dwtsfun

[dwtsfun]

What happens when you celebrate the 20th anniversary to Dancing with the Stars today?

Whew. I definitely forgot to respond to this. I’m def not doing anything just yet to celebrate it. But I will be starting my season 6 rewatch and a couple of other things this week. Most of my free time has been spent looking for a new job.

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I was watching your recap of season 5 and I would really like to see the show have two premiere nights again with half of the couples dancing on each night. I'm a big proponent of having only 12 couples in each season and I think it would be great to get to know each couple better.Do you agree/would you like to see this format back?

I know I haven't gotten there yet, but seasons 6 and 9 did it as well. And I would love to see that format again. I agree that we got to know the contestants better. We also wouldn't have to rush the premiere.

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I really enjoy your recaps of earlier seasons, I watched them all as a kid, so it's great to revisit them as an adult and I look forward to your season 6 rewatch when you get to it

Watching those older season has honestly become my favorite part of doing this blog. Watching these dances with my grown up eyes and having way more knowledge on dance is so interesting

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Speaking of a two night finale….in sort of the miss the Christmas themed lead in they used to do at the end of the season. I hope they consider bringing that back-it was nice to see all the Disney lights-they are pretty spectacular and I loved the dances the troupe did in Christmas costumes

It was nice and made for a more fun time. At least as a viewer. It doesn’t have to be too Christmas-y. But a number here and there is cool

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Maybe since this season garnered better ratings, they will entertain having a two night finale. I’m hoping the better ratings will give them some wiggle room to expand some of the things that worked and continue to make improvements. This season was a breath of fresh air-I hope they continue-

One can hope. It probably wouldn’t be next year. But hopefully we can get it back at some point, if we can prove that it wouldn’t be a waste of a tv time slot and the network’s money. Two nights for a finale is so much better.

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other troupe guy's name is roman

Thank you! And what’s the other troupe girl’s name? I know Stephanie.

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I liked all five couples in the finale, but I wish they would have handled the semi-final differently. Either skip a week and give everyone plenty of time to prepare a freestyle, or eliminate someone. Congratulations to Joey and Jenna, they were great all season. Ironically, they were the only freestyle I didn’t like. I thought most of the pros did a terrific job. Brooke deserved better than she got with Gleb. Are there any of the troupe you would like to see moved onto training a celebrity?

I honestly would prefer a semi with an elimination. I hope we go back to 4 person finales at the most. I hate having semi-finals that mean absolutely nothing in the grand scheme of things.

There's no one in the troupe that I want to see with a celeb just yet. I'm eyeing Marcquet and that other guy though (no shade, I just don't know his name) to possibly snatch up spots from a couple of the current male pros.

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From your lips to the producers ears, please please please make the finale over two nights!

Please and thank you! We need it for at least the final week

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In a season with 13 couples and 10 weeks, what is the perfect time for a double elimination in your opinion/if you were the EP?

Midseason. Like week 6 or 7.

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Just an odd question….do you think the Olympics helped DWTS? People were invested in watching television and a lot of the warm stories were a welcome relief(especially during a presidential election year) and DWTS seemed to carry a lot of that heart left from the Olympics. It’s the best season for me in a long time. I hope they learn what went right and what needs some tweaking. I looked forward to your blog insights each week-thank you

It’s actually a great question. I’m not quite sure. Casting Stephen and Ilona def brings some men’s gymnastics and rugby viewers to the show. But idk what the actual overlap is.

Hopefully they do learn what worked and continue that while fixing what didn’t. And thank you for reading!

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I liked Danny's freestyle. Him and Witney knew that they were not going to win so probably decided to just have fun. I had fun too and I don't even like the Ken song.

Same. I’m glad they went that route and fully embraced it. Danny also seemed to fully let his guard down during and after that dance. It was just an all around good time

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I agree with everything you said about the finale this year. I think what made this season for me was that everyone in the final was so likeable and completely invested in the process, it felt like there was just so much heart this year that had been missing for me. I’m so proud of so many of the contestants and pros for their work this season. And yes the chandler and Brandon were so special to watch this season and that freestyle did them justice.

Exactly. And it's not so much the stars. I think they were invested last year. It's the pros that made the difference this year. It felt like every single pro was 100% invested. I felt all of the partnerships were special. They were all matched perfectly (unlike last year) and it made the finale so much more fulfilling to watch.

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Dancing with the Stars Season 33 Week 10: The Finale

Hey everyone. Hope you're having a great week. If you celebrate Thanksgiving, hope you all had a great time. If you don't, hope you had a fantastic Thursday.

I wanna say that I really enjoyed this season. Since the Athlete Season, I think this season has been my favorite. It wasn't perfect and there were a lot of problems. But I think this is the most back to basics the show has been in YEARS. And I personally love that.

