General Gabbery: DWTS

[CED9]

I don’t mind mostly unknown or older celebs, to be honest. I always end up preferring someone I’m surprised by on Week 1 rather than someone I have preconceived notions about.

[boyznkatz]

1 hour ago, BeeBop88 said:

I guess so much for having a no athlete season.  For a controversy, there is Mary Lou the gymnast who sided with the molester doctor. Another football player, what a shock!!! And of course another physically challenged olympic athlete. YAWN.

I don't think being legally blind is as much of a physical challenge as being deaf, though. She can hear music, which is an advantage over someone like Nyle, who has no idea what music sounds like. If she's in shape, she could do pretty well.

I just hope the judges don't do what they always do with physically challenged contestants...the patronizing fake praise and fake tears. 

Edited September 6, 2018 by boyznkatz

[PhD-Purgatory15]

So basically with Tinashe, it's like having another Zendaya without the icky-ness of her being underage which prevented Val and her from ever really doing any sexy time dances. No issues with Tinashe on that! Although (ymmv) Gleb tends to bring a bit of icky-ness to everything he does on DWTS so....

If the Fuller House latin guy and her are in the cast, then the spots on the dance card are filling up rapidly. Possibly only 5 left at this point..

Edited September 6, 2018 by PhD-Purgatory15

[BrainyBlonde]

Glory, hallulajah! Finally, a contestant I'm excited about. I love me some Fernando on Fuller House, and from the little bit of dancing Juan Pablo has done there, I think he'll do really well on this show.

ET Confirms Bobby Bones and Juan Pablo di Pace

[Fellaway]

10 hours ago, DkNNy79 said:

Yeah, they've had a bunch of models on the show.

Rachel Hunter, Joanna Kruppa (before she was a Real Housewife), Paulina Porzikova, Josie Maran, Petra Nemcova ...etc

On the male side, Nyle is a model, and I think there was another male model on an earlier season whose name is completely escaping me.  I don't think he got far in his season.

[McManda]

16 minutes ago, Fellaway said:

and I think there was another male model on an earlier season whose name is completely escaping me.  I don't think he got far in his season.

Albert Reed. He was an Abercrombie model. He was paired with Anna and wasn't awful, but was still eliminated second, maybe third, in his season, likely because he lacked name recognition back when they cast names people had heard before. 

He was on season four or five, I think.

[spanana]

There are also rumors of another Disney person, but I don’t know if they mean current or former. I think likely a male.

Edited September 7, 2018 by spanana

[Toonces464]

3 hours ago, LexieLily said:

Who?

 

3 hours ago, Emily-D said:

Mixed race female pop star (think a younger version of Mya). My niece loves her which is how I come to know her. She has a truck load of dance experience, will comfortably be the biggest ringer of the cast unless they announce anyone else.

She was also on Two and a Half Men.

[vdw84]

5 hours ago, Emily-D said:

Oh great so that’s us probably stuck with Gleb until the final then. I can already see myself losing interest in this season fairly early. Normally one or two people come from nowhere to catch my interest and support on premiere night (Rashad) so I’m hoping for something similar here.

Tinesha can dance  but why Gleb, he sucks. Why couldnt alan or brandon get her. Gleb is not going to know what to do with this girl.

[PhD-Purgatory15]

The Disney male is supposedly Milo Manheim. He starred in a movie called Zombies that aired earlier this year.

So potentially all the male slots are taken at this point. Honestly I'd say Bobby Bones and maybe the Juan Pablo guy (as long as he doesn't come off as smarmy like Bonner or overly cocky like a number of competitors) seem to have the inside track to go the farthest out the six.

[legaleagle53]

6 hours ago, boyznkatz said:

Thanks for the info. I think a senior version with folks like Tom Jones would be a lot of fun. The guy still has women screaming on Oprah. Or Barry Manilow. I'd like to see Betty White as well. Sure she's over 90, but how fun would she be?

Betty will never do it.  She's been asked repeatedly, and she's repeatedly turned the show down because she doesn't feel that she could represent the "advanced senior" bracket any better than Cloris Leachman did or make any greater statement about age not being a limiting factor than Cloris did.

[BrainyBlonde]

39 minutes ago, PhD-Purgatory15 said:

The Disney male is supposedly Milo Manheim. He starred in a movie called Zombies that aired earlier this year.

