11/14 Show Discussion **Spoilers**

[Misty8723]

I wasn't able to get through to vote by phone, and now I can't seem to make it work online either.

Anyone else have problems?

I got 4 votes for Emmitt and Cheryl, but the fifth one, all I heard was "Cheryl." The next time I got the you have reached your quota message. I noticed there was a long lag time between when the phone stopped ringing and the thank you for voting message came on. I very nearly hung up the first time.

No problems voting on line this morning.

[Misty8723]

I don't think the judges have to leave them tied because the audience vote wins over the judge's.

I thought it was 50 - 50.

[Misty8723]

Athlete speak. Okay, I'll buy that. I just don't like it when they talk about sacrifice in the context of a reality show. He didn't donate a kidney, didn't travel to Africa to nurse dying kids or anything. Just took a few well paid weeks and learned to dance while having lots of fun.

I think they all talked about "sacrificing" at one time or another this season. Pay me $25,000 a week and I'll sacrifice a lot too

[Misty8723]

Drew and Cheryl were pretty darn perfect with that Cowboy routine last time.

I agree and it was exciting to see the 10s. This year, 10s are meaningless.

[Misty8723]

What I liked more about Emmitt and Cheryl was that they danced together the entire freestyle time; Mario had to break away from Karina and do his own thing while she just stood there.

I thought Mario and Karina looked like a bunch of random dance moves thrown together, while Emmitt and Cheryl looked like a team. To me, that's one of the big differences that make me love their routines and yawn in boredom over stuporMario.

[famita]

I really enjoyed watching both teams. In response to several postings, I think the judges didn't give "10"s for a long time, but as soon as the first one went up, the "10"s started falling like flies. I don't know that any "10" awarded in the last couple of weeks has truly been earned. At least not in my opinion. I really enjoyed watching them, but they didn't leave me soaring.

[spiffypenquin]

I got held up at work last night!!! Does anyone know if I can find the dances anywhere on line??

[Kresge]

Any vote where the public votes is a popularity contest. If they wanted it to be a dancing contest, they'd leave all of the decision making to professionals...but even that would have a certain amount of popularity voting going on.

Just because the public votes doesn't automatically make it a poularity contest........the people in my immediate world don't vote by who they like, but by who they think is the best dancer. Yet the people on this board seem to be judging b popularity, and that is very different from what I am experiecing in "real life"......Actually I was pretty shocked when I first started reading this message board and saw how many people were making decisions based on preconceived notions of personality instead of talent. Naturally, as you said, there is always an element of personal preference in any judging, but I'm suprised at how it seems to dominate on this board.

[Kresge]

I got held up at work last night!!! Does anyone know if I can find the dances anywhere on line??

Mario's link.....http://www.mariolopez.net/dancing.php

Couldn't tell ya on Emmitt.

[Shady64]

There are alot more factors that go into this than who excutes the technical aspects the best. If that were all it was about it would be a 1 week show and the judges would just score them with no input or critisism given.

No amount of downplaying (I was young, it wasn't ballroom danicng etc.) can disguise that mario had more knoweldge and skill in dancing right from the first week. If they had both only danced in clubs or at weddings for their own enjoyment, it would be an equal playing field. As for me, I look at how they've improved over time and it's been Emmitt that has grown by leaps and bounds. If you look at his dancing for the first week and now the difference is HUGE. I barely see any difference or improvement between Marios first week and his last. Then there's attitude and sheer enjoyment and appreciation. I see that in Emmitt, I don't in Mario.

This is my first season watching and though I knew that Emmitt had played football, I didn't know what team or even what years he played. I could care less if they are an athlete or an actor, I didn't have a favorite going in. I'm capable of independant thought based on what I see with my own 2 eyes and Emmitt won me over with his ability that grew every week, attitude and the sheer joy and pleasure he gets from it.

In my opinion Emmitt has more talent based on all these things