kitcloudkicker

It's worded poorly, I think. He means that at any point in the season, any one of the four left held the top spot. "They" is all four of them. At different times. It doesn't really surprise me - I know it's not a great measure, but if you look at the DWTS YouTube page, all four have week by week been at the top of most views. The videos from this season have also gotten dramatically fewer views than last season. Last season Sadie was consistently pulling down 300k views, and quickly, and this season has only had a few videos get that high, and it hasn't been a consistent person at the top. Makes me feel like voting is down this season as well, and that's why it's close. Noah must really be pulling in votes though, because he's been scored at a much lower level than the other three by the judges.

Spoiler for Len's judges pick dance. (It's quite sweet!)

Yeah, this has absolutely nothing to do with Houghs. It's Disney promoting their own. No way they're NOT going to milk that kid.

Ross is the one they originally wanted for the show, isn't he? He's unarguably the bigger star of the Lynches (2.3M Twitter followers to Riker's 800K) and his Disney show star status makes him more naturally in line with the Corbins and the Zendayas they've had before.

Eh, I judge it less by wins, which, maybe I'm alone, don't mean all that much to me. The Mirrorball is a MacGuffin, it sets the plot in motion. I judge it more by featured player status. Which I've seen them get about equal of. If DWTS had a playbill, they'd both be at the top as main cast. Also, the issue of tempers and who gets a little snappy when they are tired has nothing to do with wins. We can compare everyone on that scale. (Though it'd get real boring.)

Seven Nation Army, by the White Stripes

I'm torn! They'd both be such pretty Juliets. If Val is Juliet, Maks gets to be Tybalt, and Julianne and Mark can be Benvolio and Mercutio. :P

I said that, in reference to him having a pattern of being really intense. Which I think is true. I think he can get in his own way with it sometimes, if it starts to stress out his celebrity. I did not call him abusive. People did call Derek abusive, implying that he injures his partners. The only seasons I've watched in real time have been Amy Purdy and admittedly unathletic Bethany, but I haven't seen evidence of this, I thought he was great with them. Amy got injured because of how much core strength it took her to balance and dance, and it threw out her back, and Bethany rolled an ankle early on but otherwise went uninjured. I do think it's funny though, when it becomes Derek vs Val wars, because I see them as more alike than different, in terms of their flaws. They both seem to be perfectionists. They both occasionally push the star a little too hard. They've both been accused of coming across as arrogant. Most of the time I like them both, because they turn out dances I enjoy, but it feels like more people who hate one should also hate the other. But I guess people like picking "sides," and that doesn't fit the Montague/Capulet - Hough/Chmerkovskiy narrative.

I have heard 3 in the final. Which makes sense, given the return of the results show - they're back to being able to eliminate the person the week that they dance, and not having to wait until the next week. I think that's why they switched to four in the finale. When they run it with four, one of them is toast before they even dance, because they're working off the last weeks votes. If you have a results show, you can eliminate them right after they dance, and you don't have to make them learn a dance for a week before you tell them.

Mark talked about that - he called the music "ear candy only" and mentioned how they literally don't do anything "to" the music, it just happens to be going on while they're doing other stuff. So there's not counting, and there's not really timing at all. Speaking of Travis Wall, he worked with Nastia on a floor routine and made sort of similar comments about how surprised he was about how different gymnasts approach a routine and how dancers do. Yeah, that was kind of my point. It wasn't exactly the most non-assy thing of Val to say in camera blocking, "The reason I'm dragging you through the routine is because you're not going fast enough" while he got in her face and she couldn't breathe, but I didn't see anyone making a big deal about that one. I don't like when Val gets that intense, and was happy he admitted to that flaw this week, but at the end of the day, I can forgive bouts of short tempers. Some or all of them might be asses in real life, but much like Maddie Ziegler tonight (who I think has got to be a brat), if they can usually act professionally, and pull through for a beautiful or interesting performance I've been finding I don't care all that much?

Shaping Soooouuuund! I always love seeing them. (Since Afterbuzz is busy handing out Emmy's to Mark this season, I'll poke in and hope Travis finally gets one at some point.) I have realized that my dream show would basically be a choreographer's version of Project Runway, which is why I tend to like the creative stagings of dances, and see how they pull them together more than I really care if the celebrity went on a journey or was in twu wuv or gets a little cranky when they get tired. Seriously, I didn't think that Derek/Nastia package showed anything more than a few tired people getting a little snippy because they needed to break for the day. Non-drama drama. Happened to Rumer/Val last week. Somewhere over the Rainbow is not really a song Josh Groban's should keep in his repertoire, but the Maddie Ziegler dance was lovely. I wanted to dislike it because she seems like she might be a little shit, but damn, she moves beautifully.

I had heard a Rumer that she was picked by Val for Rumer's dance, and then the concept changed to want a male dancer/Artem. This is why I think there was no chance that "Noah picked Emma and surprised Sharna" - I thought it was well known that the pros usually work out the trios ahead of time amongst themselves, and everyone knows who's picking who.

