Season 18 - Week Four

I posted the entire post from another site because I thought it was interesting . . . in a frustrating sort of way.  They don't say how they found out about the pairings or why they feel this was rigged or which celeb they're talking about that they could have made changes for.  All very mysterious.  (And I hope what they say about Maks is not true.)

So, as I had predicted but had hoped to be wrong, the producers did what ever they wanted in terms of the pairings. They will find some way to explain it away, but there is [size=12.99][size=12.99]video[/size][/size] evidence that you could use twitter to vote (at the 4:14 mark) – so don’t buy that excuse. These are the pairings THEY wanted to see, so they made it happen. Also don’t buy the scheduling excuse – there is one change they could have made to not upset one of their “stars” but chose not to do it. But you know what? I’m pretty sure that it will turn out to be very interesting. And the potentially upset “star” in question ain’t so upset. Let me just say this:
Tony IS already upset.

Karma is a bitch and this may not be the trainwreck they hoped for. Anyway, Courtney and I have lots of other little details and we’re hoping to find out more. For now, here are your new pairings (from what we understand, anyway) and a couple dances.

ETA: So, Danica and Maks are NOT getting along. Apparently, the old Maks (“Just do it”) is back.

ETA2: Apparently, Nene is surprised. In a good way. And Courtney tells me that there are no duplicate dances this week. Every couple has a different dance.

ETA3: The number of question marks is directly proportional to how sure we are that someone has a given dance. Or is that directly DISproportional?? I’m tired. Anyway, the more question marks it has, the less sure we are that that’s the dance they have. Three ??? means we arrived at them by process of elimination. Also adding – Tony is apparently not mad at Derek but at the producers for the dance given to Derek and Nene.

ETA4: The rumba for Charlie appears to be confirmed.

Charlie and Peta – Rumba
1-800-868-3412

Danica and Maks – Jive
1-800-868-3403

James and Cheryl – Tango
1-800-868-3402

Drew and Witney – Cha Cha (?)
1-800-868-3409

Amy and Mark – Salsa
1-800-868-3410

Candace and Tony – Quickstep (???)
1-800-868-3407

Meryl and Val – Argentine Tango
1-800-868-3406

Cody and Sharna – Foxtrot
1-800-868-3408

NeNe And Derek – Jazz (Music: Grown Woman By Beyonce )
1-800-868-3401

I admit I have trouble believing there are more people who hate Derek and voted to put him with NeNe than there are fans who would have wanted to see him with Meryl.  Maks and Val switched partners.  I have trouble believing Maks would be rough with Danica, seeing as how she is his brother's partner.  Looking forward to the Maks/Danica jive, and I expect the Val/Meryl Argentine Tango to be out of this world.  My worst nightmare - Charlie with Peta.  Ugh.  And for a rumba no less.  Love love love Charlie but I am not looking forward to this.  Of course NeNe and Derek get jazz, since she should be, I believe, several inches taller than he is, and there is no real partnering or lifts in jazz.  Hopefully Sharna can get Cody to stand up straight!!  I am not expecting much from Amy in a salsa - I just don't know that she can move around the floor as much as is required.  James should do okay with a tango, but I'm not sure Drew will be able to do much of a cha cha.  Don't know if Candace can handle a quickstep right now, but hopefully Tony will work with her on technique, since Mark doesn't seem to care. 

Of course, this could all be wrong.  I had expected this would be a better kept secret, so I leave room for the possibility this is deliberately leaked bad info.    Can't wait for tomorrow night!

So possibly got one question answered:  a poster on the ABC board said that their understanding was that the producers did mostly follow the fan vote, and the fans voted to pair Derek and Meryl (and so probably NeNe with Val).  But since Derek is choreographing and directing the Macy's Stars of Dance segment, he couldn't go to Orlando with Meryl for her Stars on Ice commitment, and so they switched that pairing around.  Have no idea if that's true or not, but I must admit it makes sense to me.

So here are some updates from the other site:

ETA4: The rumba for Charlie appears to be confirmed.

ETA5: Apparently Meryl & Val ain’t getting along great, either – he seems a bit starstruck by her, but he also seems to have zero patience with her. Their routine is really, really fast and poor Meryl can’t seem to do anything right for him.

Charlie and Peta are getting along great and had their dance choreographed by Thursday so they’ve had lots of time to polish it.

According to our source, these are the dances. The couples that are doing well are Derek/Nene, Tony/Candace, Charlie/Peta and Drew/Witney. The couples that are struggling are Meryl/Val, Danica/Maks, Cody/Sharna and Amy/Mark. James/Cheryl are apparently neither good nor bad. Whether we see any of this will be very interesting. A bunch of people who change the voting rules when it’s time to count the votes isn’t above changing the narrative in the editing room, are they?? I expect we’ll see the opposite of what we’ve heard when it comes to Meryl and Charlie – and possibly Nene, mainly because they paired NeNe and Derek to see problems. Question is – did those couples doing well give them ANYTHING to use?? And did those couples doing poorly give them anything to make it look positive? I guess we find out tomorrow.

