5/18 Show Discussion **spoilers**

[MHcarrollton]

I think that there are two components to this show that help the star fanbase and dance experience. Melissa had both coming in. Who the heck heard of Giles before this show? Maybe a few, but not the magnitude of Shawn or Melissa. I did not have a favorite last night, but with the lack of fans and the lack of dance experience Giles to me is the most deserving. He made it with nothing helping him. Melissa did not even dance a week and stayed over stars who did, that just was not right and combined with her push from The Bachelor and her background, how could she not make it to the end?

[anders332]

fans.

Just wondering: Will the regular DWTS watchers and voters, who really do vote for the best dancer and not their favorite person, vote for overall performance or performance tonight only?

Was there a best dancer last night?? If I thought there was a standout in the F3, it may have swayed my vote, but since there wasn't I voted as I have for weeks, for my favourite.

[Nanamary]

I too was disappointed with the dancing in last nights show. I do not think any of them danced very well. I personally think all Giles has going for him is what some see as sexy. I do not really think he is that great a dancer. Cheryl has done most of the dancing in all their routines and he has run his hands up and down all over her and made sexy moves. He is not my idea of sexy or handsome. I think he looks greasy and sleezy. Shawn and Mark have been good dancers but in most of them I have seen gymnastic type moves and I do not think they have been the best couple on the dance floor. I think overall that Melissa and Tony have been the best dancers of the three that are left. If you just compare the "stars" and take away the performance of the pros then Melissa, by far, has been the best.JMHO

[jcsorrels]

Was that Gilles? I bet he is getting the Lil'Kim treatment. Her phone lines were engaged continuously and when you voted for her even online. The response was always "thank you for voting for Melissa" even though they had dialed for LK. I guess they want a Shawn Melissa finale. This way Gilles will genuinely not have enough votes, because people cannot vote for him. This is a trick used often in England, because here, the governing authority can demand to know the number of votes from the records. so they do this to prevent the vote from being registered. Alot of people complained they were unable to vote for Lil'Kim too.

I noticed in the red room. When anyone else was speaking, they covered Gilles, if you could see him in the background, the camera moved to cover him. The opposite was for Melissa. Whenever she was covered, the camera moved to show her in the background. I feel tptb still want Melissa.

Conspiracy theories are fun to discuss, but not usually based in fact. One fact is that I tried to vote for Melissa for a solid hour and was only able to get in one vote. That has never happend to me this season. It was either busy or I was told the call would not go through.

What I got from the judges scoring the last few weeks and last night was that they want G and S as final two and Mel as 3. G and S are tied and that leaves it up to the fan bases. At this point, with the judges scores at 50% of the total, Mel would have to make up a huge amount of votes just to break even.

[Oceansands]

karalott I agree with everything you say. I'd like to add the judges are trying to influence who the winner is. Sad thing is the younger viewer is easily swayed by everything the judges say. I've read almost word for word, in these posts, views that came right from the judge's mouth. Frankly, I don't pay any attention to anything the judges say because I know they are trying to control the outcome. I'll go a step further.....how can the viewer know for sure if their vote even counts. How far would the network go to get ratings? Where is the absolute proof of how the votes go. When I see some way of showing proof that my vote counted, then I will start voting again.

I find it strange the phone lines were always busy when I tried to vote for LilKim, yet she was eliminated. The same for Melissa, the lines always busy, yet she came in with the bottom three. If the lines are always busy when I'm trying to vote for an individual, to me, it would mean everyone would be voting for that person. Something strange going on here.

The whole ballroom thing has left the building and replaced by who can do the most tricks. It's hard to hold the interest of young immature viewers without constant tricks. Me, I preferred the concept of what the show was about in the very beginning..ballroom dancing. I can imagine it will become harder and harder to get recognizable celebrities to do this show and take a chance of injury trying to do impossible tricks that have nothing to do with ballroom dancing. That was the fun of watching celebrities (we all recognize) and how well they learn the dance. Too many injuries now and far less fun to watch.

Watching Shawn is like watching the Olympics she is just not great at dancing too stiff but does the tricks great. Gilles is a much better dancer but I'm a little tired of his partner Cheryl and her ego, that shouldn't count against him though but the judges are pushing him too hard for my liking. He is good but not all that great. Melissa is the best all around celebrity dancer. I can clearly see Melissa has not been picked by the show to win and that is sad because she is by far the better all around dancer. I would prefer seeing Ty and LilKim in the top two because they both tried so hard and both showed the most improvement.

