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In The Media: DWTS


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Rob Wade has made this show too damn complicated. There's no reason why these celebs should have had to learn two dances this week already. That is asking too much from them and it's really not enjoyable as a viewer to watch them fumble around the dance floor. They've gone overboard trying to appeal to the younger demo and not only have they not managed to acquire that group, they've alienated the dedicated viewers they did have. I rejoiced when Conrad Green left but I'm certainly eating crow now because I didn't think Rob Wade would be worse.

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Robert Herjavec was on The Real the other day. He saw the premiere and said "Tamar was incredible" and then was teased about his "trophy girlfriend" by Barbara. They showed a photo of Kym, Robert, and Barbara at his birthday party. He said they were dating but "she said something to me and then it was over." 

 

Julianne promoting Derek's partner (and Alek, of course) in addition to what she already does on the show:

 

"I just feel like she's a really great role model for young girls because she looks like she is so comfortable in her own skin, where therefore makes everybody else feel comfortable in their skin," Hough said. "So I just think she's a great person to be on the show, to represent that she's 17 and she likes herself, you know? It's pretty awesome."

Edited by anonymiss
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I wish so much they would stop all the tweaking and gimmicks and go back to their roots a bit more. I guess once you start down the wrong road it's hard to go back. I'm afraid they've disappointed too many of their main demo group.

Several of my friends who have watched from the beginning have quit the show. One was literally a DWTS walking encyclopedia and could tell you every detail of anything that has ever happened on the show. In the middle of last season she simply stopped watching. When I asked her why she said, "It's just time to move on."

I'll probably cling on through all the death throes because I'm addicted. I do love it. At least I'll have Strictly to lean on. This week I finally have my computer set to show it on my TV and for the first time will be able to see it live. I've been trying to make it happen for two years but could never figure out how to do it. They've stayed closer to their origins and haven't worn out their welcome with two shows a year.

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Do press releases go in media? Songs for next week revealed, plus we get a pro dance with the Muppets next week: 

 

Host of “America’s Funniest Home Videos” and Season 19 Mirrorball Champion, Alfonso Ribeiro, returns to the ballroom for a special TV Night themed episode of “Dancing with the Stars” LIVE on MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 28 (8:00-10:01 p.m., ET) on the ABC Television Network. Taking part in the celebration, Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, The Great Gonzo, Pepé the King Prawn, and other Muppets will kick off the evening followed by a huge opening number featuring the cast of “Dancing with the Stars.” The night continues when each couple performs an all-new routine to a theme song that commemorates iconic television throughout history, from “Breaking Bad” to “I Dream of Jeanie” and beyond. At the end of the night, the couple with the lowest combined judges and viewer votes from Tuesday, September 22 will be eliminated.

 

Couples Will Dance to Songs From the Following TV Shows:

 

Alek Skarlatos & Lindsay Arnold – True Blood
Alexa PenaVega & Mark Ballas – Breaking Bad
Andy Grammer & Allison Holker – American Bandstand
Bindi Irwin & Derek Hough – The Jeffersons
Carlos PenaVega & Witney Carson – The Golden Girls
Gary Busey & Anna Trebunskaya – The Addams Family
Hayes Grier & Emma Slater – Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Kim Zolciak Biermann & Tony Dovolani – I Dream of Jeannie
Nick Carter & Sharna Burgess – Downton Abbey
Paula Deen & Louis van Amstel – Gilligan’s Island
Tamar Braxton & Valentin Chmerkovskiy – Mad Men

 

Kind of fun choices. The inclusion of Mad Men and Breaking Bad remind me of the Emmy performance Derek and Allison participated in 

 

And "Thank you for being a friend" and Ninja Turtles!! Though Jeffersons for Bindi and Derek seems maybe a bit odd? 

Edited by kitcloudkicker
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Barbara Corcoran is a co-shark with Robert on Shark Tank. She's best known as a real-estate mogul in NYC.

 

I wish so much they would stop all the tweaking and gimmicks and go back to their roots a bit more.

I agree. Now every dance is all "mucking around," to quote Len, and the multiple dancers to distract from the stars? That used to be one special episode, now it's all mucking around, all the time. I wouldn't mind moving on from Bruno and CAI though. I can't stand to hear either one spout their drivel while they primp and pose for the cameras.

Edited by radishcake
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Though Jeffersons for Bindi and Derek seems maybe a bit odd?

