S19.E14: Week 11: The Finale

[Woodrose]

I'm a bit puzzled why Twitch was so prominently featured in the finale -- 2 dances plus a few mentions.  Kinda like Derek being featured in an Apolo/Julianne rehearsal, plus one pro dance, and the next season Derek's a pro?  I hope, hope, hope that this is NOT an indicator that TPTB are planning to hire Twitch as a pro next season.  That would be a really bad idea, show.  Twitch is a nice guy, but he is not a ballroom dancer!  Don't even think about it!

[kitcloudkicker]

I tend to give the same sort of benefit of the doubt to reports of "pissed off" reactions to not winning that I do to RBF'd contestants. Unless they're actually giving interviews about how they're so mad, or posting crap on twitter, there's a lot of layers of interpretation between how they acted and how everyone "feels" like they are reacting. They also just got out of a pressure cooker of an intense experience, they're exhausted, they're competitive people, and of course they wanted to win. I don't mind if they're a little bummed, as long as they can hold it together, say the right thing and act like a grown up about it. And then hopefully get a little perspective once they get a little removed from the situation. Since I didn't hear of any temper tantrums about the results I'm inclined to give everyone the benefit of the doubt. 

 

I do think Anna misspoke when she said "Mark and Derek" were mad, because she then launched into stories about Mark and Val being angry, which didn't follow from her first sentence. And if the Derek who was laughing and singing made-up showtunes with Bethany during the Monday night press line was super pissed, then man, that guy is good at compartmentalizing. 

 

I'm a bit puzzled why Twitch was so prominently featured in the finale -- 2 dances plus a few mentions.  Kinda like Derek being featured in an Apolo/Julianne rehearsal, plus one pro dance, and the next season Derek's a pro?  I hope, hope, hope that this is NOT an indicator that TPTB are planning to hire Twitch as a pro next season.  That would be a really bad idea, show.  Twitch is a nice guy, but he is not a ballroom dancer!  Don't even think about it!

 

I don't think so, I think probably was just that Twitch seems so universally well-liked, and he's also a bit on the rise lately (booking a job in the Magic Mike sequel) that they were just excited to have him. It'd definitely be a weird career move for him to try to be a pro. 

[luvthepros]

........I don't have any trouble understanding Sadie because I'm accustomed to Louisiana accents. And I just adored her, but was so happy that Alfonso won the Mirrorball trophy.........

I have difficulty understanding Sadie but it has nothing to do with her Louisiana accent. When she speaks, Sadie sounds like she has a mouth full of marbles. I can't quite figure out what is going on there.

[realdancemom]

I was wondering if Sadie had a widener in her mouth.  Orthodontists use them before actually putting braces.  However, a person won't be able to see it like you would see braces. 

[luvthepros]

When this show started, I thought the purpose was for celebrities who couldn't dance and watch them improve over the course of the season. Then it became bring mostly people who can't dance and sprinkle in a couple of people like Mario Lopez who obviously have years of dancing experience. Now you pretty much know from the beginning who going to win. I've always liked Alfonso but was there ever really a question that he wouldn't win? He's a dancer!

Mario Lopez didn't win his season. Footballer, Emmit won it. That is when I realized this contest was equally a popularity contest mixed in with a dance contest. When a contestant has dance talent AND a winning personality it is very easy to predict the winner early on. Alfonso was more than the compelete package for this show.

[luvthepros]

I have to agree with that.  I was so impressed with her--so sweet and I enjoyed her partnership with Mark, who normally aggravates me to no end.  On a shallow note, I did not enjoy watching her talk, as all I thought about was "why, oh why didn't her parents have that pronounced under bite fixed?".

Is that was causes her speech "impediment"?

[StayClassySD]

I honestly cannot remember hearing any stories of Derek being pissed about not winning any season so I don't think he's covering up anything in public. Derek's only big meltdown on the show was the infamous confessional during his season with Shannon and that likely had more to do with the fact that he was sleeping with her at the time and felt incredibly overprotective and defensive of her.

