affectionate. I think that people declaring every time he or someone else declares that he's a different person with a partner that he's also affectionate with as a showmance is also an example of people taking what they want from a situation and seeing what they want to see. There've absolutely been situations where Maks has played it up, but there are also partners that I haven't seen it as anything other than him praising his partner and being his usual touchy feely self but people still declare it a showmance. I don't think that saying that they're a different person with a partner is that big of a deal because to manage the personalities involved the pros really do need to try and adapt their personalities to their celeb. We've seen that Maks does that with various degrees of success.

Agree with so much of the above. Personally, I don't see too much of the showmance that others have mentioned but that's just me. I watch the CW for background noise so at this point something has to be pretty ridiculous for me to see it as an over the top push of something. Whether I think there's a real romance or attraction or crush or what have you, I don't know that either. I generally don't take much of the rehearsal packages seriously because they all lack context and that could change everything. What I definitely do think is that Maks is in awe of Meryl and has a lot of respect for her. That could translate to a romantic affection or it could be purely professional. I think that they're both people who excel at creating chemistry with a partner and in this scenario the chemistry in their dances often reads romantic and they are affectionate towards each other off the dance floor. It's definitely a different chemistry than she has with Charlie but it's also a different situation and a different person. If they are selling a showmance then it's definitely a much more reserved and subtle one than we've seen in the past or current attempts to sell one with other couples. What I do know is that I was at a bridal shower this weekend and all of the people there (except one) want them to win. There were a few that added "and then date." The lone hold out was a ballroom instructor that wanted Derek to win, but did admit she wanted him to win based on his own abilities and that Amy probably didn't deserve to win.

Given how hard the show pushes social media, I'd suspect the response there is more concerning for them than the ratings. As I said, there are a variety of factors that influence the ratings and they can't be pinned down. There's no denying that the outcry on Facebook and twitter was directly related to ALM because you can see exactly what people are saying. You can't do that with ratings because there's no measurement as to why people are or aren't watching a show. You don't know if people watched something else because they dislike ALM or because they cared more about 24/NBA/whatever than DWTS. Ratings are important, but they're far from the only thing taken into consideration by the networks or advertisers. You can't really prove causation by ratings alone and correlation in a single episode isn't enough to prove anything. Fan response, especially since odds are those fans aren't part of your measurement, and the response of the pros should be what the network reviews in this scenario if ALM was someone they were looking at.

I personally thought "But how was the rumba?" from Tom was the funniest of the night, especially combined with the reactions of the other three.

I can't find anything hard and fast saying that's what happens, but my friend has been pretty insistent upon that fact. It's commonly accepted as fact in the circles I travel in. Even though it does make sense and the fact that networks have begun forcing consumers to sit through commercials supports it, the current system is silly. They could really be getting much more accurate numbers with how far technology has come.

To my knowledge they don't count at all per a friend who works for another entertainment outlet, which makes sense. The statement that they're devalued is 3 years old. There's no value in ads if people aren't watching ads and that's really what the ratings are for. Most on demand content from major networks have actually disabled the fast forward option. While that wouldn't impact same day ratings, it does allow all views to be counted for L+3 and L+7. Most networks also have ads built into digital content.For a show with an elimination that's not usually a massive game changer but for scripted shows they can see massive increases in their extended ratings.

I'm sure that there were a lot of people who didn't watch because of her, the bigger question is how many of those people actually have the ability to impact the ratings because the criteria for that is very slim. It's only people with boxes or people who DVR and watch the episode through without fast forwarding that get counted. There've been about a dozen organized boycotts of shows I watch this season and the only times the rating have declined have been on nights where there's something major in the slot (premieres, finales, 100th episodes, sporting championships, etc.). Plus, generally tptb don't get super concerned with a one week ratings drop, it's sustained declines that are the problem. In regards to ALM, I think they'd likely be more concerned by the general hostility between everyone involved than numbers that could be attributed to something else.

