Ok, I'm going to start to fall behind here for a little bit since they sprung the premiere on me early, so my apologies ahead of time. Since we haven't finished the show yet at my house I'll save the review of the actual dancers until tonight. But here's thoughts on the premiere itself:
- It's funny how they're hyping "they only had 4 weeks to train instead of 6!" like it's a big thing, and then they say "But the first week there'll be no eliminations." In other words, "We just wanted to get on tv earlier." A week of dancing without eliminations? So, basically, the show is just a 2 hour introduction to the cast? Ummm…
- I'm surprised that the producers haven't yet realized that the professional dancers are becoming stars in their own right at this point. What the heck was up with that mess of an opening number? Kerry and I were frantically looking for the dancers we recognized from past years. I'm disappointed that I didn't see Ashley, the little cute one who got stuck with Master P. I liked her. Why in the world couldn't they have worked in introductions to the dancers at that point? Even when the stars themselves came out, there was a graphic showing the dancer's name, without so much as a "from last season" or anything. They're still using the same introductions for the dancers that they've used since the beginning. Boring. If a dancer's been on the show before (besides Cheryl, we all know Cheryl's going to be the camera darling this time around), show some clips of their dancing.
- And speaking of that chaotic opening number, just how bad is the camera work going to be this year? That was painful to watch. I haven't seen all the pairs dancing yet, but when Joey Fatone was dancing we saw a cameraman or something run across the screen. That's just great.
- Heather Mills would rather be known as "charity campaigner" and "first dancer with an artificial limb" than "Paul McCartney's ex-wife"? This is supposed to be dancing with the *stars*, right? I wonder if anybody will dance to any Beatles covers.
- Oh my god how bad did Billy Ray Cyrus look? I wonder if he'll be the first one gone this time around? That would be karma — his partner is Karina, who pretty much lost the championship last year on her personality alone. Serves her right getting her hair pulled out of her head. Ouch. 🙂
- Did anybody else feel a little weird with the champ from season one out there dancing? I'd almost forgotten about the lost season. You know, the one where it was fixed, before they realized that they might have a hit on their hands.
- Here's some totally trivial trivia. One of the pairs danced to "Ballroom Blitz." In the movie Wayne's World, this song was performed by … Tia Carrere, former Dancing With The Stars competitor. I said it was trivial.
As of this writing I saw Ian, Billy Ray, Leeza, Paulina and Joey dance. Ian was the best, Billy Ray the worst. Leeza was surprisingly stiff, she's not doing her Lisa Rinna spot justice if she's going to dance like that.
Like I said, I'll write more once I see the whole show.I'm thinking about trying to track the music this year, but that might be pushing my luck.