Before I get into the couples, I wanna address a few things. The first thing is that CAI showed us exactly why she's the most necessary judge on that panel right now. After Halloween night, she went back to how she was judging last season. That's a good thing. With Derek and Bruno blowing smoke up people's butts, we need someone to bring folks back down to earth and give actual CRITIQUES. She started doing that again towards the end. I'm glad she did. Secondly, I wanna get into the results. Some of you are being quite disingenuous with the talks about Joey (and Ilona and Chandler). Joey deserved the win as did everyone else. Ilona was actually a good dancer. Chandler being on the show while having prior dance experience is not some sort of crime against humanity. You need ringers who can keep raising the bar and forcing folks to try and catch them. It makes for a better competition. And finally, y'all gotta take a breather. Things will be okay. I'm gonna get into Chandler and Brandon in a moment. But just know that the chances of them winning were slim for all the reasons that we all know. I want us to not look at it as some sort of failure and look at the success of their season. View them as trailblazers. This couple opened up doors. They left a huge impact and for that, we need to look at it and celebrate them vs mourn their loss. Anyway, let's get into it.

Chandler and Brandon- So you know what. I'm not gonna waste anymore time. I just wanna talk about them. As you all know, these two were my favorites this season for so many different reasons. I wanna talk about how talented she is. Their jive was spectacular. Chandler has really amazing and long legs. That works in most dances. It's hard to have long legs in a jive. You gotta work that much harder to get that right kicking action and you gotta get those legs back under you in the same amount of time as someone who has much shorter legs. She looked great AND she didn't lose steam. It was a cute dance and Brandon knocked the choreography out of the park. Now I wanna talk about the freestyle. This was my favorite dance of all time. This dance was a celebration of Blackness. It was a celebration of what we, as a people, contributed to dance and entertainment. It was acknowledging those that came before Chandler and Brandon (and every other Black dancer on that stage). It was a lesson in Black history. I saw Lindy hop. I saw tap. I saw hustle. I saw hip-hop. I even saw some jazz. All of those styles of dance were originated by Black people. We got a reference to the Nicholas Brothers and that iconic tap routine of theirs. We got a reference to the dance scene with all the Black workers from Hellzapoppin. We got a look into 70s Black fashion and not in the costume-y way that folks tend to do. And we got a Curtis Mayfield song. What's even better is that the jive was also originated by Black folks. So their entire night was a celebration of Blackness and it was such a huge moment for them, for Black folks and for the show in general. After that freestyle was done, I started to cry. I knew how much it meant, but I really felt it after it was over.I wish Alfonso had done a better job of acknowledging. Y'all may hate Tyra, but one thing she's gonna do is point out a moment like that. Anyway, we know that they got 3rd and I know it sucks. But like I said earlier, let's focus on what they did accomplish not only on Tuesday night, but throughout the entire competition. Brandon killed it with the choreography every single week. There was not a week where he slacked off like so many other pros do. He was given a lot of responsibility with Chandler as his partner and not only did he meet those expectations, he exceeded every single one of them. He is the heir to the throne of Mark and Derek and we need to accept that. And Chandler? I view her season like I view Jordan Fisher and Amber Riley. That is the biggest compliment I can ever give to a celeb on this show. The MBT would've been nice but if you go back and watch those two all night, they were at peace. So bravo to them both.

Stephen and Rylee- These two are actually here because Stephen and Rylee finally figured out his biggest problem. For me, the most shocking thing of the night was watching grasp counting music and stay mostly on time for his quickstep and be completely in the pocket for the freestyle. If they had a couple more weeks, I think we would've seen him get less rigid as that comes with not feeling comfortable with the music. As for that freestyle, Stephen shocked me with how on time he was. Rylee killed it with the choreography as well. A lot of times, pros will mess up their first freestyles because it is so different and choreographing something with no rules that encapsulates your partnership, the person you're dancing with and the season that the person had on the show is a daunting task. Both Rylee and Brandon (juniors doesn't count) excelled in their first freestyles. To me, choreographing a good and meaningful freestyle is the sign of a truly great pro.

Ilona and Alan- When I tell you all that Ilona has turned me into an Alan truther? Listen, I always liked him. He's always been pleasant and fun. He seems to work well with all of us partners. He tries. For me, he's a good pro. But this season, I saw him blossom and transform into a great pro. Their relationship was so good to watch. I loved how he was there for her the whole time. Their jive, while not perfect, was an impressive several steps up from their previous attempt. And their freestyle was PERFECT for Ilona. I was shocked that they went in the direction that they did, but it made sense. I don't think Ilona would've been able to pull that off within the first few weeks of the competition. But she definitely killed it and was 100% comfortable during this dance. And I loved it. As a side note, I think the freestyle round regained some of the magic it lost over the years during this season. I'm not sure what happened, but there was a shift in thought process from every pro.