Eh, a single week doesn't necessarily indicate any kind of relationship. The numbers for 24's premiere were huge for Fox, up 1.7 and 4.09 from the previous week when Bones was on as a repeat. Essentially, 24's numbers were comparable to Sleepy Hollow's this fall when DWTS was getting about what they did on Monday night. If it's a sustained thing then maybe you can associate the two, but for people to be included in ratings they either need to have a Nielsen box or DVR and watch the show that night without fast forwarding through commercials. I don't know that I believe enough people that fit that criteria made a conscious choice to not watch the show because of ALM.

I have to give credit to ALM, this is the first time ever that I've gone back and rewatched an episode solely for the judging. And by for the judging, I mean to pick up all the little moments where CAI, Len, Bruno, and Tom were just 200% done ALM. Needless to say, there were a lot of them. I enjoyed the various attempts to not smile/hide their laughter when Val bit back about the Chaines turns.

IIRC, the closest 4 or 5 star hotels to Beverly other than that Marriott are in Boston. I'd be willing to wager that's where they'll be. I don't know much about the other stops, but I'm actually intrigued enough about this stop that I might look into going. NSMT is in the round, so the experience is way different than seeing it on a proscenium stage. It's actually a really nice little theater.

From the Glamour blog (which is always filled with really juicy tidbits that you should take with an entire shaker full of salt...

It's part of the interview package that Tony did for Extra. You can see it here. He's absolutely not on an out of control tear or anything, but he very much expresses his disapproval and his support for the pros. That video has Maks, Mark, Tony, Charlie, and Derek all expressing verbal disapproval for Abby.

I noticed that as well, particularly in regards to Charlie. I was wondering if it was a combination of it being something he's incredibly comfortable/confident with and that it felt like he had something he could contribute. From the rehearsal footage, it appeared that Charlie was able to really take on the role of a partner and instructor in regards to the lifts (which of course makes sense) rather than that of the student. When it comes to lifts, Charlie has more than enough experience to know what needs to happen and I wonder if that confidence translated across the dance as a whole. I think that in general contemporary is the most comfortable for Charlie and it is in part because it does use his musicality, but maybe it's also because he feels like he has applicable knowledge to the dance and that sets him more at ease with it.

I just say that because I've broken toes dancing and I've broken toes misjudging a step. I've actually done the latter more than the former, though I never did ballroom so who knows how applicable that experience is.

Have we even heard how she broke it? I know Tony said she did during switch week, but I don't recall seeing any information on how it happened. If we haven't, for all we know it could've happened outside of training and have nothing to do with how hard Val was or wasn't pushing her. I remember that both Meryl and Charlie were both in flip flops following SOI a few days after the switch up performances but I don't recall any kind of obvious injury to her toes (swelling, bruising, etc.) which does support what I've seen others saying about it being one of her small toes. It'd still be painful with the constant skating/heels thing, of course.

But given that ALM decided she was scoring a contemporary, she took two points off for bad feet. Which is really just more reasons to add to the list of why never again.

She also said that Meryl was milking an injury. I'm not sure which injury that is since we haven't actually heard Meryl mention an injury but I'm guessing it's the broken toe/foot issues that Tony spoke about and Erin alluded to. I must say that we've seen a lot of different ways of milking an injury on this show but not mentioning it is the most unique way yet.

It wasn't that Peta didn't back him, at least from the interviews I saw, it was that Peta literally said nothing while James went on to say how great it was she was on the show and something about how it's refreshing to hear different perspectives. James, when Charlie White is taking a woman's teaching methods to task and Meryl Davis is basically saying that she needs to be able to take as well as she can dish out, walking the line of civility probably isn't necessary. I mean, you have two people who have been accepting criticism with a smile for years all but point blank says that no one respects her... I don't know if I think the pros conspired to get that question asked or if the producers had it on hand and would've fed it to any of the male pros as they're more liable to respond as Maks did (though, Sharna probably would've been a good option given the attitude/arabesque drama). I also don't think that they would've worried too much about there being a negative reaction from fans. The woman is fairly universally reviled and I think that had it been anyone other than Maks there probably would've been less back and forth about whether he was being a jerk or not. Derek would've skated by, Mark has been tolerable this season so he probably would have too, and I think Val would've too. That said, from comments around the interwebs it seems like it's energized voters rather than turned them off.