S18.E05: Dancing & Disney

[JustAlison]

I saw the Nene thing as blatant producer manipulation and magical editing, and nothing more. It was intended to show Nene as a complete bitch, and from what I've read on various forums this morning, it seems they accomplished their goal. No doubt in my mind both Nene and Tony were blindsided by that package, and Tony made the point of saying they showed a snippet of a wonderful week. I don't fall for the 'banana in the tailpipe' editing anymore.

For what it's worth, here's some of what Tony had to say on the issue:  

Dovolani said, "They took my comments out of context and attached them to the story. And I didn't like that part. But listen, it was good TV, I guess… and I just hope it doesn't get us voted off."

 

I am not a huge fan of Meryl or Charlie, as I really don't see the point in going on a dancing show and competing against older/less trained dancers, when you are a professional, gold-winning dancer already. Of course Meryl and Charlie are the best every week-they have trained in dance and choreo since they were young children. Why bother with the charade of a show at all? Why not just haul them out, let them do their final two routine, and hand them the trophy? They leave the same bad taste in my mouth Nicole Scherzwhatever did on her season. I would much rather watch someone like Danica or Candace, or even Drew, and see their journey as they improve and discover things about themselves they didn't know. Watching folks who are proven winners in their field win in their field is so boring. And I know ice dance is not ballroom, but this show hasn't been ballroom for a long time, and ice dancers train in all kinds of dance, all their lives, off the ice and on. Charlie and Meryl have danced foxtrot, waltz et al for many, many years.  It's just a joke. As it's a foregone conclusion that one of them will win, I would rather see Charlie, as watching Maks and Meryl paw each other week after week is just gross.

Edited April 16, 2014 by JustAlison

[Barbara Manatee]

I don't think it's even close to a done deal that Charlie or Meryl will win. James has cornered the shirtless hot guy market and is getting the dark horse edit. Amy has the inspirational feel good story and is paired with a hugely popular pro. Candace is getting the good Christian mom vote. Meryl and Charlie are fantastic dancers, but they're splitting the figure skating fan vote (which isn't very big) and are also getting the ringer backlash. 

[spanana]

I think Cody has plenty of fans in real life.  But maybe because he didn't seem overly invested in the show, his fans weren't overly invested in him on the show?  It's only since he got kicked off that his fans have come out of the woodwork kicking and screaming.  My guess is they just didn't vote that hard, probably because they thought he had enough fans to carry him through.  I know he wasn't that good.  I just find it odd since we've had young stars on the show before whose fans have come out in full force.  Look at Zendaya, though she was obviously a better dancer.  But then again she seemed more into the show overall, which probably meant her fans were more into the show.

Tony blogged about the whole NeNe thing saying they had a two minute argument, yes.  But they both apologized and made up the next day and the rest of the week was fine.  They both seemed pissed that the show used the footage of their fight, but at the same time I guess I don't really feel that bad?  In the sense that while the show obviously manipulated the footage to portray them both in a certain way, you have to expect that if you give TPTB the footage then the show is going to use it.  Tony has been at this for 17 seasons now.  By now he knows how the editing game works.  While I feel for Tony if NeNe was being an ass to him in rehearsal, I stand by the fact that if you give the show footage of drama then it's obvious they are going to use the drama.   This is not news. 

It reminds me of how Maks used to always complain about the editing and how his packages were edited for the drama and TPTB were out to get him.  Which I'm sure his packages were edited for drama.  But at the end of the day if Maks didn't provide TPTB the footage to work with in the first place, he couldn't be edited in such a way.  I guess I just never understood why that was such a hard concept to master.  Don't give them the footage if you don't want it used against you. 

Edited April 16, 2014 by spanana

[mbutterfly]

I'm wondering whether it was early on negotiated with the judges that Derrick was going to need to lift Amy under some circumstances,  and CAI said, I will go with not taking off a point, but since taking off that point is what I do, I'm going to explain myself. 

[Dots And Stripes]

Derek tends to break the rules when he feels like it, so I doubt he cleared it with them in advance. To me, it seemed like a calculated risk. The more I think of it, all of the judges should have taken off on the lifts. I can see leaving the decision to Carrie Ann when it's an accidental lift or something hidden, but there's no reason the other judges can't enforce the lift ban too when there are 3 blatant, intentional lifts.