And I remembered that season, after that whole thing happened and was shown, during the press line that day all the other Pros who'd known him for years were basically like they were surprised at what they were seeing because that is not the kind of behavior they ever see from him. I remember Cheryl said she just laughed when she saw the clip because she was thinking, "wait Derek..." So I don't think he's ever gotten truly pissed about any of his losses - disappointed for his celebrity sure, but that's likely it.

Also, unlike the others who like you said maybe are too insular, he does seem to pay enough attention to know when he likely may get eliminated because he's rarely looked surprised in my opinion. I thought he and Bethany looked like they had a strong feeling it was coming, he stated in his blog last season that he prepared Amy for the likelihood that they would not win, I thought he didn't look too surprised when Ricki Lake came in third. The last time I thought he seemed genuinely disappointed was when Maria was eliminated and when Shawn lost All-Stars.

I watch Wendy's talk show off and on and her obvious bitterness and disdain for the show is hilarious. Like the way she acts you almost get the feeling she somehow felt like she was mistreated or shafted by the show and that's just so delusional and ridiculous in my opinion.

This exactly. As I said when many were complaining about this season's cast and acting like the show had suddenly taken this massive nosedive in the kind of people it got - in my opinion, the show has never been this highbrow of A or even B list stars. It's always been a mix of athletes, reality show personalities and some nostalgic name from hit shows of yesteryear.

This is why I keep saying showmances do not work and you would think people would realize that - it didn't work for Karina and Mario, didn't work for Val and Kelly, didn't work for Maks and Erin, etc. And really just look at Derek and his five wins. Not one of these partnerships had even a hint of anything but a professional and friendly partnership.

Or Peta who despite two different showmance seasons, her only win was with married Donald Driver who she had a fun brother/sister type relationship with. I know the producers are partly to blame but the celebrities play into it too and I just wish they'd give the viewers more credit and realize that people can often see through that stuff and it just turns them off.

Was it really a showmance with Peta and James when they had already met and gome out BEFORE he was on the show? The producers obviously played this up but I wouldn't consider something that occured before the show a showmance

[RetailTherapy]

I always thought Peta and James seemed slightly uncomfortable with the whole "showmance" angle, especially after what sounded suspiciously like a one night stand.  By the end, they seemed to genuinely like each other, but not in a romantic way.  Like someone else said, her win came with a married father of two that had the brother/sister/BFF dynamic going.  And of course, one can't discount how far she got with Tommy this season.  They were funny and cute together - not even the hint of anything romantic at all. 

 

Saying this as one who wishes fervently that Derek's last season was many seasons ago, I have to say that he never seems overly upset with the elimination.  Maybe he's stayed in it long enough to make bank for the year and it's just not that big of a deal.  He uses his pout-face and wealth of excuses if the judgery gives him a rare critique, but not so much with the viewing audience.  Yes, he's well versed in playing the game. 

 

Did Mark ever go back and watch an episode of this show?  Clearly he didn't, because it was glaringly obvious to anyone with the gift of sight that Sadie wasn't that talented.  Yeah, cute young girl who loves herself some Jesus, but no where near the caliber of dancer that Alfonso or Janel is.  Even Betheny was smoother.  And if Mark somehow does think she was "robbed" of a win, then he had to have been counting on it being solely a popularity contest with no regard to actual dance skill.  She should count herself as very fortunate that her winning personality got her that far. 

[HappyDancex2]

Sadie did seem tense or low energy for the finals last day...maybe she was just exhausted but her smile was a bit forced and something seemed a bit off. It's a lot for a young lady. I remember when she was on the bottom the the first time and was freaking out and the guys had to give her tons of reassurance. I didn't think she was going to be able to handle the stress and see the show for what it was.

