Matilda

This makes a lot of sense to me. I do still think it's a disservice to a legacy because it creates unnecessary questioning of their abilities. VK was completely qualified this year and worked hard to get there over the last year, but by forcing her (and her mother) on us, there's a big group of us that dislikes her. But you're right - Kelli and company don't care. VK is family and this is a family operation from Jerry Jones on down. They will never run out of women who want to try out, so they can just chalk up the criticism to 'haters gonna hate'

Finally watched it. It's a little confusing as to why some of them get more airtime than others. And why not give them all something of a closeup? I did find it interesting that Kat was put with Jalyn - two of the most striking women on the team.

This made me think about something. I think that the team is doing a great disservice to the legacy candidates by making a big deal out of them. Legacy status anywhere - colleges, etc - is increasingly controversial. It always looks like you got in because your mom/dad is so and so. That's a terrible narrative for someone to have hanging over them, and it's a million times worse when Kelli and company builds a whole season(s) of a TV show around that woman. If they gave Victoria just a standard amount of air time and didn't focus on her, we would not hate her as much. She'd just be another of the dingbat/blonde/long leg variety that Kelli likes who is more than qualified to make the team. Instead, by focusing on Victoria (and her mother!) and their connections to DCC, we can't stand them. By focusing on legacies, Kelli is literally harming the very people she wants to promote.

Uh, this is Texas we're talking about - Dallas in particular. If we go by demographics over a third of the team should be Latina. I actually don't think that they're consciously discriminating, though. I just think that they pay so little and don't seem very welcoming to diversity, so non-white dancers don't even apply. Not to mention that you have to sign up to sell your soul to CMT and the Dallas Cowboys organization so that they can follow you around with cameras your whole life. Who wants that when you can go to Broadway or tour with Hamilton?

IKR?!

EXACTLY. It's not that she's excited. She should be excited. I would be. I'm a mom who is crazy proud of her daughters. It's that this is supposed to be about her daughter's accomplishment not hers. Instead, she's doing the same damn dance reminding everyone she was a DCC. SO CRINGEY!

I don't know the woman, so I don't want to say it's the only thing she's ever accomplished because life is long and some of our best accomplishments are never known. Now stepping off my soap box, ITA that TK IS SO CRINGEY, providing enough second hand embarrassment for women every where in 2019. I totally GET being a damn proud mama, but sit in that seat in a stylish blazer and happily beam and clap. This is your daughter's day, not yours!

OMG. A mashup of those two shows would be hilarious! But as @dariafan said, Kat would win because even if you don't think she's the best dancer she's entertaining and has a ton of charisma. Meredith would be awkward and boring. She's a beauty, but she's dull as dishwater.

Sometimes I'm a Kelli defender, but all of her unlikable qualities were on full display in this episode. 1. A favorite doesn't look good in the uniform? We'll make a new one! I'm sure there were some girls cut in years past over this issue who rolled their eyes. 2. Someone bombs their media stuff and has a tin ear? Let's just drag her over the coals rather than explain why that doesn't come off well. 3. Someone faints on the field? Oh God - obviously they're faking it and/or wasting our time. 4. "This has been a dramatic training camp with helicopter crashes, car crashes, and fainting on the field" -Whaaaat? How are these things connected at all. If I were Shaina, I would be pissed that Kelli was lumping a very personal tragedy with the other two. They dynamic there was just all weird. Maybe Kelli is still pissed that Shaina wasn't appropriately appreciative over the pastor special guest?

NOTE TO SELF after watching Victoria bungle the can opener looking like a spoiled fool on national television. My kids are opening every can in this house for the rest of this year.

"As much as Kat struggles, only Denise Dicharry and Travis Wall cut her so I guess it makes a little more sense why she made it now." I'm beginning to think that they've cut this show to create uncertainty around Kat when there shouldn't be any. All these people support her with those stickers. She must look better than what we're being shown. Last night, Kelli even said something like "I love watching Kat on the field". Did they create drama around her to make her more of a standout later when she's on the team? Same with Meredith (bonus for them she is a natural waterworks...). Anyway, they're both way more striking than most of the rest of the rookies. It's just super suspicious that these two are always hanging in the balance, but then not really... And I thought most of the girls were lame at the media - and the girl who SWORE and got bleeped... OMG... why didn't she get pulled in to the office? Miss Prim and Miss Proper K and J have to be called ma'am and tear into a girl for crying in the bathroom but they let it slide that someone cursed in a media roleplay. WTF?

+1 I think it's a great she's striking out on her own (and honestly to Kelli's credit - Kelli seems to love and encourage her daughter to be herself not Kelli 2.0) All I know about Sam is her instagram, and the worst thing I can say about her is she's BFFs with Victoria and hasn't seemed to convince tell her friend that she needs to take the makeup, lashes, teeth, hair color down a notch.

Lose weight or lose your job is a pretty standard rule for professional dancers - Broadway, Ballet, etc. I know it's hard to hear and see on TV when they harsh on a woman's weight, but that's what directors are thinking and saying to each other in dance auditions across the spectrum. The funny thing for me is that I do Bikram yoga and these hot young (not me) Bikram instructors have fierce, zero fat bodies, but often abs are so developed they have a curve to their tummy. When you can count some of the DCC women's ribs, you know they've lost weight for flat stomach, but they have don't have a great core.

Regardless of the what church do you go to questions, there's no denying that religion is a huge part of Texas culture - Dallas in particular. I grew up in Irving and still have family there. When I go home to visit, I'm always reminded about how different it is from the rest of the country. Bringing your pastor to work to counsel your employees would set off alarm bells at 99% of other workplaces but somehow for the Cowboys organization everybody says - great! let's do it! FWIW, I thought the pastor had a good tone for his remarks and I was just impressed that Kelli goes to a small, diverse parish rather than a mega church with baristas.