[Living]

Melissa's Paso was absolutely horrible. Tony had to lift her back into her spot twice, and she was completely shaky and she was doing super goofy expressions. The fact they scored her higher than Shawn in that is a super big joke. I feel badly for Tony. I think he is just not a choreographer, and he tries to give the fans and the judges what they want, but I think he is just never going to stand out. I almost want to give him the win because I adore him, but Melissa was horrible last night worst of the night for me.

I do not think Tony does choreography to suit fans and judges. I think he knows best and does what he wants. Did you notice Melissa had 8 ballet hight leg movements in the paso? I did not watch the foot but the straightness and grace of the move. PD is a strong forceful dance. The legs and stiff and firm in all moves. Actually, more jerky than graceful. Melissa did not do much dancing. Tony kept carrying her and she kept twirling her legs. It was good to see all three doing the same dance to the same bad music. There are no excuses now. We see how good they are.

When CA taught Melissa to walk, Melissa said it was the first time she understood what it meat to be agressive in the dance (or something to that effect). It means all the feedback from CA about no emotion, no soul etc was not even corrected by Toiny. I did say earlier that this did not often incorporate the feedback they got. For work ethnic, this says alot.

[kultainen]

Maybe you missed Tony and Melissa snobbing both Gilles and Cheryl in front of the judges. That was so obvious and commented upon on the board. There must be a reason for this if they did it together, or the competition has gotten to them. Also, when CA was speaking, both Gilles and Cheryl turned to Tony and Melissa as if to see if they will smile back, or not. (Like did I mistake the snob or did they really snob me on national TV). Confirmed to be a snob, as we see Tony turn away. When Melissa tried to be be nice, knowing the camera was on them, Cheryl did not want any part of that pretense.

I saw none of this. I saw 6 people who genuinely like each other. Tony and Gilles play soccer together. Cheryl was one of the first to Mel's side when she had the allergic reacation and was genuinely concerned. Shawn has said Mel helped her with wardrobe and makeup (and Shawn does look much better now esp. given her age). If you've heard the joint interview between the 3 "stars" there is real warmth there. One reason this has been an enjoyable season, besides the dancing, is that there has been no backbiting between the top tier,and the best 3 are in the finals.
We have 6 smart, competitive and nice people, all talented in different ways, and, IMO, none of them are all THAT worked up over a silver ball!

We can agree to disagree on this, because in my opinion when looking for "snubs" or "bad blood", there just is no there there.

[schmoo2]

I think they all get caught up in the moment, or the excitement, and have a really hard time noticing things going on right next to them. and I think they all understand this. When we see them interacting during the scoring behind the current couple, I think we see the genuine feelings they have for each other. I'm just not looknig for every little movement and drawing conclusions.

[ironcat]

As most have already stated, this finale was a huge letdown. The pasos were all good, but the music choice was so horrendous, I could barely watch. I agree that they should do away with the group dance, unless they are going to choreograph the celebs dancing side by side for comparison for more than one second. I'd rather see three separate new routines.

The freestyles were about as bad as they usually are, but I had high hopes that this season would be different; it wasn't. Mark showed off so much that it made every little flaw of Shawn's more obvious, and she, not surprisingly, couldn't keep up with his frenetic pace; I couldn't believe the 30 score. However, after seeing the other two, it was clearly the best of the night. Tony forgot that Melissa isn't his old partner, Elena, and overchoreographed that routine, so that she could barely think about anything but what move/trick came next and it showed. It was totally disjointed, but I give them credit for the difficulty factor which was off the charts. On the flip side, what was Cheryl thinking? First of all, what an awful song choice; whichever judge said Flashdance is a woman's dance was right. I can't picture any guy willingly dancing to that music. Sure Gilles didn't make any mistakes that you could see because 1) he hid behind Cheryl and 2) he did nothing. And trying to sex it up at one point was "same old, same old" and inappropriate to the theme and music. What a disappointment, and totally overscored. The only way it could have been worse is if his costume included a sweat band.

I predict it will be a Shawn win. If the judges were hoping to give it to Gilles, I think that plan was blown out of the water due to his lousy freestyle.

[steppemaster]

Honestly I think this Gilles emotion/intensity factor played out for me weeks ago. He's smoldering hot, oh absolutely. But I feel like I've seen that same look from him week after week.
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Finalefan--hi. Sorry I didn't express myself well about this.

I'm not talking about his basic sensuality but how he is able to portray and express numerous complex emotions strictly through movement.

I am thinking in particular of the Viennese Waltz they did last week.

I even said when they finished--"And he did it without a single word!"



That is one of the most moving and beautiful dances I have ever seen. It moved me to tears--something that very seldom happens to me when watching a celebrity dance show.