I'm not surprised Cody left after the way the switch up voting worked out. From what I saw, it did turn in to mostly a battle of pro fan bases (and really just the fan bases of a few pros at that). Still, Cody was only the third most sought after male celebrity after Charlie and James, although the numbers were low across the board on the male star side (again, it was really pro fan bases doing most of the work). Also, Cody requested Sharna and then deleted it. Even with the deletion, I would have expected his fans to fight hard for Sharna. There weren't really big numbers of votes there and that's a clue that his fans were't engaged in the show. Also, keep in mind that a chunk of those twitter followers were most certainly bought. Maybe not by Cody himself, but possibly his team or even fans. I expect he has more human followers than several other stars, but the gap could be smaller than it appears.

[Lonesome Rhodes]

NeNe and Tony can protest over a bad edit all they want.  The FACT is that NeNe walked out of rehearsal and she blamed Tony for a lack of sensitivity.  Did TPTB order her to walk?  If so, we have ourselves a scandal the FCC would want to investigate.  Didn't happen.

I love watching Erin bust on Maks and Derek and Mark.  It's very much a sports thang.  She is the best co-host this show has seen because she actually responds to visual and audio cues given off by those she interviews.  She doesn't just robotically recite words off a card provided to her.  Erin is keeping it much more real and honest.

[fembotz]

Nene spoke in her producer's interview (for lack of a better term, but the official interview with the cameras that gets spliced into the footage) about how she could not talk to Tony about her week with Derek which made it seem like he was being a jerk, i.e. her "I can read Tony very well, I know he didn't want to hear any of it, if we were a couple we would be divorced." To me that's more than a bad edit, it's drama. 

That said, I believe her and Tony that the rest of the week was a lot better. But what did they expect -- if you have a meltdown like that, it will dominate your package, especially if you speak that way about it after the fact. 

Edited April 16, 2014 by fembotz

[spanana]

That said, I believe her and Tony that the rest of the week was a lot better. But what did they expect -- if you have a meltdown like that, it will dominate your package, especially if you speak that way about it after the fact. 

Exactly.  That's why I guess I can't get behind the outrage at how they were edited.  Even if it was only a small flare up in a drama free week, if you give TPTB the drama footage then they are going to use it. 

[Alapaki]

They both seemed pissed that the show used the footage of their fight, but at the same time I guess I don't really feel that bad?  In the sense that while the show obviously manipulated the footage to portray them both in a certain way, you have to expect that if you give TPTB the footage then the show is going to use it.  Tony has been at this for 17 seasons now.  By now he knows how the editing game works.  While I feel for Tony if NeNe was being an ass to him in rehearsal, I stand by the fact that if you give the show footage of drama then it's obvious they are going to use the drama.   This is not news.

 

Agreed.  And two other points:

1) Were they really surprised that TPTB chose to highlight any tension created by the partner-switch?  They knew the switch-up was coming all season.  Did they really expect to just be allowed to pretend it never happened?  I think creating that sort of friction was one of the primary reasons for the switch-up.  We saw the friction played up with Drew/Cheryl, and Danica/Val & Meryl/Maks (who both showed how to handle it more playfully);

2) More importantly, even if NeNe and Tony were pissed at the edited pre-taped package, the post-dance interview gives them an opportunity to reach their fans directly, unfiltered.  And NeNe persisted in being an asshole even then.  I think the fact is that NeNe simply is an asshole who lacks grace and class.  She may be able to fake those qualities when she's getting what she wants.  But when she perceives things aren't going her way, she reverts to her true self.  

[Kromm]

NeNe and Tony can protest over a bad edit all they want.  The FACT is that NeNe walked out of rehearsal and she blamed Tony for a lack of sensitivity.  Did TPTB order her to walk?  If so, we have ourselves a scandal the FCC would want to investigate.  Didn't happen.

Why would the FCC care?  The entire "reality" genre has gotten a permanent pass from the FCC, which never acts on the genre pretending prompted actions are reality.  They haven't done so in thousands of similar situations, so why would NeNe being asked to create a fake fight on this show be any different than NeNe creating tons of fake fights on Real Housewives?

That does make her a hypocrite, however, if she's going to Twitter to protest (assuming that the Twitter protest wasn't also part of the deal all along).