 

Well according to Derek's weekly blog in TV Guide, their dance has been a complete cluster-fuck this week (he actually used that word without writing out the f-word part). Apparently none of the songs for any of the shows were cleared until Wednesday. Then he had a whole concept and dance for the song they got, only to be told the song didn't clear. So he had to change things and work with something else and after spending hours on that one and Bindi finally gets it down, the producers come in to say that the original song did clear after all. Oh and the original song was to a Foxtrot which is what they initially had but that got changed to Quickstep.

 

Seriously, it's true what they say, be careful what you wish for. Some thought Conrad Green was so awful but Rob Wade is making him looking like perfection. The show is hot mess of disorganization and it's the Pros and celebrities who have to deal with the stress. Of course Wade might actually believe this shit makes for exciting and interesting television which is why he definitely needs to go.

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Well according to Derek's weekly blog in TV Guide, their dance has been a complete cluster-fuck this week (he actually used that word without writing out the f-word part). Apparently none of the songs for any of the shows were cleared until Wednesday. Then he had a whole concept and dance for the song they got, only to be told the song didn't clear. So he had to change things and work with something else and after spending hours on that one and Bindi finally gets it down, the producers come in to say that the original song did clear after all. Oh and the original song was to a Foxtrot which is what they initially had but that got changed to Quickstep.

 

Seriously, it's true what they say, be careful what you wish for. Some thought Conrad Green was so awful but Rob Wade is making him looking like perfection. The show is hot mess of disorganization and it's the Pros and celebrities who have to deal with the stress. Of course Wade might actually believe this shit makes for exciting and interesting television which is why he definitely needs to go.

I don't think the song clearance thing is for drama. That happens on sytycd too, I've seen the choreographers and dancers say many times that sometimes songs don't cleared until the night before the show or they get rejected and they have to make an entire new routine in that short amount of time or use music that doesn't fit.

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Theme songs can be incredibly hard to pull clearance on. Usually the rights aren't held by one person, but by the studio, the network it broadcast on, sometimes EP's or lead actors have some royalty rights, there might be estates involved... I want to say the last time there was public squabbles over music it was on a pick your favorite movie night, although I could be remembering that wrong.

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I don't think the song clearance thing is for drama. That happens on sytycd too, I've seen the choreographers and dancers say many times that sometimes songs don't cleared until the night before the show or they get rejected and they have to make an entire new routine in that short amount of time or use music that doesn't fit.

 

Two things, yes clearance of songs can always be an issue because that just happens. However, as a producer, you don't pick a theme for an episode without knowing for certain that enough songs can be cleared to the point that by Wednesday none of the Pros know what song they have to choreograph to because none of the songs are cleared. Two, SYTYCD is a competition for trained dancers or at least people who've been dancing for years.

 

The DWTS Pros are tasked with teaching celebrities, some of which literally have no dancing experience, an entire new dance in the space of a week and make them look somewhat passable by Monday. Having songs be changed, not cleared, the style switched is difficult. As good as Bindi has shown she is, she's not a dancer and that had to have been stressful on her, learning an entire routine for a Foxtrot and then "oh no wait, now you need to try and learn the Quickstep in this short space of time."  

 

YMMV and all but again, I'm going with the show is a cluster-fuck right now and Wade needs to get it together. 

Edited by truthaboutluv
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Theme songs can be incredibly hard to pull clearance on. Usually the rights aren't held by one person, but by the studio, the network it broadcast on, sometimes EP's or lead actors have some royalty rights, there might be estates involved... I want to say the last time there was public squabbles over music it was on a pick your favorite movie night, although I could be remembering that wrong.

If I remember right, it was Janel and Val's West Side Story number, and the problem wasn't the music, it was that Val had copied too much of the original routine's choreography.

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I don't understand what is so hard about the producers mapping out the theme for every episode long BEFORE the season begins and getting a head start on some of the song clearance issues. I know it is not always possible but surely they could be going to the Pros in Week 1 and saying "Heads up, Week 3 is TV week, do you have a song in mind?" They've said in the past that the pros all submit a list of songs they'd like to use throughout the season in the beginning and the producers work from that. Surely they can do something similar for the theme weeks. 

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If I remember right, it was Janel and Val's West Side Story number, and the problem wasn't the music, it was that Val had copied too much of the original routine's choreography.

I wondered about this for Derek and Nastia's jazz, which was the entire dance just pulled from the movie exactly as it was. I always wondered how they got away with that?

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The dance assignments seem like an unholy mess as well. So as I understand it, Bindi now does three ballroom dances in a row? Why? And considering Alexa does Breaking Bad, it probably won't be a ballroom dance for her? So she'll have done 4 dances and not one ballroom dance among them? It just seems seriously unbalanced.