So potentially all the male slots are taken at this point. Honestly I'd say Bobby Bones and maybe the Juan Pablo guy (as long as he doesn't come off as smarmy like Bonner or overly cocky like a number of competitors) seem to have the inside track to go the farthest out the six.

There are supposed to be six male celebs, right? So, who am I missing: Bobby Bones, Juan Pablo di Pace, DeMarcus Ware, John Schneider, Milo Manheim, and ???

[PhD-Purgatory15]

Joe the Grocery Guy from the Bachelorette. He's supposed to be with Jenna....we think.

[Emily-D]

8 hours ago, vdw84 said:

Tinesha can dance  but why Gleb, he sucks. Why couldnt alan or brandon get her. Gleb is not going to know what to do with this girl.

I’d have given her to Brandon or Artem. Brandon having her as a new pro would give us a chance to conclusively judge early on whether he’s good enough to be a pro or not. Or Artem to finally see him be able to go all out with his partner knowing she can do anything he wants. I can understand them sticking Artem with the blind Paralympian with MS though, she’ll need someone very good to guide and choreograph for her or it would be a disaster. He’ll do well for her like Sharna, Peta, Derek all did for their “physically challenged” celebs. Giving her to someone like Gleb or Keo would just be unfair on her, Alan/Brandon are both probably too inexperienced to deal with someone like her and Val only had Victoria last year.

[ShaNaeNae]

On ‎9‎/‎3‎/‎2018 at 5:29 PM, Toonces464 said:

Heather Mills was on Season 4 and Marlee Matlin was on Season 6.

There was also Cristian de la Fuente, season 6 that had a prosthetic arm.  Didn't affect his dancing skills much, but I think he had problems when he needed to spin Cheryl or something along those lines.

[LizDC]

12 hours ago, McManda said:

Albert Reed. He was an Abercrombie model. He was paired with Anna and wasn't awful, but was still eliminated second, maybe third, in his season, likely because he lacked name recognition back when they cast names people had heard before. 

He was on season four or five, I think.

I liked him.  He had potential.

[BrainyBlonde]

9 hours ago, PhD-Purgatory15 said:

Joe the Grocery Guy from the Bachelorette. He's supposed to be with Jenna....we think.

Thank you! I'd totally forgotten about him, probably because I don't watch any of those Bachelor/ette shows.

If this Milo Manheim rumor pans out, I'm curious to see who they pair him with. Maybe Witney? I think Emma would be better suited for a mature partner like John Schneider, plus they'd look good together since they're both blonds!

Guess we'll be seeing a lot of Gleb this season if he's paired with Tinashe. Not sure how I feel about that, but I suppose he's due a ringer. Maybe if he finally wins the mirror ball, he will go away? <looking for the silver lining here>

My early fave right now is Juan Pablo. I just adore him on Fuller House and I think he has the potential to be a really good dancer. He can definitely move his hips!
 

[Toonces464]

42 minutes ago, ShaNaeNae said:

There was also Cristian de la Fuente, season 6 that had a prosthetic arm.  Didn't affect his dancing skills much, but I think he had problems when he needed to spin Cheryl or something along those lines.

I never heard he had a prosthetic? I know he injured his arm dancing with Cheryl and had to have surgery on it.....

[ShaNaeNae]

20 minutes ago, Toonces464 said:

I never heard he had a prosthetic? I know he injured his arm dancing with Cheryl and had to have surgery on it.....

I just Googled and you're right.  Why was I thinking he was an amputee?  Disregard.

[LizDC]

There was one later - Noah Galloway. He was partnered with Sharna.

[vdw84]

3 hours ago, Emily-D said:

I’d have given her to Brandon or Artem. Brandon having her as a new pro would give us a chance to conclusively judge early on whether he’s good enough to be a pro or not. Or Artem to finally see him be able to go all out with his partner knowing she can do anything he wants. I can understand them sticking Artem with the blind Paralympian with MS though, she’ll need someone very good to guide and choreograph for her or it would be a disaster. He’ll do well for her like Sharna, Peta, Derek all did for their “physically challenged” celebs. Giving her to someone like Gleb or Keo would just be unfair on her, Alan/Brandon are both probably too inexperienced to deal with someone like her and Val only had Victoria last year.

