Slew

* Judy had the perfect summary of Keyra, "...she does things small." No kidding. I described it last week..that Keyra's body type makes it look like plenty of things are going on, even when not much of anything is going on. She fools the suckers. Even in the clips supposedly demonstrating Keyra's improved energy and shake, it was still below average * Darn shame about Alexandria. She was my favorite rookie. Seemed classy, poised and elegant. Taking the cream from other squads after they've already matured and proven themselves makes a ton of sense. You can't be dense enough to believe the top liners show up fresh in your camp and your camp alone * As others have already emphasized, at least they didn't drag out the less-than-36 fear deeper into the episode. That would have insulted the audience. When they push and push the same theme it's a head fake * I noted that Kitty was shown embracing Christina on the field. Everyone else was being congratulated by family members. I felt bad for Christina. Maybe nobody from her family could make it * Maggie is my favorite. She got some air time in this episode but it was often weird facial expressions toward the camera. I didn't understand the need for that. No question Maggie has advanced far with cover photos and moving up the triangle, but like most veterans who didn't struggle as rookies the audience doesn't know much about her. Vivian and Christina types become high profile curiosities and remain that way. Otherwise I guess an understated veteran needs to royally screw up like Jenna did, to earn chunks of time devoted to her. I was so impressed that a 6 year veteran was finally understanding what is expected of her * Oregon has a superstar cheer and dance team. That's partially why I favor Maggie and was aware of her. Oregon overtook USC and other collegiate cheer squads many years ago. I'm not sure Kelli or Judy or anyone in the DCC organization has any clue about that. If you sample and post on college football message boards, as I do, the young guys go nuts about Oregon cheerleaders, far beyond any other school. Sometimes the threads with Oregon cheerleader photos are bandwidth hoggers and extend far beyond the game threads. Actually this began about 7 years ago, about the time Oregon faced Auburn for the national title. By now DCC should have been well aware of it and recruiting/encouraging the Oregon gals. Maybe they do. Granted it's a long trek. Maggie is very representative of the trademark Oregon gal -- tall All-America blonde with great midsection. * Weird for me to favor a blonde. Normally I love the Kelsey types. BTW, Kelsey seemingly gets better looking every year. Prior to Maggie I think the last blonde who struck me was Cara Wakelin and that was nearly 20 years ago. Cara wasn't a cheerleader. Never mind... * Terrific feature in this episode regarding the group leader forced to quickly pick up on the music and choose an appropriate dance routine within seconds. My wife and I have seen the same thing at various college football venues in recent years. We love to travel and I like to experience the game day atmosphere at different college stadiums, ones I've long watched on television. This is primarily in the southeast. For cheaper seats we often sit in the visiting section. Unfortunately the road team seldom brings its band anymore. Only in recent years have some of the schools started to bring their dance teams instead of the more short and stocky acrobatic cheerleaders. Nowadays those visiting dance teams invariably stand in formation when they know the home band is about to perform. Then the visiting dance leader signals her group, and away they go. My wife in particular has been amazed at how smoothly it unfolds.

The interview process is so random. That's what irritates me. On everything else you are asked to perform the same task. In gymnastics or diving terminology, they would share the identical degree of difficulty. Not in that interview room. Not even close. Some girls are handed lollipop questions while others are posed legitimate toughies. It's like a triple spinning double twist quadruple somersault dive being handled the same as touching your big toe into the water. I can't count how many times I've wondered if the squad makeup would have differed if the questioning had differed. Even when Kelsey supposedly nailed the question and the room burst into applause she didn't really have any idea what she was talking about. A linebacker is a defensive player but the responsibility is not often to sack the quarterback. Ask Kat and Kelsey separately to describe what a linebacker does and I wouldn't have had any problem assigning favoritism to who would supply the superior answer. Granted, we don't see everything in that interview process. I didn't care about Kat's dress. Maybe it was inappropriate although that didn't jump out to me at the time. In watching that segment I remember a distinct split in which Kelli seemed to think the criticism was overboard and so did the other woman whose name I forget right now. She normally sticks up for every borderline veteran and called Kat a "no brainer." Naturally the woman who asked the dress question went negative...prioritizing her own question. It was later during the review process that Charlotte sought her typical level. I never see any hint of rare insight. She zeroes in on one angle and pushes that to the exclusion of everything else. Kelli and Judy bow to her when they should ignore her. I think it's quite revealing that Charlotte will spend a partial day during tryouts because she knows that will be featured on opening episode of CMT but apparently never participates in training camp nights. She wouldn't stoop to devote the time and wouldn't know what she was looking at. Other than giving Danielle the benefit of a doubt I have little respect for Charlotte's participation on this program.

