Tony Dovolani Wants to Win!

Fan favorite (well, mine anyway), Tony Dovolani, tells People that he wants a more able partner next season.

"I enjoyed every bit of last season — well, most of it, I mean.  Next season I would like to have a more able partner, someone who doesn’t have so many distractions in their life. The producers know how I feel.” 

Aside from the implied criticism of Kate Gosselin, it made me wonder if Tony has been hard done by in previous seasons.  Here's how he's done to date:

Season 2: Stacey Keibler, 3rd
Season 3: Sara Evans, withdrew
Season 4: Leeza Gibbons, 9th
Season 5: Jane Seymour, 6th
Season 6: Marissa Jaret Winokour, 4th
Season 7: Susan Lucci, 6th
Season 8: Melisa Rycroft (substitute for Nancy O'Dell), 3rd
Season 9: Kathy Ireland, 14th
Season 10: Kate Gosselin, 8th

Compared to some of the others I don't think he has such bad partners.  But he definitely hasn't had the partners Derek and Mark have enjoyed.  I'd also say that Jonathan Roberts has been treated worse.

The thing that sticks out for me is that he almost always seems to get women in their 30s or older.  Beautiful, middle-aged women are wonderful but they are less likely to win DWTS (except Brooke Burke, I guess!).  He hasn't had a Mya, Nicole Scherzinger, Shawn Johnson or Sabrina Bryan.  I guess the producers have decided he is a good fit for older women.

What do you think?  Should Tony get a bright young thing next season?

What will it take for Kate Gosselin to be voted off?

We have the people who want her to stay (#keepkate), and the people who have had enough of her (#hatekate) - who will win out this week?

She was particularly kate-ish this week, complaining she didn't have time to practice because her kids were visiting LA, she hadn't seen "The Breakfast Club" and the book wouldn't publicize itself...

I've decided I want her to stay actually.  I'd never vote for her, but here are the benefits of her staying on the show:

• it brings Tony Dovolani one step closer to beatification
• I like George Lopez
• it's fun to listen to the squeals of anguish from the #katehate-ers every week

I have to admit I avert my eyes when she actually dances now -- it's sort of like watching someone having a tooth extracted.  But, give her her due, she's still there and trying.

So, can she stay this week?  Here are the shares of the judges votes:

Nicole Scherzinger & Derek Hough 16.8%
Evan Lysacek & Anna Trebunskaya 15.6%
Jake Pavelka & Chelsie Hightower 13.3%
Erin Andrews & Maksim Chmerkovskiy 12.7%
Pamela Anderson & Damian Whitewood 12.1%
Chad Ochocinco & Cheryl Burke 10.4%
Niecy Nash & Louis van Amstel 10.4%
Kate Gosselin & Tony Dovolani 8.7%

In order to be safe Kate needs to get more than 1.7 percentage points of the viewer vote more than Niecy or Chad, or 3.4% more than Pam.

In the first elimination she actually made up more than 2.8 points over Pam so it's not impossible. 

My feeling is that she probably has enough votes over Niecy, and Niecy is most likely to go home.

What do you think?

Do you #hatekate or want to #keepkate?

Kate Gosselin has been the focus of many strong emotions since it was announced she was appearing on Dancing with the Stars. (Actually, I think she has always been the focus of strong emotions, but anyway...).

It seems that people either want her off the show as soon as possible or want her to stay, and keep voting for her.

George Lopez has started a campaign to keep Kate on the show.  "..don't let this train wreck crash" is his call to action. 

Meanwhile, Lauren Beckham Falcone in the Boston Herald writes:

"My fellow Americans: Consider this a call to action. An appeal for humanity. A petition for the future of the pasodoble.  Stop voting for Kate Gosselin on Dancing With the Stars."

It's further complicated by the popularity of Kate's professional partner, Tony Dovolani.  His many fans are torn between wanting him to stay on the show, and their dislike of the way Kate treats him.  "Its a catch 22. I want Kate to go but at the same time I want Tony to stay..." tweets TheREALBeth.

I haven't really identified the people voting for Kate - they don't seem to be online much, with the bulk of Kate Gosselin related comments on Twitter being (very) negative.  So I can't delve into their collective psyche, and understand where they are coming from, but they are there and seemingly voting in their millions!

If you strip away the behavior in practice (I assume edited for drama), the comments when on talk shows, the stiff demeanor when on the dance floor and the dear-in-headlights look she quite often gives when forgetting her steps, she is what the show is all about.  A minor celebrity who is learning something new, and has to get over various hurdles to be successful.

Yes she can't dance, and no her behavior is not what I would expect from my kids, but she is getting better, and is actually starting to enjoy herself.

There have been many celebrities that have lasted longer than their dancing skills should have allowed, Master P and Billy Ray Cyrus spring to mind (so do Tucker Carlson and Kenny Mayne - and they were each voted off in week 1!), but the voting is half judges and half viewers, and until that changes things like this will continue to happen.

Where do you stand?  #keepkate or #hatekate?

Who's Voting for Kate??

I didn't think Kate should have appeared on Dancing with the Stars in the first place.  And what I've seen so far has supported that view.

Except....

She has not appeared in the bottom two for two weeks running despite having the second lowest score both time, dancing badly and (seeming) to not enjoy dancing either.

This means that a lot of people are voting for her, but who are they?  Where are they hiding?

She doesn't have a Twitter account, and there aren't armies of tweeters supporting her.  Indeed I would say over 90% of tweets mentioning her are really not very nice.

There aren't lots of Facebook groups or fan pages, or websites in general, that are supporting her.

And I'm not aware of "Sanjaya"-type campaign where people are being encouraged to vote for her just to keep the worst one on the show.

So who COULD be voting for her?

• Tony Dovolani fans - Tony has a lot of fans who love to see him dance.  Plus he's a really nice guy.  So maybe they're voting to keep him on the show.  This has the unfortunate effect of prolonging his agony of course.
• Jon & Kate plus 8 fans - If memory serves, the show had about a million viewers a week.  If only 10% of those voted for her it might be enough to keep her safe for the first few weeks.  I suspect though, that the viewers of that show are the sort of people who slow down to a crawl to have a good look at traffic accidents, but aren't really the sort of people to vote continuously to keep their "darling Kate" doing something she really doesn't like.  (I meant dance, not make money.)
• Sadists - they just like seeing Kate and Tony suffer every week, as well as the viewing public of America.
• Masochists - they make themselves watch and then vote to go through the same agony again next week.

I have to be honest I'm not sure I want her to go, I wouldn't vote for her to stay, but I wouldn't want her to go.  It's not that I enjoy the trauma and tears in rehearsal, the uncomfortable dancing or the nervousness she shows. 

No, it's the Death Stare.

It's the sort of stare that parents only aspire to.  The stare that quietens a table of giggling third-graders or stops little boys about to do something they know is naughty.  It could even scare off would-be child abductors.  We're going to get that Death Stare when she gets voted off, and I don't want to be looking at the screen when it happens.

Anyway.  Who do you think is voting for Kate?