I fear he is going to sexualize her too much instead of bring out a different side too. The girl is great dancer and im just not sure Gleb is going to be able to do anything with that, I don't like him as a pro. I think Tinesha is too saucy for Artem, Artem has such a lowkey personality. Alan and her would have been fun to watch and im sure Brandon would have been fun with her too. She needs someone with a big personality and is fun. Artem and Gleb no so much.. Artem can be boring at times and Gleb is just all about sex esp. if his partner is mad attractive and Tinesha is.

[WhosThatGirl]

31 minutes ago, LizDC said:

There was one later - Noah Galloway. He was partnered with Sharna.

Was Noah the one who also proposed? 

Also yeah.. I’m not sure if I’m going to watch this season. I haven’t read any names that interest me at all. I didn’t watch any of the sports one last spring. But seriously I know the joke is that this show is for not really famous celebs  but it’s getting really bad when there is not one hand who makes me want to watch. 

[spanana]

Christian was not an amputee, but his arm (or shoulder?) injury was a big storyline that season, so probably why you are misremembering.  If I remember correctly, he actually injured his arm during a dance and it was a serious injury that required surgery, but he refused to bow out since it was mostly down the homestretch of the season.   He couldn't use his one arm much at all, so Cheryl had to do a lot of clever choreography to avoid that arm and it mostly worked for them.  As soon as the season was over, he had surgery.

Fuller House is a cheesy mess, but I've only heard good things about Juan Pablo from a personality standpoint and he's obviously very talented.  I expect he will be the male contender and I'm glad to see Cheryl potentially have a contender.

The model I believe is also a ringer, for those that love that word, but as is the challenge with anybody not known, will she have enough of a fanbase to get past those first few weeks.

If I had to guess first out, I'd go John or Mary Lou, except I'm not sure.  I'm not sure if John being a Trumpie would get him votes or cost him votes and I'm not sure if the general public knows about Mary Lou's Nassar defense and I'm sure the show won't touch that with a ten foot pole.

And yes, giving Artem the paralympian makes sense based on the pros we've got.  If Mark were around, then maybe him (not sure her height), but otherwise they need someone fairly stable with strong experience and they weren't going to give her to Val when he just had Victoria.  And while Brandon or Alan may have been able to handle it, I don't think the show was going to take the chance and give her to newbies and Gleb/Keo are too unpredictable.

Since I don't watch The Bachelor or shows of it's ilk, I have no concept of Jenna's person either in terms of personality, popularity or dance ability.  I don't know if he's someone that people that watch that show actually like?  Anyone know?

Also I think Witney probably has the Disney person?  It's starting to sound the Chrisley rumors weren't legit.

Edited September 7, 2018 by spanana

[boyznkatz]

5 minutes ago, WhosThatGirl said:

Was Noah the one who also proposed? 

Also yeah.. I’m not sure if I’m going to watch this season. I haven’t read any names that interest me at all. I didn’t watch any of the sports one last spring. But seriously I know the joke is that this show is for not really famous celebs  but it’s getting really bad when there is not one hand who makes me want to watch. 

Well in earlier seasons they did have some people who were fairly famous...Emmitt Smith, Nicole Schwerzinger, Jerry Rice to name a few. It was also a better show when they stuck to ballroom dancing. I don't watch Fuller House, but the Juan Pablo guy sounds promising, as does the woman that Gleb is paired with. That Bobby Bones is cute is a geeky sort of way. Maybe it will be better than expected.

[WhosThatGirl]

16 minutes ago, boyznkatz said:

Well in earlier seasons they did have some people who were fairly famous...Emmitt Smith, Nicole Schwerzinger, Jerry Rice to name a few. It was also a better show when they stuck to ballroom dancing. I don't watch Fuller House, but the Juan Pablo guy sounds promising, as does the woman that Gleb is paired with. That Bobby Bones is cute is a geeky sort of way. Maybe it will be better than expected.

That’s what I mean. It really is becoming lower and lower celebs.

And yeah they keep adding in new dances and such and that bugs. It’s making the final night when they are allowed to do free style less fun now. Plus some styles it seems like the judges don’t know how to judge it correctly. Like jazz or hip hop for example.