Probably it was a real momentary fight though, because she's a massive diva apparently even outside the constraints of playing that up for her various reality show appearances.  Then would the show be capable of blowing it out of proportion--mostly because it's what the show believes people fully expect of NeNe? Of course it is.  DWTS is fairly low on integrity in many ways.  This would just be typical.

Edited April 17, 2014 by Kromm

[gohawks]

Regarding Nene, yes tptb can only edit what you give them, but that does not mean edits are applied in a similar fashion for all celebs and their pros. If that was the one blowup over the course of a week, then its not a big deal until the entire dance package focuses only on that. The edit gave the impression that Nene is an on-going , non-stop pain in the behind and that seems unfair. Of course it does give the show it's required angry black woman moments.

[TeeM]

Nene bought Tony some Louboutins so I guess all is forgiven. LOL

 

http://instagram.com/p/m3iBTqLHJc/

[JustAlison]

 

The FACT is that NeNe walked out of rehearsal and she blamed Tony for a lack of sensitivity.  Did TPTB order her to walk?  If so, we have ourselves a scandal the FCC would want to investigate.  Didn't happen.

I don't think that's a fact at all. The only fact here is that the editors pieced together some crap, and put it out there. This is reality television. It's not a documentary. The editors wanted Nene painted in a bad light, and they found the footage that did just that. Did they piece it together, or did she have a blowout? Does it matter? What bugs my ass is the edit. Meryl is well known to be one super bitch in ice dance, but you will never see anything to support that on this show. That's not the story they are telling.  Nene, on the other hand, is getting more votes than someone they want there, and so presto/changeo-she gets a horrid edit. I knew the minute they ran that package she was safe this week. It's why they ran it...to get rid of her. There was a great Canadian commercial that ran for years here about the 'house hippo'. It's on the youtubes, still. It was a very realisitc looking 'documentary' about the house hippo-a teeny tiny hippo that lived in your closet and ate peanut butter. It showed house hippos living in homes, hiding under shoes, fighting with family cats, etc. It served as a warning to children to understand that just because they saw something on tv, doesn't make it real. I never forgot that commercial, and the lesson it taught me.

The Powers that Be may very well have ordered her to walk out on Tony. Many of this show's fore-runners have commented on the producers 'asking' them to make statements they would never make, or participate in pantomime like the one you saw with Tony and Nene. I like to watch television with a healthy dose of skepticism, and would never believe what I am being shown to be true. I just want it to be entertaining. I didn't find any of the Tony/NeNe drama entertaining.

 

Of course it does give the show it's required angry black woman moments.

I agree wholeheartedly.

 

I think the fact is that NeNe simply is an asshole who lacks grace and class

I don't understand the reference to 'class'. I think NeNe herself would acknowledge she lacks grace. Class, however, is a separate issue, and I don't  know how one would make that kind of assumption based on a dancing /reality show.

Edited April 17, 2014 by JustAlison

[Dots And Stripes]

 

What bugs my ass is the edit. Meryl is well known to be one super bitch in ice dance, but you will never see anything to support that on this show. That's not the story they are telling.  Nene, on the other hand, is getting more votes than someone they want there, and so presto/changeo-she gets a horrid edit.

We don't know how many votes anyone is getting. NeNe's character in the blow up with Tony is exactly how she was on the Celebrity Apprentice and it matches what I know of her reputation from Real Housewives. DWTS did not create this character. Maybe it's for show, but NeNe's played this role before on other shows. I don't think her fans would be surprised or turned off by NeNe arguing with someone. I also don't see NeNe as enough of a pushover to stage a fight if she didn't really want to. I don't get that argument.

As for Meryl, I've only seen the bitch accusation from fans of her rivals. From what I've heard, the Virtue Moir reality show tried to portray her as a bitch, but all they had was footage of her playing with a puppy or talking to other people with Tessa in the room. I didn't see it myself, but from what I hear there was nothing there. Now those are some people with a motive to portray Meryl badly. I've heard Meryl can come across as cold, but that's different from bitchy or nasty. She and Charlie were America's sweethearts during the Olympics, so her portrayal here does match her image, IMO, if anything maybe she's coming out of her shell a little more. 

The show doesn't always portray everyone fairly, but to me NeNe and Meryl's portrayals this week matched their respective reputations.

