All My Children Discussion Group

Topic: DWTS (British Style) - the ''dancing pig in Cuban heels'' quits~

The public adored him, but the judges hated him. One called him a ''Dancing Pig In Cuban Heels.''

Retired BBC correspondent John Sergeant announced Wednesday he is quitting television dance contest *Strictly Come Dancing* because he is afraid he might win. ''It was always my intention to have fun on the show and I was hoping to stay in as long as possible,'' Sergeant said in a statement. ''The trouble is that there is now a real danger that I might win the competition. Even for me that would be a joke too far.''

Sergeant has been this season's surprise star on the BBC show despite being labeled the program's worst-ever competitor by judges. Viewers have consistently voted for the portly Sergeant above more accomplished dancers, the latest example of the way TV producers' best-laid plans can be upset by viewers' mischievous love of an underdog.

Week after week, the judges excoriated 64-year-old Sergeant, whose ungainly moves , including a galumphing Paso Doble in which he inelegantly dragged partner Kristina Rihanoff across the floor, gained him the nickname ''the dancing pig.'' Ballroom instructor Len Goodman told Sergeant his popularity makes a nonsense of the show.

In TV terms, though, it was pure gold. Week after week, Sergeant came last in the judges' rankings, only to be saved by public vote. Viewers praised Sergeant as funny, gallant and gentlemanly, old-fashioned qualities for an old-fashioned show. It's an increasingly common phenomenon, viewers backing amusing underdogs over more talented contestants. In the U.S. 17-year-old Sanjaya Malakar had a long run on *American Idol,* as viewers decided his winning smile and ever-changing hairdos outweighed his erratic performances.

The pair will perform on the finale. It won't be the routine the pair originally planned, though. The dance they had planned was called 'Murder on the Dance Floor'. It would have ended with Sergeant firing imaginary bullets at the judges.

Such contestants reveal a tension at the heart of reality-based competitions. For the producers it's a dancing show, whereas for many it's an entertainment show.

PASO DOBLE~~this guy dances like a rocket scientist compared to Master P and a few others!!!!

Replies: (list all replies)

At the end of this video is a slide of other videos. If you scroll to the left side, to the beginning of the videos and click into the second video (where John & Kristina are farther apart from each other), you will see the whole section--the preview with practice (poor Kristina. It's a wonder she isn't in the hospital), the dance performance, and the judges comments, scores and the backstage interview. The scores are interesting considering that John received a 2 the week before from one of the four judges. Yes, they have four and the score is whatever they get out of 40 instead of 30 because of four judges. ~ eom. Linda

He's a real clunker, isn't he? I bet his partner had bruises. However, I still think Master P was worse. /sb

---

Posted by: LuvToLaf
Date posted: Thu Nov 20 17:20:04 2008
Message:

I haven't viewed the clips yet, but hopefully this page has several you can watch...

http://uk.youtube.com/results?search_query=john+sergeant+strictly+come+dancing&search_type=&aq=0&oq=john+Sergeant

Replies: (list all replies)

Thank you so much. Obviously, the British expect more than the Americans do!! They should have been treated to Master P, Cloris, Tucker Carlton , Wayne Newton, etc. /sb

I know! I didn't view all of them, but the guy looked like he was trying. I have to admit, the funniest one was the Paso Doble they way he was marching/stomping around! eom/LuvToLaf

Man, he beats those all over the place! Eve

OUR Master P was the worst EVER!!! /sb

---

Posted by: W.E.
Date posted: Thu Nov 20 15:47:00 2008
Message:

Not surprising we see this happen early on each season. Glad he realized but once it goes that far how much longer will the show have legitimacy? Master P and Sara Evans were definitely getting votes they didn't earn. The judges' low scores took him out but had she not left (for personal reasons) who knows.

There's only so much the judges can do when vote for the worst takes over. Nothing is sacred anymore (lol)!!

Replies: (list all replies)

I think he waited until very late into the game to pull out. It seems that no score was low enough!! Isn't this the show that Bruno also judges with Len??? Gosh, how humiliating to be called a pig in Cuban heels. Could you imagine that happening here???? (lol) .........And how about that dance where he was going to pretend to shoot the judges??? /sb

---

Posted by: Linda
Date posted: Thu Nov 20 15:00:59 2008
Message:
And I thought things were bad when Master P and Cloris were on. This sounds even worse especially when the judges are giving him very low scores so that the total will still come out low but it looks like the lower the scores from the judges, the more people vote for him. At least he had the decency to recognize the wrongness of this and that more accomplished dancers were being let go to be the bigger person and bow out. I sure hope this never happens here. Maybe with this, they will change the voting rules and it will apply over here too. Thanks for posting this. I will have to check out YouTube to see how really bad he is.

Replies: (list all replies)

It would be interesting to see if he is worse than Master P, Cloris, Tucker who sat in the chair, and a few others. At least he had the decency to leave. Possibly being called a PIG helped him decide. I was thinking that even Simon hasn't called anyone a pig on AI. Possibly the British are more ''direct'' than we are??? /sb

---

---