[Stee]

Maybe I'm late to the game, but I think they missed a huge opportunity casting Geoffrey Owens, the actor from the Cosby Show who went viral this week when someone took a picture of him working at Trader Joes.  A real heartwarming story, and would have been a perfect blast from the past.   But seems like he got a great role on a Tyler Perry show, so I'm happy this potentially embarrassing story has turned around to positivity.

http://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/in-the-know/405538-cosby-show-actor-accepts-tv-offer-extended-in-a-tweet

[boyznkatz]

41 minutes ago, Stee said:

Maybe I'm late to the game, but I think they missed a huge opportunity casting Geoffrey Owens, the actor from the Cosby Show who went viral this week when someone took a picture of him working at Trader Joes.  A real heartwarming story, and would have been a perfect blast from the past.   But seems like he got a great role on a Tyler Perry show, so I'm happy this potentially embarrassing story has turned around to positivity.

http://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/in-the-know/405538-cosby-show-actor-accepts-tv-offer-extended-in-a-tweet

Good for him! I loved him on the Cosby show. 

[Emily-D]

1 hour ago, vdw84 said:

I fear he is going to sexualize her too much instead of bring out a different side too. The girl is great dancer and im just not sure Gleb is going to be able to do anything with that, I don't like him as a pro. I think Tinesha is too saucy for Artem, Artem has such a lowkey personality. Alan and her would have been fun to watch and im sure Brandon would have been fun with her too. She needs someone with a big personality and is fun. Artem and Gleb no so much.. Artem can be boring at times and Gleb is just all about sex esp. if his partner is mad attractive and Tinesha is.

I don’t think Artem would have a problem with a “saucy partner” considering he got together with the person he won with in the UK virtually on live television. It’s impossible to judge how he’d do with a partner like that until he actually gets one. Gleb on the other hand has had partners like that (Jana, Erika) and it didn’t really end well.

[vdw84]

Just now, Emily-D said:

I don’t think Artem would have a problem with a “saucy partner” considering he got together with the person he won with in the UK virtually on live television. It’s impossible to judge how he’d do with a partner like that until he actually gets one. Gleb on the other hand has had partners like that (Jana, Erika) and it didn’t really end well.

Yeah, I guess ur right, artem may have been good fit for her. I just do not like Gleb, he sucks, lol.

[spanana]

2 hours ago, Stee said:

Maybe I'm late to the game, but I think they missed a huge opportunity casting Geoffrey Owens, the actor from the Cosby Show who went viral this week when someone took a picture of him working at Trader Joes.  A real heartwarming story, and would have been a perfect blast from the past.   But seems like he got a great role on a Tyler Perry show, so I'm happy this potentially embarrassing story has turned around to positivity.

http://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/in-the-know/405538-cosby-show-actor-accepts-tv-offer-extended-in-a-tweet

I'm not sure he would have done it, but I suspect that they had most of the cast in place by the time that went down.

[Emily-D]

56 minutes ago, vdw84 said:

Yeah, I guess ur right, artem may have been good fit for her. I just do not like Gleb, he sucks, lol.

Don’t worry you aren’t alone with that opinion .

[vavera4ka]

Artem is not boring. He's... phlegmatic I guess... he doesn't bring drama, he dials it down, dilutes it. That's why he's been stuck babysitting. 

It does make sense for him to get a Paralympian when you look at the cast of pros and celebs, but he's overdue for a "ringer". I doubt he'll ever get one though. No drama... He was able to create gems with limited abilities of his partners. I know he won in UK, but I wish America would be able to see how great of a choreographer and dancer he is when he's not bound by age, size, and physical abilities of his partners. 

Someone above mentioned that a lot of guys when dancing from afar look similar to them. Idk, I can always pick out Artem at a glance. I also knew it was him right away in that club scene in Gilmore Girls Netflix thing. Can't mistake those lines.

[Emily-D]

I was thinking about the paralympian earlier. If she’s blind then she won’t be able to see what her pro is doing in rehearsals in terms of practicing steps and movements. That means that Artem will have to physically move her body, point her feet properly, adjust her hands etc in order to teach her to do moves correctly as he can’t just show her the step and she copy what he does. I bet that’ll be a nightmare, especially when it comes to fast dances with loads of steps like Jive or Salsa. You can’t not feel a little sorry for the guy, when he has to deal with all that while Gleb can coast through teaching Tineshe a full routine to music in less than an hour.