Me:  I take this with a grain of salt when it comes to Val and Maks.  The site that posts this is run by rabid Derek fans, but they're usually fair to the different pros, except when it comes to Val, Maks and Tony.  They do not like those three for some reason.  I am somewhat skeptical about Maks, as there would be no reason for him to be as suggested with Danica.  She's proven she's a good dancer, and she is his brother's regular partner.  Those two things alone should have kept him from getting frustrated.  And the comments about Val make way less sense.  When have we ever seen Val not have patience with a partner?  And when he's got one who is so good, why in the world would he have no patience with her?  I just find the "intel" about Val and Meryl to be extremely difficult to swallow.

Guess we'll find out tonight!

I mostly enjoyed last night's show, but I felt some disconnects.  Thought Julianne was a complete idiot for saying Maks phoned it in.  She was on the show for several years - she knows Maks - she knows how close he is to his brother - and she really thinks he would "phone it in" with Val's partner and potentially get his brother eliminated?  Yeah, right.  Maks would "phone it in" just as much as Val would have "phoned it in" with Meryl.  She may not have liked his choreography, which I don't agree with but that's subjective, but the "phone it in" comment was just beyond stupid.  I thoroughly enjoyed that jive.  It wasn't horribly difficult choreography (which would not have suited Danica well at this point), but it was fun, light-hearted and enjoyable to watch.  Danica looked like she was having a ball, and she seemed very confident.  Those are good things.  Had Maks attempted a jive like he did with Anna in that couples dance thing they did a few seasons back, she would not have done well.  So he presented her in a good light, I thought, and I thought she was underscored a bit. 
 
Nene was overscored, imho.  I did not like that dance at all, and I don't get Derek's and Mark's fascination with "tribal" stuff.  Nene is my pick to leave next.  She seems like a nice enough person, but I just can't really get into her or her dancing.  I haven't really enjoyed anything she's done so far.  And I found myself agreeing with Carrie Ann and Len about Charlie's rumba.  That was not a rumba.  It wasn't smooth and fluid like the rumba should be.  Charlie will be fine, but Peta did him no favors.
 
I will love Sharna forever for telling Cody to knock it off with those pants!    Drew did nicely with Witney, James did okay with Cheryl.  I thought Candace was underscored.  No way was she worse than Nene, and I would have put her slightly ahead of Drew as well. 
 
Val and Meryl were incredible.  No denying that.  Still, as Val said, I would have loved to see her do the AT with Maks.  He was in Forever Tango for months, and it's one of his specialties.  I think it would have been fantastic to see Maks attempt that with her.  He is not consistently great with his choreography, but he has done several of the most memorable dances on DWTS (several of them with Mel B. but also Laila Ali and Tia Carrera), and with a partner like Meryl, I think he could produce some great stuff.  I would like to see him win the MBT because he was so robbed when Helio won over Mel B.  That was just a total mess.  I think that's another reason Julianne annoyed me so much last night.  She knows (if she's honest with herself) that she didn't deserve that win.  That was a gift, and she should have the decency to refrain from taking shots at the guy that got screwed over so she could get her back-to-back trophies and leave the show.

Yea, I kind of wondered about that too.  It all depends on what songs they choose, though.  There have been some really great songs that came out of Disney movies, and if they stick with those, we could see some fun dancing.  If they use the sillier ones, it'll be a long night. 

Over all, I enjoyed the program Monday night, with the exception of Carrie Ann and Julianne.  I thought Julianne's dress was totally inappropriate, as was her mouth. 

As for Disney, well, that should be interesting.  I am sure there are some good songs; hopefully they will pick the right ones!!

Thought I'd drop by and check out the posts.  I've dumped ABC except for Castle.

DWTS has become more about drama than dancing.  This was confirmed for me during the opening episode with Erin's personal questions and innuendos.  Now, I see there are questions about who's not getting along with whom.  I guess it's how they keep interest going.  This stuff was novelty at first, but it's become too pervasive and invasive to be my cup of tea.  This Disney World network has become the most salacious of them all.

Off the soapbox now.

Hey, mustang.  Good to see you still kicking.  Hope all is well in your world.

Singly!!  So glad to see you check in.  Please give DWTS another shot.  Erin was still finding herself that first week, and she's doing a really good job, I think, most of the time.  As for the stuff about who's not getting along with whom - that wasn't coming from the show. That came from another website that was repeating rumors.  It sure looked like everyone was getting along really well.  I'm thoroughly enjoying this season (for the most part).  It's been a lot of fun.

Hope all is well with you and that you check in from time to time.