This probably won't be popular but IMO the two priorities should be appearance and personality/speaking ability. I'm a guy. Every comment I've ever heard about cheerleaders in the stands has been related to looks. Figure, face, energy and smile. It doesn't have to be huge chest, which is what many women think it means. I can't think of one time anybody cared about kicks or lines. The topic never surfaced in high school, college or all the pro games I've attended. For all the talk about blending, those are the aspects that blend. Nobody cares. If you want to know how many people in that stadium are preoccupied with Christina lacking 3 inches on her left leg kick, start with 2 max. Christina's hair is great this year and so is her smile. I've been rooting for her and I'm glad she made it. Romo's wife was seemingly the only one who understood this aspect, and prioritized appearance over irrelevant matters. Otherwise the public appearance significance is huge. I have a niece who is still a Jaguars fan based on meeting a cheerleader who was extremely nice and personable with her a few years ago. We don't even live in Jacksonville but happened to be visiting on a family matter and went to a Jaguars event. On this program it makes zero sense that the events receive so little spotlight, and specifically which cheerleaders excel in those matters and which ones mostly go through the motions. I think one time the specialist said something about a cheerleader who repeatedly turned down appearance opportunities. She should have been dumped immediately. On the other hand, I thought Kat really got a raw deal. Charlotte asked how could she be trusted to represent the organization. Wait a minute. She's already been on the squad a full year. You should know whether she can be trusted or not, in those public appearances and everything else, if you asked the proper questions throughout and actually cared about the matter, instead of mostly showing up when it's high profile CMT air time.

I agree with Judy about Keyra. She's not anything special. Her body type with the ample hips and caboose can make it look like there was plenty of movement going on, even when it mostly started there in the first place. The movement is mostly loose flesh more than anything she put into it. That's why Keyra thinks she's extra sexy. Walk around with any group of black guys and they go nuts over body types like that. Firm is not considered a positive.

Kelli was a wimp. Once she handed Holly that list and Holly tried to weasel out of it by emphasizing "now," Kelli should have told her she didn't care about now. Tell me who, what and when. We needed a few more minutes of lies and squirming. That would have been awesome television. Granted, I never liked Holly. We had a split decision in my household. My wife loved her dancing but I said Holly reminded me of all the girls you couldn't trust in college. The snakes. I thought Megan was the star of that class. I had to laugh every time I sampled this site and weight was the obsession. Who cares about a few pounds when it's class versus lack of class? It is a huge upset that neither one of them advanced beyond two seasons.

Okay, after sampling this program and this site occasionally for a few years, I finally found excuse to register. I have literally been astonished that the topic I quoted is not front, center and everywhere on this forum. It overwhelms every other aspect of the program, and that's been true for years. I can't think of any reality program in which one tendency stands out like this one, year after year. In my household we never fail to be amazed and laugh out loud, as one wide eyed petrified rookie after another is so pathetic that she robotically nods her head and blurts out a submissive, "Yes, ma'am," as Kelli or Judy offer yet another meaningless brief summary. The odds of that rookie fully understanding and applying that pointer are roughly the same as Kelli never using the term world class again. I loved Chelsea. It may not have been the brightest move toward her roster status but after season after season of wimpy refusal to ask basic necessary questions at least somebody eventually displayed some spunk. Melissa Rycroft is ridiculed around here, and dismissed as unnecessary. I couldn't disagree more. She is the one who recognized that the cheerleaders couldn't be expected to grasp those absurd simplistic tips. Melissa instituted a video review, one by one. Well isn't that a breakthrough? My wife and I had only been calling for that since the first time we saw the show years earlier. No kidding you see the girls suddenly perk up and smile during those individual sessions, once they finally see on tape what the heck Kelli and Judy were referring to. It's hardly a surprise that someone who participated in a dance program would understand the value and necessity. But here's the problem with that type of segment. Rightfully it should be included every week. Essentially it's like a mulligan for Melissa to touch up everything Kelli and Judy failed to accomplish. But since the show doesn't want to concede that type of thing is necessary, they find bizarre detours for Melissa like those smiley exercise bikes. We howled.