I’m no pro dancer, but if I was I’d probably rather teach someone deaf than blind. They may not be able to hear music, but it’ll take a hell of a lot less time to actually teach them a dance routine and they’ll have their buddy telling them everything I’m saying in sign language like Nyle did.

[McManda]

Juan Pablo di Pace is really the only one I'm excited about. Fuller House is campy, but fun. And Fernando is extra fun. And Juan Pablo has enough personality and probably enough innate talent to fit into this show. 

I'm extra meh on everyone else, even the pros. Especially the pros because it turns out Artem is just being pushed into the hole left by Tony. 

Edited September 7, 2018 by McManda

[katha]

3 hours ago, Emily-D said:

I was thinking about the paralympian earlier. If she’s blind then she won’t be able to see what her pro is doing in rehearsals in terms of practicing steps and movements. That means that Artem will have to physically move her body, point her feet properly, adjust her hands etc in order to teach her to do moves correctly as he can’t just show her the step and she copy what he does. I bet that’ll be a nightmare, especially when it comes to fast dances with loads of steps like Jive or Salsa. You can’t not feel a little sorry for the guy, when he has to deal with all that while Gleb can coast through teaching Tineshe a full routine to music in less than an hour.

I’m no pro dancer, but if I was I’d probably rather teach someone deaf than blind. They may not be able to hear music, but it’ll take a hell of a lot less time to actually teach them a dance routine and they’ll have their buddy telling them everything I’m saying in sign language like Nyle did.

Yes, but otoh if the producers want to do the responsible thing here, they don't have much choice. From the current pro lineup, I'd say Artem, Val and perhaps Sasha could do it. The pro needs to be experienced enough and have enough judgement to make this into something positive for the celeb. She'll come with challenges and will perhaps feel vulnerable and frustrated, you need someone there who knows what he's doing. The rest of the pros are either too inexperienced or too unpredictable. And perhaps it will work out fine and Artem will have a good season with her. He did great with Patti, he did super with Nancy, who just had the bad luck of being too quiet a persona in a season full of great women.

[vdw84]

49 minutes ago, katha said:

Yes, but otoh if the producers want to do the responsible thing here, they don't have much choice. From the current pro lineup, I'd say Artem, Val and perhaps Sasha could do it. The pro needs to be experienced enough and have enough judgement to make this into something positive for the celeb. She'll come with challenges and will perhaps feel vulnerable and frustrated, you need someone there who knows what he's doing. The rest of the pros are either too inexperienced or too unpredictable. And perhaps it will work out fine and Artem will have a good season with her. He did great with Patti, he did super with Nancy, who just had the bad luck of being too quiet a persona in a season full of great women.

As good teacher Val has proven, I don't think he would have been good for paralympian. I didnt like he treated Victoria and that to me means he is not cutout for someone who is physically challenged.

[Toonces464]

42 minutes ago, vdw84 said:

As good teacher Val has proven, I don't think he would have been good for paralympian. I didnt like he treated Victoria and that to me means he is not cutout for someone who is physically challenged.

To be fair, Val teaches wheelchair dancing classes at DWM Studios. I think he'd be very good with someone physically challenged.

[marykat71702]

11 hours ago, Stee said:

Maybe I'm late to the game, but I think they missed a huge opportunity casting Geoffrey Owens, the actor from the Cosby Show who went viral this week when someone took a picture of him working at Trader Joes.  A real heartwarming story, and would have been a perfect blast from the past.   But seems like he got a great role on a Tyler Perry show, so I'm happy this potentially embarrassing story has turned around to positivity.

Maybe they could get him for a future season. 

[vdw84]

5 hours ago, Toonces464 said:

To be fair, Val teaches wheelchair dancing classes at DWM Studios. I think he'd be very good with someone physically challenged.

I am aware of his teaching wheelchair dancing classes but this is a competition show and Val is competitive even tho he has won twice, he still likes to win and do well. He got frustrated Victorias season because she was having hangups because of her disability and he even admitted that he was use to having partners with dance experience and this was hard for him. I don't know what his problem was t hat season but I just thought that was rude to say.