Joey and Jenna- These two are fourth for me, but that's not a bad thing. They deserved to win. I just wasn't as impressed with them as I was with the first 3. I still hate that the judges didn't give him critiques because this cha-cha would've been 100% worthy of a perfect score if the judges told him to turn his feet out and articulate through his foot. Everything else was fine and it was still a major improvement. As for the freestyle, it was good, but I was also underwhelmed. I get the tennis thing. I don't think the idea translated well to the dancefloor. On top of that when you start turning out lights and lighting up specific accessories, everything has to be tight and perfect. And Joey was a tiny bit behind the rest of the pros during that part of the dance. It maybe wouldn't have been a problem if the lights were on. But the lights being off meant that was the only thing we could see. And I saw the mistakes, clear as day. It also just wasn't all that exciting. Good routine. But when looking at everyone else's dances, it just felt kinda blah.

Danny and Witney- Danny definitely improved on his tango. It wasn't perfect. It was rigid (even for a tango's standards). But his frame looked better. Like Joey, I wish the judges had been real with him in weeks 5 and 6. A lot of the problems we saw on Tuesday would've been worked through at least somewhat if the judges had consistently told him some of his problems with his frame and being comfortable out on the floor (or looking comfortable if he felt comfortable in his mind). The freestyle was very camp. Nothing was serious. It was goofy. It was silly. But I enjoyed it. It worked. It wasn't perfect. It wasn't my favorite of the night. I don't think it deserved a 10. But it was incredibly entertaining and a perfect dance for those two for some odd reason.

So that was season 33 of DWTS. Let me know your thoughts and I will talk to you all soon. We'll do some other things before the end of the year. And once again, congrats to all of the finalists.

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It's my 13 year anniversary on Tumblr 🥳

Oh wow. 13 years ago, I finished blogging about season 13 on my main tumblr and thought “might as well create a blog dedicated to DWTS.” 13 years, hundreds of post and thousands of followers later, I’m still here. Thank you to everyone for your support for this long. Y’all don’t realize what this blog has done for me. When I had nothing else, I always had this to help ground me in those extremely dark moments (they still happen, not gonna lie). So again, thank you all

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Derek and Mark B A tango was gorgeous-they will probably win Emmys for that. I wish DWTS would bring back more of that kind of stuff. They did a little bit this season(I enjoyed the troupe dancers showing some of the different dances while Derek explained them). All in all, terrific season

I definitely feel a nomination coming. Idk about a win though. We’ve definitely missed out on so much the the results show being chopped.

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I don’t want to send any spoilers! The couple who won didn’t surprise me but I was hoping for a different outcome. For me personally, Stephen and Rylee’s freestyle was my favorite. Ilona danced her absolute best! I loved Whitney and Danny’s nod to Ken and Barbie-it was cute and fun. Jen and Joey’s tennis thing didn’t translate for me. Maybe the lighted tennis racquets were more striking in person, but it was not that memorable or fun for me. Chandler and Brandon absolutely danced their best! It would be hard to pick out the pros from the celebrity.

I loved the redemption dances-it was my favorite part. I still wish they would use two nights to do the finale. The winner was posted on social media long before it had even aired on the west coast. Two nights would make it less bloated to stuff everything into one night.

Please please give Ezra a decent, kind partner next season. I didn’t think the show would bring Anna D back for the finale, but I think they handled it the best they could.

All in all, I enjoyed the season. I’ll be back for next season!!

At this point we’re not in spoiler territory anymore. Once GMA airs the next day, you’re 100% in the clear. I’ll talk about things in depth later on, but I enjoyed 4 freestyles and I actually thought this redemption round was good. I want us to go back to 2 nights for the finale at the very least. I want the freestyles to mean something again, I want us to get one more competitive dance in, I want more fluff that’s well thought out and I don’t want to feel like we’re racing against the clock to get everything done before the local news came on.

Anna was quite literally nothing. That said, I believe Ezra will get some decent partners in the future. I think the show recognizes what he brings

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I think Chandler deserves to win, but I think fan bases play a bigger role than we realize. (Thinking about Bobby Bones’ win) It’s going to be interesting for sure. Since it’s the last show for the season, I’m so glad I found this Tumblr and I really enjoy the discussions paired with your honest answers. Thank you!! 🙏🏼 I hope you have a peaceful holiday however you celebrate

Realistically, I think Ilona is my bet for taking home the win. Then Joey. Then Chandler. Thank you for reading all season and I appreciate the support! Hope you have a peaceful holiday as well, if you celebrate. And if not, I hope you have a great week.