[JES004]

JustAlison- Danica's mother apparently owned a dance studio.  I would tend to believe she has had more wood floor dance training than Meryl and Charlie, where they would mainly learn the upper portion of the dance.  As we have seen, the foot and leg action are areas where figure skaters need the most work.  All the celebrities bring something to the table that gives them their own personal edge.  As we have seen, the size of ones fan base can make a huge difference.  If that weren't so, I don't think Drew Carey would still be in the competition.

[heartsaperkin]

I know for a fact that NeNe is a pain-in-the-butt from sunup to sundown because I am a bigwig who gives all pains in the butts to Tony (and a few to Louis when I get the chance). You'll never catch me giving any to you-know-who, tho! Wink, wink!

[Bitsy]

I've been a huge figure skating/ice dancing fan for decades and Meryl is absolutely not known as a bitch.   She's known as being hard working, very disciplined, an overachiever academically, and nice to everyone.  Even Scott Moir - the rival with the reality show - described her as "so sweet".   In terms of her bad qualities, her reputation was being boring, not showing much personality, always saying the right things but never anything interesting, and being so focused/disciplined that it could be a bit scary - like she hits herself before getting on the ice at a competition. But of course her bad qualities are probably overblown (she's in a sorority and doesn't lack for friends, so she's probably not completely boring).

It's been interesting as a fan of Meryl & Charlie to watch them go into this competition and see how new people perceive them.  Charlie is a sweetheart for sure and I think everyone can see that.  But I think a lot of people are projecting qualities onto Meryl (she's smug, she thinks she deserves this, she acts sweet but she's a phony, she's overrated) that don't really have to do with her, but have to do with her being a female who is getting a lot of praise and attention.  For some reason, people can't stand that and feel they need to knock her down a few pegs.

[Kromm]

We don't know how many votes anyone is getting. NeNe's character in the blow up with Tony is exactly how she was on the Celebrity Apprentice and it matches what I know of her reputation from Real Housewives. DWTS did not create this character. Maybe it's for show, but NeNe's played this role before on other shows. I don't think her fans would be surprised or turned off by NeNe arguing with someone. I also don't see NeNe as enough of a pushover to stage a fight if she didn't really want to. I don't get that argument.

As for Meryl, I've only seen the bitch accusation from fans of her rivals. From what I've heard, the Virtue Moir reality show tried to portray her as a bitch, but all they had was footage of her playing with a puppy or talking to other people with Tessa in the room. I didn't see it myself, but from what I hear there was nothing there. Now those are some people with a motive to portray Meryl badly. I've heard Meryl can come across as cold, but that's different from bitchy or nasty. She and Charlie were America's sweethearts during the Olympics, so her portrayal here does match her image, IMO, if anything maybe she's coming out of her shell a little more. 

The show doesn't always portray everyone fairly, but to me NeNe and Meryl's portrayals this week matched their respective reputations.

NeNe is no victim, it's true.  I don't think this is necessarily NeNe vs. the show.  I think NeNe understands how to play drama (and loves doing it) and Tony doesn't. The producers may or may not have asked NeNe to storm out.  She may or may not have done it on her own.  She may or may not have legitimately been upset in those few minutes, or alternately may have been doing it to get attention/drama/cameratime.  But if WAS on her, who says Tony even knew (or knows)?  From his perspective it may have been exactly what it seemed to be--a small disagreement that went big for a few minutes and didn't represent the whole week.  If NeNe went home gleefully rubbing her hands together about her extra  camera time (and maybe tabloid mentions) it certainly doesn't mean Tony knew--and him venting against the show would certainly still be possible, since he knows from past experience  they've been perfectly happy to blow stuff out of proportion.

[COESpiral]

Meryl is well known to be one super bitch in ice dance, but you will never see anything to support that on this show.

 

I've followed ice dance (and ice skating in general) for years and have heard nothing to support this.  Not even remotely.  She does tend to be focused and tunnel-visioned about her programs during practices and competitions, but being professional does not equal bitchy. 

[fembotz]

Meryl is well known to be one super bitch in ice dance

Only in Canada.

I don't think the producers could force Nene or Tony to create all that drama, tbh. The key to winning stuff like DWTS and AI is being likable. That package will definitely hurt them. I had a look at the facebook, and most of the comments this week are either about the package or Amy's scoring. 

IME, the times when the pro/celebrities are sitting on the floor in their packages are often staged conversations -- I could see the producers being like okay sit here and discuss the switch (much like Val and Danica discussed the switch and Julianne's comment), but the drama between them was real.