[Emily-D]

8 hours ago, katha said:

Yes, but otoh if the producers want to do the responsible thing here, they don't have much choice. From the current pro lineup, I'd say Artem, Val and perhaps Sasha could do it. The pro needs to be experienced enough and have enough judgement to make this into something positive for the celeb. She'll come with challenges and will perhaps feel vulnerable and frustrated, you need someone there who knows what he's doing. The rest of the pros are either too inexperienced or too unpredictable. And perhaps it will work out fine and Artem will have a good season with her. He did great with Patti, he did super with Nancy, who just had the bad luck of being too quiet a persona in a season full of great women.

Oh I fully agree, Artem is probably the only pro they could have realistically given her since Val just had Victoria. I forgot about Sasha (I always seem to forget about him) but you’d assume height could play a factor. It’s frustrating but understandable. 

[Gueststar]

22 hours ago, spanana said:

Christian was not an amputee, but his arm (or shoulder?) injury was a big storyline that season, so probably why you are misremembering.  If I remember correctly, he actually injured his arm during a dance and it was a serious injury that required surgery, but he refused to bow out since it was mostly down the homestretch of the season.   He couldn't use his one arm much at all, so Cheryl had to do a lot of clever choreography to avoid that arm and it mostly worked for them.  As soon as the season was over, he had surgery.

Fuller House is a cheesy mess, but I've only heard good things about Juan Pablo from a personality standpoint and he's obviously very talented.  I expect he will be the male contender and I'm glad to see Cheryl potentially have a contender.

The model I believe is also a ringer, for those that love that word, but as is the challenge with anybody not known, will she have enough of a fanbase to get past those first few weeks.

If I had to guess first out, I'd go John or Mary Lou, except I'm not sure.  I'm not sure if John being a Trumpie would get him votes or cost him votes and I'm not sure if the general public knows about Mary Lou's Nassar defense and I'm sure the show won't touch that with a ten foot pole.

And yes, giving Artem the paralympian makes sense based on the pros we've got.  If Mark were around, then maybe him (not sure her height), but otherwise they need someone fairly stable with strong experience and they weren't going to give her to Val when he just had Victoria.  And while Brandon or Alan may have been able to handle it, I don't think the show was going to take the chance and give her to newbies and Gleb/Keo are too unpredictable.

Since I don't watch The Bachelor or shows of it's ilk, I have no concept of Jenna's person either in terms of personality, popularity or dance ability.  I don't know if he's someone that people that watch that show actually like?  Anyone know?

Also I think Witney probably has the Disney person?  It's starting to sound the Chrisley rumors weren't legit.

Christian injured his shoulder while dancing LIVE 

[RomanKat]

On 9/1/2018 at 6:22 PM, spanana said:

Ive also never bought the whole Brittany Cherry being too immature rumor. First off, Alan and Jenna also came off ridiculously immature at the beginning and the show had no issues with them and also Brittany gets hired to work on various shows 

 

Late response, because I wanted to check that I was remembering things correctly...

As others noted, Jenna was purportedly almost dropped circa seasons 20-21.  So, maybe the show had issues with her…and Alan too?  The show contacted Britt Stewart for season 22 troupe sometime after production began, but presumably before the (Mar. 2?) troupe photo shoot.  Troupe rookies Shannon and Kiril were at Feb. 24 early rehearsals and a televised Feb. 29 post-Oscars performance.  They and rookie Dennis were at the Mar. 8 GMA cast reveal.  Alan first appeared in the official troupe photos released a week later.  Makes me wonder whether his return—or Dennis’ hire—was confirmed only after Britt’s deferral (likely between Feb. 24 and Mar. 2).  That would explain the unprecedented 4 guys / 2 girls troupe imbalance that season.

At any rate, Alan got a huge break when Mark was injured 2 weeks into the season.  Having troupe seniority, he got to dance with Paige.  Though way overexcited by the opportunity, he probably secured his spot by winning over younger demos.  FWIW, I think they hired Alan too young at age 20.  I think TPTB wanted a young male, and he was available while other would-be candidates were serving church missions, attending college, or competing ballroom.  Obviously, the producers like him—they kept him over the season 22 hires—but I wish they had hired him 2-3 years later when he was more settled into adulthood.  (Like Brandon, who’s the same age, but served a 2-year LDS mission before joining the troupe.)