I didn't mean to imply Disney as a group of young ringers as a whole...not literally anyway. I was mentioning it as a sweeping notion since Abc/Disney using Disney as an obvious applicant pool to grab future dancers. No different than using ABC shows as potential places to grab young but relatively obscure actors. But hey, as long as it's a big popularity contest and they need fodder, they can hire up any kids they want. I don't care about watching their arcs. Give me an out of shape dude with a tap background any day!

I missed the first 10 seconds I think of the show...did it start with Lolo? Or did we just get that ever brief look at her in the skybox?

[Serendi]

Lolo did appear briefly in the opening number.

[emma675]

 

........I don't have any trouble understanding Sadie because I'm accustomed to Louisiana accents. And I just adored her, but was so happy that Alfonso won the Mirrorball trophy.........

I grew up in East Texas near the Louisiana border so I'm very familiar with that type of accent, but I couldn't understand half of what came out of Sadie's mouth. It wasn't the accent, it was the marble/mush mouth quality that threw me. No one ever taught that poor girl to enunciate and she also speaks pretty quickly, on top of that.

[Linderhill]

count me as one of those that wondered about Twitch's participation in the show.  I had no idea of who he was until I read it on here.  I don't watch SYTYCD (tried once and it didn't engage me) and I have no idea who these people that all of those viewer go on about.  I had no idea that Witney had been on there, just like Lacey and Chelsie and Allison, etc.  I just don't care if they were on there.  What I did care about was the fact that there was this miscellaneous dude that I'd never seen before when I thought I was watching Jonathan and Allison do there dance.  

 

I get sooo tired of commenters/recappers/podcasters referring to them constantly.  Especially when they make the assumption that everyone watches the same as them.

 

Anyway, I was mostly happy with the result.  Yeay Alfonso!  not so yeay for Sadie because no way was she really that great of a dancer.  She was off beat half the time and her mush mouth drove me crazy.  I don't watch her family's show so I don't give a crap about them in the least.  It was just annoying that the producers insisting on playing that up all the time.  It was also crazy that everyone seemed bendover backwards to gush all over the girl.  Reminded me of all of the gushing the judges did over Kelly Osbourne in her season.  As opposed when her brother was on, she wasn't nearly as good as they kept insisting she was.  The uneven judging thru out the season was immensely frustrating.  They fawn all over Sadie despite her gangly limbs but crap all over Lea despite her better performances.  

 

Janel, I could take or leave her, just like Bethany.  I did think that both of them were worlds better than Sadie.  I was pretty impressed by how much Bethany improved and it was obvious that Janel, despite her "experience" made great strides.  

 

A couple of things that did really bug me this season was the awful guest judges, the horrendous music choices and the crappy camera work.

[tarotx]

tWitch isn't just famous for SYTYCD. He's on Ellen a lot and has been in movies. Though Allison did appear on DWTS a lot before she was added as a pro this season she kind of at least has a pseudo ballroom history. Her and tWitch did have a MSOD dance but tWitch just isn't the kind of dancer who they will have do ballroom dances. There is just no way they are thinking of adding him as a pro. I refuse to even let the fear of that enter into my head......

Edited November 30, 2014 by tarotx

[BoogieBurns]

I think tWitch was on the show because the show had the option to book him. He's on Ellen, and his wife was on this show. Plus, he stars in those Step Up movies, so there are plenty of people who were happy to see him. I doubt he would be a pro-partner unless they had a 100% hip-hop season. 

 

Plus, tWitch is good PR for Allison if they want her back. She reminded people she has good taste in a husband, if nothing else.

[Biosynth]

I Love tWitch, so it's always great for me to see him.  :)

 

Congrats Alphonso!  :)

[majormama]

Trying to watch anything on ABC's website is impossible. I missed most of the finale (the filler, no great loss, but I wanted to see some of the dancers again). As soon as anyone starts dancing, the quality gets so bad you can't see anything more than blobs. But the judging and filler is crystal clear! Their YouTube channel isn't any better, either.

 

ETA: I just discovered I can change the YouTube video to HD. It takes FOREVER to load, though.

Edited December 5, 2014 by majormama