The redemption arc for Rumer did seem a bit contrived (give "traditionalist" Val awful songs two weeks in a row, and then give him some great classic ones, tadaaah! They're back!) but I'll go along with it. They were good. Glad to see Val admit that he gets too intense and sucks the fun out of everything. I called that out last week! Validation! Way to be self-aware, Val! I missed everything before their rhumba, so I'd have to go back, but I'm not surprised the Derek in the Paso thing didn't go over well. They put that up as an "America's Choice" thing on the DWTS Instagram (Should Derek be Cesear or should he sit in the audience?) and all the comments were voting for him to be Cesear - and I had a bit of a bad feeling about it. It was Nastia's turn to get jobbed in that second package, I guess - I caught some of their live stream this week and she was happy, bubbly, and had super fun chemistry with both Derek and Sasha. They were all rather hilarious with each other. I don't feel like we've gotten to see that side of her on the actual show. I liked the jive - I agree with the comments that having them dance "all together" has lost impact since all the troupe stuff, so it was a fun different twist. Whyyy that makeup and hair for Nastia though? Riker's jazz (I almost straight up called it a freestyle) was really great - he def drove that. Though I'd expect him to, that's right in his wheelhouse. (Whatever his ballroom training is or isn't, he definitely has extensive training in that sort of dance.) A little obnoxious with the, "We chose Brittany because she could dance at our level" stuff. Really? None of the other pros would be worthy of you? Robert...zzzzzzzzz...Noah...zzzzz.....Chris...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Transmedia, so hot right now.

I wonder about Riker's fans - I think they said R5 had gotten some success in South America, which makes me wonder if he's got a chunk of fans that aren't that engaged with an American TV show. I can't tell how popular they are here, not being in touch with the teen set, but it seems okay but not huge? His brother seems to have the most notariety from his Disney channel shows. But then I've seen comments that make it seem like he's won over some DWTS faithfuls who didn't know who he was before the show, so that's good for him. I hope he pulls through. The only people I know who watch the Bachelor do so to make fun of it, and I still don't get the Robert appeal, so I'm a bad judge of those two's staying power. I would hope they're the double.

Per Henry's Instagram: I'll take the word of the man himself, he was not there "completely taking over teaching duties during the week." And again, I'm not saying that's no work. It's clearly work. It's just not "all the work." Here he is getting on-air credit for that by the way. The fact that they all have egos is not necessarily negative for me. It's facts. (I was a big fan of Travis Wall on his season of SYTYCD, even though it was kind of clear he was a little shit.) It doesn't change that I'd like to see Henry get a pro again. And again, from Shirley, the thing I took is that Henry asked to not have Nastia duty anymore. It did not seem to be about credit. If I had to guess, it was probably about feeling like it was being rubbed in his face that they only gave him one shot at being a pro. That's human, I get it. It just feels like a thing though, that has more people riled up around the sidelines mad on his behalf than it might be to actually be living. Or maybe it does suck to be actually living it, I just don't feel like I have enough of any information to get riled up on anyone's behalf. Whether or not Derek should have come back is a different discussion for me than the Henry discussion. I actually kind of agree that he shouldn't have, even though I tend to like his dances. But I just don't think you can say that Derek's decision to come back has an A to B impact on Henry - Louis VanAmstel was being rumored about coming back, or they may not have been able to get the extra celebrity, the cast may have been set at one less, who knows? They do that. Nastia seems to have been signed specifically because they were looking for someone for Derek. There are too many variables for me to say Derek's decision to come back specifically robbed Henry. Re: Corky's comments on Nastia & Sasha's dance, I think for me, Derek's role in it didn't bother me because he didn't pull focus for me. My eyes were on Nastia and Sasha, the troupe movements in the back served to emphasize them rather than detract (again, for me), and I sort of barely registered when he pulled out the microphone. Watching it back and focusing on him, I agree it was self-indulgent at the end, and especially if he did pull focus for so many people. If he had just stuck to a "troupe role" minus the microphone, I think he would have been fine. Re: Other Ballas thoughts, I also rolled my eyes at all the "we's." "We have a show on HGTV! We got eliminated this week!" Yikes, helicopter much? ;)

Yep yep yep. Also, as a troupe member, it kinda is quite literally Henry's job to be a prop, so. I totally get why he might want more, but the fact is he's not the pro this year. Also, without optics into what happened, potentially, this all went down without much drama. Henry may have just approached producers and asked to be reassigned. I don't feel too badly for Nastia, because she seems to have proven herself to be a rather chill person, and seems happy and upbeat about the whole thing.