On 9/2/2018 at 11:15 AM, fpbl83 said:

Yes, I totally forgot about Thinking Out Loud. That makes their treatment of Brittany even more bizarre. If Jenna had done that, not only would she have been promoted sooner with a huge ringer, but we'd never hear the end of it from Val, Maks, and the Fam.   

Paul K. said on Kristyn Burtt's podcast that he fell out of favor with the producers after he got injured while rehearsing for a Noah/Sharna dance. He said he "didn't fit the puzzle of the show".  Was he referring to his looks? Height? 

Brittany also won the first DWTS junior competition with Brandon.  The “immature” (and "not brightest bulb") rumors were more a guess from an unnamed source reporting to a DWTS blog.  For all we know, said source felt the same about other troupe members who eventually did work out.  The Paul K. interview is here.  Allegedly, Oksana and Kiki were also dropped when injuries limited their troupe availability (per the inside source).  There’s also Kiril—the most ballroom qualified of the season 22 hires—who seflied a bandaged shoulder mid-season.  Though still in celebrity routines and opening numbers, he subsequently received no bumpers, exclusion from the finale’s all male pro number, and post-season drop from the show.  Coincidence?

Besides injuries or perceived maturity, the "puzzle" of the show might refer to personalities and prototypes.  Dropped troupe might be too low-key relative to the “big”, “polarizing”, or “camera-craving” personalities preferred by reality shows.  Perhaps they’re too redundant “types” (e.g. Utah female, Eastern Europe male).  Conversely, perhaps none were Julianne-, Cheryl-, Karina-, Kym-, Derek-, Mark-, Maks-, Tony-prototypical enough to be useful to them.  (Brittany fits more an Ashly-prototype imho, and Ashly didn’t last long.  Shrug.)

As a fan of Paul on SYTYCD, who thought Brittany a lock for DWTS, and who has fond memories of Kiril and the "3 Billy's" at the Tonys…their drops disappointed me.  Especially as they have ballroom + other training that would benefit both the show’s roots and expansion of styles.  Here’s hoping they (and other near / dropped troupe) find success elsewhere.  Meanwhile, there’s “what could have been” via Paul’s SYTYCD All-Star mentoring and occasional bits like Brittany & Kiril teaching swing.

Edited September 8, 2018 by RomanKat

[BeeBop88]

DWTS seems to be filled with Russians and Mormons. Nothing bad about those two groups, but think it is rather funny. For the Russians, there is Maks, Val, Artem, Sasha (Australian with Russian roots,) Alan, Gleb, Henry. For the Mormons it is Witney, Lindsay, Jenna, Brandon, Derek, Julianne. I am sure I am missing some from the past and present group, but looks like DWTS likes to pool from these two groups. 

[spanana]

Also with Brandon being promoted to pro, it sounds like DWTS hired Vlad Kvartin as the new troupe person.  I think that is his last name.  He's also in with the Maks and Val crew.  He was on their tour.  However I already see a little controversy over that because somebody supposedly pulled up an old social media post of his where he used a racial slur and so I'm not sure where he will stand if DWTS gets a hold of that.  I didn't see the post so can't comment on it beyond that.  I think a lot of people were expecting them to hire Kiki after his SYTYCD stint with Jenna, even if he's already done DWTS and been fired in the past.  I fully expect them to hire Jensen Arnold next year if Hayley gets promoted.

As for Paul K., I totally believe him.  But in his case, I think it's for the best.  As much as I would like him to be on DWTS, he seems to be pursuing acting and other things and is currently off filming some tv show.  He's not doing top tier projects, at least in lead roles, but he's working on it and he works regularly.

My guess is it's more like if you are in the troupe, you have to work extra hard at being a kiss ass to the producers.  Some troupe members are probably more willing to play the game than others, for better or worse.  Plus you have to roll with the producer changes.  Jenna for instance is a good example.  I don't get the impression that old producers were necessarily head over heels for her, but I think the most recent ones are.  Though of course her connection to Val and Mandy and others helps her current cause, plus her faux mirror ball from last season.  And before anyone gets mad, that isn't me suggesting she doesn't deserve a spot on DWTS on her own merits, but you are also lying to yourself if you think Jenna and Val being engaged doesn't up her worth in the eyes of TPTB.   TPTB love that crap.