Edited April 17, 2014 by fembotz

[Flick]

As for Meryl, I've only seen the bitch accusation from fans of her rivals. From what I've heard, the Virtue Moir reality show tried to portray her as a bitch, but all they had was footage of her playing with a puppy or talking to other people with Tessa in the room. I didn't see it myself, but from what I hear there was nothing there. Now those are some people with a motive to portray Meryl badly. I've heard Meryl can come across as cold, but that's different from bitchy or nasty.

I watched the VM reality show and if anything the edit on Meryl and Charlie was much more heavy handed than anything we see on DWTS. Like it was laughably obvious and constructed (then again, everything about the show was). When they needed to portray Meryl as a bitch, they showed her off to the side playing with a puppy because being distracted by something and not launching into every conversation is a horrible thing. When they wanted to portray her as a flake, they showed her joking around with the other skaters about pop culture. When they wanted to act like the Americans were sneaks with superiority complexes they cut to a shot of Meryl and Charlie standing on the ice barely reacting to something that may or may not have been V/M. And they used that clip multiple times.

The truth is that TPTB will stretch scenarios or edit things to change the light in which they're perceived but if there isn't at least a kernel of truth (at least to the behavior but not necessarily the context) then there's not much they can do. On the V/M show, Meryl and Charlie got the edit they did by existing not by actually doing anything. Regardless of whether it was a single fight or not, Nene did get into it with Tony and she did storm out of a rehearsal. That's pretty different than the way that TPTB twisted themselves in circles to try and inject some drama into V/M's show.

[Gardencrown]

Most of the time I know very little about the "stars" before the season, so I try to let go of any pre-peceptions that might be around about a celebrity and let the celebrity and his/her dancing make my decision for me.  Ne Ne strikes me as self-absorbed and a great lover of drama -- I don't think that could be edited out if they tried. She's just not enjoyable to me, not as a dancer and not as a person, and like I said, I knew nothing about her before the season.

 

Meryl is well known to be one super bitch in ice dance.

Again, I knew very little about Meryl -- only stuff from the Olympics -- but I'm pretty wary when I see this kind of accusation thrown over and over toward successful women.  She's certainly done nothing that could be construed that way this season, and as others have said, if it ain't there the editing monkeys can't put it together to make you look a certain way.

[spanana]

The truth is that TPTB will stretch scenarios or edit things to change the light in which they're perceived but if there isn't at least a kernel of truth (at least to the behavior but not necessarily the context) then there's not much they can do. On the V/M show, Meryl and Charlie got the edit they did by existing not by actually doing anything. Regardless of whether it was a single fight or not, Nene did get into it with Tony and she did storm out of a rehearsal. That's pretty different than the way that TPTB twisted themselves in circles to try and inject some drama into V/M's show.

This.  I have no doubt perhaps that Tony is telling the truth and the NeNe/Tony fight was only a short blip in their season.  I also have no doubt that TPTB edited the crap out of that package in a way that may not have been entirely truthful.  But I don't believe NeNe storming out of the room was scripted.  Because as another poster said, this is a show where you need to be likeable.  No celeb, or at least not one with a working brain, is going to go along with scripted moments that make them look like horrible unsympathetic people.  The NeNe/Tony drama happened and TPTB twisted the footage they were given.   No, not all celebs are edited equally, but it's not like what they showed of NeNe here was that out of line based on her edits on other reality shows.  NeNe/Tony gave the show a kernel to work with and the show used it. 

[kitcloudkicker]

I've been a huge figure skating/ice dancing fan for decades and Meryl is absolutely not known as a bitch.   She's known as being hard working, very disciplined, an overachiever academically, and nice to everyone.  Even Scott Moir - the rival with the reality show - described her as "so sweet".   In terms of her bad qualities, her reputation was being boring, not showing much personality, always saying the right things but never anything interesting, and being so focused/disciplined that it could be a bit scary - like she hits herself before getting on the ice at a competition. But of course her bad qualities are probably overblown (she's in a sorority and doesn't lack for friends, so she's probably not completely boring).