Henry was, in fact, shown in a package, and they spent a lot of time on him. He was interviewed in a talking head. They showed the back and forth with Derek over video. I don't know how much more shown he could have been. The thing about the Henry situation that I took away was that it was Henry's decision to leave Nastia duty - so the only thing that confirmed was that he wasn't fired in a Derek diva fit, like I'd seen speculated. I don't necessarily think that it speaks terribly of Henry that he asked to be replaced - it just kills the argument that poor Henry got passed over. Listen, they've all got egos. And I like Henry, but the fact that his instagram is plastered with selfies of his 12-pack makes me think he's not exempt. And we know Derek is very type-A and controlling about his dances. That they'd butt heads isn't surprising to me. Sasha seems much more willing to just go along with it. They worked it out. Maybe Henry regrets bowing out now that Sasha's getting a bigger role, or maybe he doesn't, since Derek's still controlling everything. He might feel fine about bowing out of it all, as it might be driving him up a wall more than it does Sasha. I liked that Shirley speaks highly of all the dancers. There seem to be fan contingents that are convinced there's a BallasHough/Chmerkovskiy, Montague/Capulet, Hatfield/McCoy situation going on, and that seems to be clearly untrue. Re: jidges - they do have their own thread?

I wasn't really paying attention to the points last night, but this is definitely how it worked last season when Janel & Val won immunity, she got the extra points too. Which makes sense to me - otherwise it would be effectively punishing you for the next week because you were the best that night, by not giving you the chance to earn the bonus. Their bonus points systems are always a hot mess though.

Yeah, the Radio City show has a million moving parts that are non-Derek, and while I'm sure that they aren't the happiest that he's hurt, well, that's why they have understudies ready to go. And I have to think that the producers of the show obviously knew that this was a potential risk of letting him do both shows, and they ultimately decided that the publicity boost of having him be on TV every week talking about the show outweighed the risk. Honestly, I think his highest priority is probably that tour this summer, which he kind of proved last night. I would guess they have investors, who would stand to lose if that was at risk, and that one definitely can't really go off without him.

I believe that ambulance is standing by at all times, anyone who's ever been injured in a way that meant they had to be taken to a doctor has been carted off in it. I'm not sure, but I feel like they might be required to have it there, and if you need to go to the ER for any reason, you have to take it - like how there's always an ambulance at the ready at any high school football game.

Okay, no reading this if you haven't read the Hunger Games books but

Sasha's been the practice partner for about two or three weeks now. There are lots of fanspiracies about why the switch, the official reason given was "Henry had scheduling issues." Take that as you will. I like to think Henry is being punished for having a very stupid haircut. (He's a good looking guy, what is that on his head?!)

:( Willow broke my heart a little bit. I knew she was toast as soon as they called that bottom 3, but that was hard to watch. I usually can handle Val's bravado, but I do not like when he gets that intense, and I think he tanks his chances with it. Wasn't a fan of the ranting at Rumer while she couldn't breathe, and the whiplash, while an accident, was not cool. It calls to mind when he had Meryl during the switchup and Maks complained about how bruised she was when the week was over. He lets his competitiveness get in the way of being a good teacher, and it kind of sucks the fun out of the dances. And I think it should have been a really fun dance, even though I hate that song. Rumer got to be bubbly and not a "badass" and she performed it well. It did feel slightly tentative, which I feel like goes back to - Val! Remember to keep it fun. Nastia's dance just made me smile. I loved it, thought it deserved tops of the night. She definitely performed it, it had a lot of energy, and I loved the staging. I thought it was cute to have Derek in it, though I know that's not going to be a thing everyone (anyone?) agrees on. Riker was just meh for me - he seemed to get a 10 from Len just because he asked for one? It was less manic but also seemed to lose a bit of energy in the middle. Chris I have to give props for trying and improving, and their concept was cute. I've never been on the Robert train, but he's kinda starting to actively gross me out. Not impressed or won over by the handsiness with Kym.

I've said this before, but I think there's a big difference between producers setting up storylines for contestants, and producers actually attempting to crown only one person champion. The former definitely happens, and is likely the smartest move from an audience engagement perspective, the latter would be incredibly boneheaded and short sighted. If I ran this show with the same motivations as the showrunners, with the network mandate to make it as dramaful and engaging as possible, I'd likely set up a few storylines that would be satisfying payoffs. I'd take a page from Kurt Vonnegut and make sure they have interesting shapes. Val finally wins. Noah triumphs over physical setbacks. Nastia learns how to perform like an actor. With a cast this large, some people end up with comic relief and/or supporting storylines. And then as everything starts into motion I'd play it by ear a bit - grab story opportunities where I see them. Some people may get elevated from "supporting cast" to "main cast" (Willow may have elevated herself to finalist potential/main role) some may get downgraded (Charlie, in S18). Who knows? But that's why I think I see the people saying "We've seen signs that they want Val to win from day one!" and people saying, "We've seen signs they want Derek to win from day one!" and probably both of them are right, because at the beginning of the season you're setting up all those arcs, planting the seeds for a whole bunch of outcomes. They want to be able to point back at then end and tell a story about how they triumphed. Or how they started strong and then lost it but then came back! Once the ending is in place you forget all the other threads. For example, in S18 I think producers would have been just as happy with the story of "Amy triumphs over adversity" as they were with, "Maks finally gets his win with his 'soulmate'." Maybe slightly less happy about a winning story of "Candace conquers her fears" but they set themselves up with that as an out if it happened. Anyway, back to Nastia, I've enjoyed her and her personality. And I think she is getting better at the performance aspect - if you watch the rumba she had an expression of, "Why is your face so close to my face" the whole time. And she's gotten much more comfortable since then.