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Well... You could hardly call Bindi's 'waltz' a waltz really, could you? Given that there was very little discernible waltz content in there, it's more likely that she'll actually get to do 2 'contemporaries'over the course of the season. I'm sure with Derek there's little difference between a foxtrot and a quickstep either. If in doubt, he'll grap her in a vice like hold, faff about with some props (a table setting, or if things are really going badly the full living room suite), pump in some smoke so no one can see her feet and Bob's your uncle! 10! Best choreographer ever!

I actually think the producers differentiate by "slow dance" or "fast dance" and that's the most thought they put into any assignments. For a dance show, the folks at the helm seem completely uneducated about the art form. The pros are often given a dance and then told to choreograph it to a song in the wrong time signature, for example.

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I wondered about this for Derek and Nastia's jazz, which was the entire dance just pulled from the movie exactly as it was. I always wondered how they got away with that?

Wasn't the entire package before that dance all about Derek meeting Gene Kelly's wife and her giving him her blessing to copy the routine or something like that?

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Wasn't the entire package before that dance all about Derek meeting Gene Kelly's wife and her giving him her blessing to copy the routine or something like that?

 

That was Bethany & Derek, doing Singing in the Rain. Nastia & Derek did the song from Frozen, a movie that Disney is still raking in cash from, and had a vested interest in continuing to promote via their ABC shows. 

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That was Bethany & Derek, doing Singing in the Rain. Nastia & Derek did the song from Frozen, a movie that Disney is still raking in cash from, and had a vested interest in continuing to promote via their ABC shows.

Oops, I had scrolled fast and thought that said Bethany.

I think they do take more liberties on Disney week.

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As I remembered it with Val and Janel, they hadn't even finished the dance yet when the producers informed them that the West Side Story people said they could use the music but could not use any discernible West Side Story choreography which is just silly because of course Val was going to throw in some steps just as a tribute to the number. So he had to rework a bunch of things. That said, I always remember that I thought there were parts of the dance that did look like West Side Story so maybe they worked around it in the end. 

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Nothing more appealing to younger viewers than Gilligan's Island, The Jeffersons and I Dream of Jeannie, right? This show needs to figure out right quick who it's for and what it's trying to be. I like to think I have some real TV history knowledge but I don't know what the American Bandstand theme sounds like and neither will most young viewers. And that would be totally fine if not for the Vine star, the Twitter comments filling up the screen and the constant whiff of "please think we're young and cool" that comes pouring off the show each week.

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The thing is, I know a lot of young folks who take ballroom dancing and love it. Why not just go back to how the show was? Rather than having crappy club music and dances, get some "stars" that  people are actually interested in. I remember reading that the final with Emmitt Smith got 27 million viewers. No wonder, since he's on a team that people of all ages watch. Will we ever get anyone like him again?

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The thing is, I know a lot of young folks who take ballroom dancing and love it. Why not just go back to how the show was? Rather than having crappy club music and dances, get some "stars" that  people are actually interested in. I remember reading that the final with Emmitt Smith got 27 million viewers. No wonder, since he's on a team that people of all ages watch. Will we ever get anyone like him again?

 

Emmitt Smith competed in Season 3, meaning the early days of the show and likely the height of its success. There is a reason no show lasts forever (well except for The Simpsons). No matter how popular, eventually time and people's interest naturally waning and moving on to the next big thing, will happen. DWTS has been on for 10 years which is honestly amazing and the fact that they're still having the ratings they do, is very impressive. Who would have thought, some years ago, that American Idol would throw in the towel before DWTS and that's with being one of the few reality shows with one season per year (I recognize that part of this had to do with The Voice's success).

 

I am the first person to complain about certain aspects of the show. Like I too would appreciate someone else besides Mandy Moore doing the damn Pro numbers, but I feel like some of the complaints about how much the show has changed is a bit exaggerated. Yes the production value has gone up with the troupe and the sets and all that but at its core, the show is still about a bunch of celebrities attempting to ballroom dance. As for the caliber of the celebrities, again, maybe unpopular but I don't remember this show ever having some huge stars. It's always been combination of celebrities of yester-year, athletes, up and coming stars, etc. 

Edited by truthaboutluv
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Which, to me, kind of defeats the purpose.  If I'm going to see people dancing to theme songs, I want it to be a theme song I recognize; not one that I never heard while watching the show or one that is different enough that I don't associate it with the show.  