It's been interesting as a fan of Meryl & Charlie to watch them go into this competition and see how new people perceive them.  Charlie is a sweetheart for sure and I think everyone can see that.  But I think a lot of people are projecting qualities onto Meryl (she's smug, she thinks she deserves this, she acts sweet but she's a phony, she's overrated) that don't really have to do with her, but have to do with her being a female who is getting a lot of praise and attention.  For some reason, people can't stand that and feel they need to knock her down a few pegs.

There is definitely something problematic about how we treat successful women. As for Meryl, she always comes across to me as someone who's probably introverted, with a slight case of RBF (resting bitch face) and people project all sorts of things onto that. (Me too Meryl, high fives. I get it.) I watched bits of the Virtue/Moir show and thought that they ended up coming off much worse than Charlie & Meryl, just because of how obviously reaching that edit was. (I know they don't edit it either, but the way it was shown just ended up making them look super passive aggressive.) 

My tops so far, just by how much I enjoy watching them, are the Olympians, Meryl, Charlie, and Amy. Danica and James slightly lower, there's a manic energy to Danica that I find slightly irritating, and I feel like you can still see her "thinking" the dances a little bit. James I find just a little bit bland (though he seems like a nice guy and that last lift he pulled off was amazing.) The rest could go in any order. 

[Dots And Stripes]

NeNe's package was short. Even if Tony is telling the truth and it was a short fight, the package didn't have to extend it or draw it out to fill 2-3 minutes. I saw an interview early in the week where Tony admitted they had a fight, and that was before this package aired. It happened and it wasn't invented by producers. I don't even think producers milked it for too much drama because the studio audience was laughing. We've seen worse fights. This one strikes me as two people who have been working together for a while getting on each others' nerves. It doesn't strike me as unusual or requiring any sort of manipulation. The more surprising thing is that there haven't been more fights in packages so far this season, although admittedly I don't watch every package for every couple.

If anything, Tony should be happy they showed the fight. His biggest problem tends to be that he makes his partners forgettable. People don't vote for couples they can't even remember. 

[ReadingZombie]

Do I think Nene is a not so nice person. Eh, probably. Do I think Tony and NeNe had an argument? Yep. Do I think it was that big of a deal? Nope. You can't be with someone for that many hours a day and not get on each other's last nerve. I do think if they're going to show one couple's bad day they should show them all. But, we all know that won't happen. 

Maks sure does know how to sell a showmance doesn't he? I'm confused, though, because Meryl gave an interview with Tara L. at the start of the Olympics and said she had a boyfriend, but wanted to keep it private. Unless something changed between them from then to now I would guess that is still true. I do find it very annoying how Maks is constantly draped over her. My 82 year old mom said he seems like a lecherous old man with her. So, I guess not everyone is buying what they're selling.

I called the fog + little content the minute I heard Amy had the waltz. Which I think is a complete cop out. Derek could have choreographed something lovely in hold without all the stupid fog and illegal lifts. But, of course Golden Boy got a tongue bath as aways for that dreck. I also think anybody who has the title "Production Manager" or "Creative Producer" (or whatever it was Tom called him) of a segment of the show (MSoD) shouldn't be employed as one of the pros who is being judged each week. My guess is that was what he demanded to come back, though. 

[Bitsy]

Maks sure does know how to sell a showmance doesn't he? I'm confused, though, because Meryl gave an interview with Tara L. at the start of the Olympics and said she had a boyfriend, but wanted to keep it private. Unless something changed between them from then to now I would guess that is still true.

Meryl was asked last week if she still has a boyfriend, and she refused to answer, which is a first.  Things change, and my suspicion is she was ready to break up with that guy once the Olympics were over anyway.

I can't imagine any boyfriend being ok with the level of kissing and cuddling going on between her and Maks, or the amount of leisure time they are spending together.  Just today there was a twitter sighting of her and Maks having lunch together at the Bridge Café in Manchester, NH.  The alleged boyfriend has been totally MIA for months.

[Barbara Manatee]

I do think if they're going to show one couple's bad day they should show them all. But, we all know that won't happen.

Haven't they already shown bad days and meltdowns for most of the other contestants?

Billy Dee - almost in tears over being so old and tired

Sean - the sloppy seconds comment

James - the he dated Peta and never called awkwardness

Cody - refusing to follow directions and insisting on doing his own thing

Danica - crying in frustration

Candace - fussing over modesty

Amy - mourning her lost legs

Drew - being assy about liking Whitney better

I doubt we'll ever see footage of Charlie or Meryl losing control because neither of them are likely to be overwhelmed by the training. But they did make a point of showing a slow motion replay of Charlie dropping his cane, just to make sure everyone got a real good look.

