It sounds like something that aired in the heyday of the DuMont Network, but it's one of (if not the) biggest unscripted hits of the summer. So what's the deal with ABC's Dancing With the Stars? The wife is hooked, so I took the opportunity last night to watch as well.
The premise is pretty simple: six "stars" (we'll get to that) are paired with six professional ballroom dancers. The "star" and their partner work each week to prepare a dance in a given style (last night they had the choice between jive and tango). They are then judged by a three-person panel and scored on a 1 to 10 point basis. At the end of the show, the viewing audience gets to phone in votes for their favorites. The couple with the lowest combined ranking between the judges and the fan vote gets eliminated.
There is an unusual wrinkle with the voting, though. The scores are this week's judges scores and last week's fan voting. I'm not sure how much I like this. I suppose it evens things out, as one bad week won't necessarily eliminate a couple. It also saves us a pointless results show, which may be the element that brings me over to liking this voting method.
Anyway, the "stars" recruited for the show: boxer Evander Holyfield, (super?)model Rachel Hunter, Joey McIntyre (of NKOTB fame), Kelly Monaco (of General Hospital), John O'Hurley (Peterman on Seinfeld) and Trista Sutter (of several other ABC unscripted shows). O'Hurley and McIntyre seem like the favorites, based on the judges comments and the wife's observations.
The judges are OK. It's the required three-person panel, though all three judges (two men and one woman, of course) are willing enough to compliment or critique that the Randy-Paula-Simon paradigm isn't achieved. That's a good thing.
For me, the biggest drawback to the show is that it's ballroom dancing. It doesn't interest me very much. There are clearly enough people who feel otherwise to keep this show going. To its credit, I did not feel like I was actively losing brain cells by watching, which is not a feeling associated with many unscripted programs.
Even for something I don't care for, I find it more interesting than The Scholar, and more interesting than any of the three upcoming unscripted shows advertised during it (Welcome to the Neighborhood, Hooking Up, and Brat Camp). Well, OK, Brat Camp has the attraction of punk kids getting their comeuppance.
If you like dancing, it's probably a solid tune-in. It's OK as programming you get pulled into by someone else.
1 comment:
I like how they never mention the fact that Kelly Monaco was a Playboy Playmate in 1997. But given that the demographics probably skews female, it might not be such a bad call.
OTC
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