Edited by Princess Sparkle
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I think the point Princess Sparkle is making is "is that even a recognizable theme song"? When you are putting Breaking Bad up with a SUPER pop culture trio like Gilligan's Island, The Jeffersons, & The Golden Girls it just seems odd. I think you are exactly right though truthaboutluv, they will have to use whatever the longer produced track is for the dance since it's so short on the intro. But I've watched Breaking Bad and honestly I don't think I'd know the theme song if I heard it. 

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If I remember right, it was Janel and Val's West Side Story number, and the problem wasn't the music, it was that Val had copied too much of the original routine's choreography.

It seems you are correct. I found this from a copyright attorney/DWTS fanatic. "Copied" has a negative connotation for me; I'd probably use "referenced," myself. If what that attorney's speculation about Derek's dance (which seems reasonable to me) is correct. I think that it's likely that Jerome Robbins' estate probably wanted a significant chunk of change in order to allow the use of his original choreography. I think this is probably not very likely because DWTS producers have been willing to pay for choreographic rights in the past; not only for this show, but also the recreation of the Dirty Dancing finale dance that Tony did a few seasons back which shouldn't have been cheap (or maybe DD was doing some kind of promotion like an anniversary DVD or somesuch). 

 

It's more likely that the JR estate insisted that the dance be recreated, rather than merely referenced, if any portion of the choreography appeared in the show. Over the years, there have been numerous planned professional productions of WSS that couldn't be realized because JR estate is very protective of JR choreography. All first class productions of WSS must recreate JR choreography with no deviation.

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It seems you are correct. I found this from a copyright attorney/DWTS fanatic. "Copied" has a negative connotation for me; I'd probably use "referenced," myself. If what that attorney's speculation about Derek's dance (which seems reasonable to me) is correct. I think that it's likely that Jerome Robbins' estate probably wanted a significant chunk of change in order to allow the use of his original choreography. I think this is probably not very likely because DWTS producers have been willing to pay for choreographic rights in the past; not only for this show, but also the recreation of the Dirty Dancing finale dance that Tony did a few seasons back which shouldn't have been cheap (or maybe DD was doing some kind of promotion like an anniversary DVD or somesuch). 

 

It's more likely that the JR estate insisted that the dance be recreated, rather than merely referenced, if any portion of the choreography appeared in the show. Over the years, there have been numerous planned professional productions of WSS that couldn't be realized because JR estate is very protective of JR choreography. All first class productions of WSS must recreate JR choreography with no deviation.

I think all of this comes from trying to get the pros (Derek, Val, Tony) to choreograph outside of their expertise. They don't know what they're doing, and when they can resort to copying the source material especially when given music which is associated with a famous choreography, they'll do it.

Edited by ocelot
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If there wasn't a video from Chelsie actually outlining the trip I'd almost think that they were trying to coerce a bunch of people into sitting through a timeshare presentation. What an odd website for a fan experience.

 

But ... I also can't see flying to Buenos Aires. I wonder how many people they need to make it happen? I could see that being a giant barrier to entry for a lot of people. Plus, no prices anywhere. That's kind of "if you have to ask, you can't afford it" ... and I don't know that they're going to get the response they want. Too bad, because it could be a lot of fun.

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Bindi & Derek Get People Talking as They Hold Hands to Dance Rehearsal

Show is doing the most to push for Bindi and Derek's win. Every day new stories on them for Perez & Just Jared who are known shillers like there were for Amber, Alfonso, and Rumer.

Oh please (not you, I mean the gossip columnists)! Bindi & Derek probably aren't having a "showmance", or whatever they're trying to imply with the headline. Bindi's got a boyfriend & he was at the show Monday night--but I'm not sure he was shown on camera after Bindi's dance, like I think her Mom & brother were. I may have to watch her dance again & doublecheck.

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Oh please (not you, I mean the gossip columnists)! Bindi & Derek probably aren't having a "showmance", or whatever they're trying to imply with the headline. Bindi's got a boyfriend & he was at the show Monday night-

 

 

It is ridiculous less for her having a boyfriend and more the fact that she's 17. In my opinion the hand holding is indicative of her youth and that Derek likely sees her as a child because the whole thing looks like a big brother holding a little sister's hand, imo.

Edited by truthaboutluv
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There's not really the appetite anymore in the media for blanket DWTS coverage. Remember when Ellen used to have one couple on every week? I've noticed for a few seasons now that only the stars (and pros) with the big personal publicists get any kind of buzz. And the train wrecks like Zolciak. Bindi is on every magazine cover in Australia, where the show doesn't even air ffs! It's all just a PR machine and her mama could rival Kris Jenner in wanting to have her kid front and center.

