Season 18 - Week Two

Here is ABC's announcement about Monday's show and the switch-up:

“Episode 1802” – The competition heats up on “Dancing with the Stars” as the celebrities take on a new style of dance, MONDAY, MARCH 24 (8:00-10:01 p.m., ET). The show kicks off with a show-stopping opening number choreographed by Mandy Moore featuring the entire cast followed by an announcement that is not to be missed! Each couple will then perform a dance style of the celebrities choosing including Swing, Tango, Jive, Salsa, Samba, Rumba and the Cha Cha. The couples face the first nerve-racking round of elimination.
Additionally, “The Switch Up” begins and voting guidelines will be revealed live. For the first time ever, America will be given the power to vote and change celebrity and professional dance pairings. This new rule will affect all couples as they will be required to switch partners. Never before have dance partnerships been split up during the course of competition.

They still haven't said much about how it will work, but from something Karina tweeted, it's going to be another one of those stupid twitter vote things.  So those of us who haven't stepped into the modern age and don't have twitter apparently don't count for diddly-squat, even though we probably make up the majority of their viewers. 

Oh and missed something in her tweet - apparently voting will be open for one week.  It will start on Monday, the 24th, and end on Monday, the 31st, so I'm guessing maybe the switches will be announced at the end of the show, and the switches will take place for the April 7th show?

I'm with you, SLA.  I only saw her tweet because someone re-posted it somewhere, not because I have an account and follow her.  The other thing with twitter voting is that I don't think they have any way to limit the number of votes like they do with phone lines or on-line voting.  So some fan base that has way too much time on their hands could presumably vote a bazillion times to make sure they get what they want. 

The only thing I like about this idea so far is that it appears that the celebrities get to decide whether to stay with their new partners or return to their original partners (assuming their original partner didn't get eliminated).  Early reports said the fans would vote on that as well, which might well have ended my viewing of the show.

Here is a list of the dances they are doing this week (if, like me, you can't remember what they said last week )


Diana and Henry – Cha Cha Cha
NeNe And Tony – Jive

Danica and Val – Samba

Billy and Emma – Tango

James and Peta – Salsa

Charlie and Sharna – Tango
Sean and Karina – Salsa

Candace and Mark – Rumba

Amy and Derek – Swing

Cody and Witney – Tango

Drew and Cheryl – Jive

Meryl and Maks – Swing

Should be interesting!  I'm not sure how Diana will handle the cha cha - maybe it will be a slower cha cha?  Also not sure about Nene and the jive - she certainly has the energy but it can be harder for the taller folks to manage the kicks and flicks.  I think Danica will do great with the samba.  BDW could surprise in the tango - the more deliberate movements might suit him better, and there are no lifts in the regular tango, so that won't be an issue.  Not sure about James with the salsa, but Charlie should kill the tango - at least the performance aspect anyway.  It'll be a good chance to see how he handles the dance footwork. 

Sean and the salsa just don't seem to mix.  That's the "party" dance, and that guy just seems way too sober.  Maybe he'll surprise?  Candace wrote in a blog post that she actually did say she wanted to do the rhumba, but she didn't realize the entire context.  The dance she most wants to do is the Viennese Waltz, but she said she thought the rhumba would be the most challenging.  She said she's finding that true - as of Friday, she still felt her footwork was sloppy, and she didn't really have things down well at all.

Don't know about Amy and swing.  My recollection is that footwork doesn't have to be quite as precise in swing, so maybe it will be okay.  She certainly has the energy for it, and it seems like it will fit her personality well.  But I read that Derek is putting in lifts, which could be dicey since she said she doesn't actually feel her prosthetic feet - just pressure points.  One thing I will give Derek, though, is that he seems to know how to work around someone's problems, so I'm assuming the lifts will be carefully choreographed to make sure she is squarely on her feet and balanced before he lets go,

Cody and tango is a question mark for me.  I thought he did well last week, but I'm not sure how well he'll do with the more precise tango.  Drew and jive should be fun, if perhaps not really very good.  But he could be one to surprise.  I seem to remember that when he danced on his show, he was surprisingly light on his feet and rather agile, so he could be good.  Meryl and swing should be one of the best of the night.  I think that dance would suit her well, and if Maks puts in lifts, as I expect he will, she should be able to handle them very well.

Can't wait for tonight!

Ok - just a quick check-in to say that "they got me."  When Tom announced you could vote at abc.com for the partner switch, I thought, "Great!  Those of us who don't have twitter still count."  Turns out . . . not so much.  You can "vote" by selecting partners from drop-down menus - female celebs on one side, male pros on the other, male celebs on one side, female pros on the other (so if you did want to see a same sex pairing like they show in the commercial, you have to straight up tweet it yourself because the website doesn't give you that option) - but then you still have to "tweet" your vote.  The site formats your tweet correctly, but you either have to sign into your twitter account or you have to create one in order to actually vote.  Grrrr.

Yeah, I didn't vote either because of that.  Really annoying. 

Some general thoughts on last week because I didn't get to post them before.  Stand-outs for me again were Charlie, Meryl and Danica.  Candace moves beautifully, but the rumba was too contemporary for me.  Cody and his droopy drawers really bugged.  Someone needs to tell him those pants don't look good on anyone and especially not in a tango.  Yikes!  BDW was not good.  James did well, I thought.  Drew was okay but not as entertaining as I expected he might be.  Amy did well, but her swing was nowhere near as good as Meryl's.  I thought Derek did well given the limitations, but it was too stationary - too contained - to be really good.  Nene was okay but not good. 

Overall another good night but not as awesome as the first week.  Did not care for the surprise double elimination, but as soon as it was announced, I told my hubby that they would make sre one man and one woman went home.  They need to keep the numbers even for the switch, which makes me think there will be no elimination this week.