Edited April 17, 2014 by Barbara Manatee

[spanana]

 

Do I think Nene is a not so nice person. Eh, probably. Do I think Tony and NeNe had an argument? Yep. Do I think it was that big of a deal? Nope. You can't be with someone for that many hours a day and not get on each other's last nerve. I do think if they're going to show one couple's bad day they should show them all. But, we all know that won't happen.

But while I think all pros/celebs pairings have moments where they get on each others nerves, I'm not sure they all have typical drama.  Those are two very different things.  Not all celebs storm out of rooms and etc. and I think that is different than a pairing just having normal frustrations with each other after being locked in a room together 6 hours a day.   I'm not saying it doesn't happen or that couples can't fight.  It happens and it's not that big of a deal.  But just because NeNe had a storm out moment, doesn't mean the show has similar footage of Meryl or Charlie or Danica to show.  Though Danica had her crying in a stairwell moment the second week, but that wasn't after a fight.

Plus I think some pros/celebs are just a little smarter about holding in the frustrations when the cameras are around and then hashing out their differences when they are off camera.   I'm sure the show encourages them to do everything on camera, but these people are around each other plenty and they have plenty of time off camera.  They often go to lunches/dinners together.  They have travel time, driving of otherwise, as often pairings show up at the studio together.  They have backstage time (though there are cameras around for some of that).   There are ways to hash things out on their own time if they really want to do that.

[Alapaki]

I doubt we'll ever see footage of Charlie or Meryl losing control because neither of them are likely to be overwhelmed by the training. But they did make a point of showing a slow motion replay of Charlie dropping his cane, just to make sure everyone got a real good look.

 

I think at some point they'll give us a "crisis" moment with Charlie and/or Meryl, to suggest that they're vulnerable, just like they did with Nicole Sherzinger.

[ReadingZombie]

When I said "bad day" I guess I really meant "fight" or "argument" or "snapping at each other" (more than just frustration with themselves, or the steps, etc.) long enough for the cameras to catch it. I find it difficult to believe that when tensions are high, as they're bound to be in this situation, that none of these other couples have lost it with each other, even if just for a few minutes. The producers have a story to tell, and they have their favorites, and they're not going to use footage that doesn't fit with the story, or would show their favorites in less than favorable (heh) light. 

I do agree that they will show Charlie/Meryl in a "crisis" before the season is over. It may not be a conflict with their partner (but the jury is out on that one with Maks), and I don't think they would show either of them in a negative light, but there will be some drama with them before it is all said and done. My guess is that it will have something to do with the lack of practice time/feeling overwhelmed learning x number of dances while doing SOI as we near the finale.  

[Bitsy]

Plus I think some pros/celebs are just a little smarter about holding in the frustrations when the cameras are around and then hashing out their differences when they are off camera.

Erin Andrews was once asked why there was no crying during her season with Maks, and she said she did cry, she just did it in the bathroom where there were no cameras.

[spanana]

Erin Andrews was once asked why there was no crying during her season with Maks, and she said she did cry, she just did it in the bathroom where there were no cameras.

I remember that too.  Which brings me back to I think some celebs are just a lot more conscious about letting their feelings out on camera and/or know where they can go to run and hide if they need a moment.  It's not like cameras are following these people around 2/47.  I think NeNe is just too much of a hothead to think things through like that before she and Tony had her tiff and voila, it's all out there for TPTB to use. 

Edited April 21, 2014 by spanana

[Guest]

I have deleted a few posts that were antagonistic and getting out of control.  Please remember The Social Contract.

[Woodrose]

Charlie dancing with penguins was beyond adorable. Is he the first non-pro/troupe to have a dancing bumper? I don't remember any others.

Bill Nye and Tyne did a swing dance bumper during his season, before he got injured.  I can't remember a star doing a solo bumper before.

[Spicey477]

This episode has stayed on my DVR so that my 4yo son and niece can watch the "Disney Dancers" over and over. Ranting with the crickets at this late date but adding my Donny irritation that he boasted that he was the voice of Shang in Mulan. No. BD Wong was the voice of Shang, and you were the singing voice of Shang in one song maybe two? Drives me nuts every time I hear him say it!