But my main point was I think Jenna played the game, even in her early immature days.  Volunteered for every behind the scenes job she could.  Took the lead in the troupe with choreography and etc. when given the opportunity.  Ran the rehearsals after her more senior peers were promoted. Jumped at being the tour captain on every tour she was on.  Again, not criticism.  That was her hustle.  Mind you I don't think any of the more established pros at the time had any desire to be the tour captain, but when you are angling for that promotion, you do what you got to do.  It's possible Brittany, as much as I prefer her to Jenna in just about every capacity, just wasn't willing to play that role and kiss ass in the same way.  Not a knock to either.  Some people are comfortable playing the game and others aren't.

[fpbl83]

The odd thing about Brittany though is that was phased out in favor of three non-ballroom dancers: Hayley, Britt, and Morgan. Isn't the whole point of troupe supposed to be people who study and assist the pros so that they become pros someday? If they replaced Brittany with someone like Magda from this past season of SYTYCD that would make much more sense. Like, how is Hayley going to be a better pro than Brittany when Hayley has only been doing ballroom for a couple of years? 

Brittany also has very close friendships with many of the pros, so I'm sure she knows how to hustle and play the game just like her friends did. Maybe producers thought she was too similar to the other three Utah girls, and since she was the last one hired she was the first one fired. 

[kitcloudkicker]

11 hours ago, fpbl83 said:

The odd thing about Brittany though is that was phased out in favor of three non-ballroom dancers: Hayley, Britt, and Morgan. Isn't the whole point of troupe supposed to be people who study and assist the pros so that they become pros someday?

I would say that’s NOT the whole point of troupe, and my argument in support of that is those hiring decisions.

They’re much more self serving than creating a training crew, they want troupe who can fill the purpose of troupe now, not be future anything. The point of troupe is to be able to rapidly flex into whatever dance they need them to, at short notice, with little time to learn the dance, and be able to quickly make it through costume changes and hit their marks. To that end they have clearly prioritized hiring cross-trained industry dancers who have worked jobs like that. If they end up being good future pros I’d guess they see that as a bonus, and not the point.

(I don’t know what part of that they didn’t like Brittany for, I thought she was great.)

People like Hayley and Britt are sort of interesting though, because they both immediately dove into intensive ballroom training (Hayley’s been taking lessons from Shirley Ballas for years) and they’re coming up around three years on the show — will they ever get to say they’re “trained”? How trained do they have to be to be “trained ballroom dancers?” I’m not an expert but I can see they’ve improved leaps and bounds, especially when compared to Morgan who is newer to everything. Just something I wonder, as when you get a celebrity like Heather she gets, “all that training is transferrable with a little work,” and with these cross trained troup it seems like they’ll never be seen as ballroom trained, even after years of it.

[BrainyBlonde]

Witney and partner. I laughed so hard when I saw so many people guessing that her celeb is Shawn Mendes. As if Shawn doesn't have better things to do than DWTS! It's pretty clearly Milo Manheim. I just watched Zombies on Disney Channel last night, and I was pretty impressed with Milo. He's charismatic and he can dance (hip-hop, Disney-style dancing anyway), so I think he might be another Jordan Fisher. Also, the kid is TALL. He towered over everybody in Zombies. His bio says he's 6'2, but I wouldn't be surprised if he's grown more (his father is 6'3).
 

 

[BeeBop88]

Maks is in NYC in preparation for his dance show he is producing there later on this week. The announcement of the DWTS pro/celeb partners on GMA is on 9/12. His show is a couple days after that. My bet is that Mak's face shows up on GMA on 9/12. I think the Chmerkovskiy's own GMA stock or something. Both brothers come on there to promote projects that are not DWTS related, while GMA does not promote other DWTS pro dancer's projects not related to DWTS.  I think it is kinda funny and obvious who GMA prefers. That weather girl, Ginger, practically drools every time the boys are on.

[howmanywords]

Juan Pablo?! OK I'm officially excited. He's hot with a great personality and leaving this gem right here..

He played John Travoltas role in a Spanish production of Saturday Night Fever. Oh yes he can dance!

[CED9]

Sharna’s got Bobby Bones.