I'm inclined to give Terri half a pass as ostensibly it's to build "conservation awareness" or whatever, but it still seems incredibly exploitative. Eh. I'll admit I'm biased against Bindi as to me she's always (even before dwts) been a little bit off. I apologise if this comes across badly and I don't mean to offend anybody but she's always reminded me of one of those homeschooled kids that are just a bit too precocious and into their causes/interests. It's cute for a bit but becomes grating quickly and you get the sense they don't really know how to relate when it's not about them. It's been toned down for DWTS but I grew up in Oz and had to suffer the commercials for her "kid fit" videos etc. She was like The Wiggles on uppers. I was a teenager at the time, so maybe that influences why I think of her as just annoying. Her partner doesn't help either - I literally googled Derek's name, each of his partner's names and "injured" and it came up with hits for practically every season. I'm not inclined to give Derek's partners injury sympathy anymore as it's a card played literally every year. He's either pushing too hard and injuring them or he's using it for votes.

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I don't mind Bindi, but I hate the way the show crams her down our throats. She isn't the only one either. Every season they have three or four people who they pimp ad nauseum and those people are always in the finals. Why don't they just let the audience decide who to vote for? 

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I don't know how the show is cramming Bindi down our throats or hell any of the contestants. They all get about the same time for their packages and then they dance. For as beloved as Steve Irwin apparently was, I've been shocked we haven't seen them talking to Bindi's mom Terri once during the show and we know she's always in the audience.

 

Meanwhile we had Hayes' brother Nash backstage after his first dance, then the whole cry-fest with his mom after his second dance and the constant reminder of how beloved he is on social media. Paula always has a whole bunch of mess going on after her dances, this week it was with the grandchildren and all that. If US Weekly and other media want to write about Bindi, that's on them. It was no different than all the attention on Rumer last season, as the daughter of Bruce Willis and Demi Moore. 

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And Hayes is another one they are pimping on the show. Meanwhile, people like Tamar, Carlos and Alexa get all the surly bad edits. I'm pretty much at least one of them will be a "surprise" elimination. They may have the same screen time, but they show very different things.

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Yes the show has always had narratives for people, which is how poor Nastia got the cold and "doesn't connect" edit last season but I'm still not seeing that Bindi is being pimped. Bindi's edits so far has been her mentioning her dad and background for her first dance and this week was the stuff about her ankle and the song being changed. For the most part I find her packages uneventful in my opinion. She and Derek get along and then they dance.

 

There's nothing particularly dramatic, moving, etc. about it. And again, they have yet to pimp out her mom and little brother who everyone remembers being a baby when her dad died. As someone once said, I'm sure the show was hoping for the dramatic dead daddy stuff (and I'm sure they'll do everything to ring out the tears this coming Memorable Week episode) but for the most part Bindi seems way too happy about everything. 

 

This week was the first time there was anything slightly negative about Carlos in his packages and honestly until others mentioned it, I hadn't even noticed. I have found Carlos' packages with Witney for the most part to be very positive. As for Alexa, I agreed with someone in the episode thread that Alfonso's comment about Mark being her partner and focus felt like just parroting earlier comments because in my opinion that wasn't relevant since Week 1.

 

After that first week and the package showed Mark addressing that with her, she has been shown being nothing but hardworking and doing her best. I was even impressed with how she was shown accepting everything Mark said about her not being focused with no defensiveness. So I can't agree about Alexa's edit. If anything, especially with her score this week, Alexa may be getting the redemption, slow and steady wins the race edit. 

 

Just like with the conspiracy theories about the show, I think if you try hard enough and if you're not particularly fond of one pairing or celebrity or Pro, you can make a case for their being pimped or bias or whatever. But ymmv, I don't see that with Bindi so far this season. 

Edited by truthaboutluv
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I don't really think the show has crammed Bindi down our throats yet either.  She's gotten more press than a lot of the others, but I don't think that is the fault of the show necessarily.  There are always going to be people the press focuses on more than others.  At most it tells me that she has a strong team around her that is really pushing the outside media.  But it's no different than Rue on the cover of US Weekly last season and making some appearances on fairly high profile talk/news type shows (that DWTS people don't normally do), which I chalked up to her parents using their influence to give her some well timed press/exposure for DWTS.

 

But until the show starts giving her double length packages and pushing her in another way, then I don't totally see it.   It's also not like the show can push the this is Derek's season stuff as they sometimes do with pros that haven't won yet.  If anything I expect them to try and do that for Sharna.

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