OLTL Discussion Group

Topic: Maksim: 'DWTS' not working

I've been meaning to post this article on Maksim's opinion on Season 9 of Dancing With The Stars. It is what many of us have been saying and I hope, as he does, they change for next season. Chalk this up to one bad idea.

Maksim: 'DWTS' not working

"Dancing With the Stars" hoofer Maksim Chmerkovskiy took a shot at the ABC reality show -- calling this season's workload "insane."

"On top of preparing a knockout dance, everyone has their main dance and the mambo group number," he wrote on his blog at tvguide.com.

"It's insane. This season is one of the hardest things ever," Chmerkovskiy continued. "I think it will be re-thought during the off-season."

The Russian-born professional dancer, who was teamed with since-eliminated actress Debi Mazar this season, went on to say that he believes ABC is working everyone on the show too hard.

A few weeks back, Tom DeLay was forced to leave "Dancing" after suffering stress fractures in both feet.

Last season, both singer Jewel and "Access Hollywood" co-anchor Nancy O'Dell were forced to leave the show due to dancing-related injuries.

"I can't wait for that re-thinking process to begin because it's been really hard for everyone," Chmerkovskiy wrote.

"At some point you have to say that's not working."

Show officials had no comment yesterday.

Comments (2)

10/28/2009 8:04 PM

I agree. There are too many contestants, too many double eliminations, too many dances. What was once a good show is shooting itself in the foot.

10/28/2009 1:03 PM

I like the show but there's too much stuff going on. Pretty soon the pros are going to get hurt. They really have to cut back.

I said this as soon as they announced 16 contestants and I said something last year when there were so many injuries that they needed more pre-show practice time and limited hours during the season. The celebrities got more pre-show weeks this year and their hours have been limited to six with breaks in between. That has seemed to help but this year we got the dreaded flu. At least there aren't that many celebrities this year that have other conflicts causing both them and their partner to fly who knows where in the world and cram in practice sessions wherever they are at the time.

I think the push to have so many contestants is that there aren't that many REAL stars lining up to compete.  I'm just sitting way off, never really watched the show, but always, always read your and Wyatt's recaps.  When the people I knew were competing, reading the recaps was all I needed.  I'm beginning not to bother.

I mean, come on, Barbra Streisand is never going to compete, but the show is gonna fold if some more exciting people don't start competing.  JMO

Replies: (list all replies)

Oh, and I want to add that not a lot of ''stars'' are gonna put themselves in that position, to be compared with professional dancers. Can you see Cameron Diaz or Hugh Grant or Mel Gibson or Sandra Bullock competing? It's TOO intense or at least it sounds intense when people get stress fractures!!! Does the star that wins have to be as good as their pro partner? I wouldn't think so. I think the judges are too tough and expect perfection and that scares potential competitors. eom/Jenny

You have something here, Jenny. The REAL stars won't do it because they are so busy they wouldn't have the time to devote to this since it takes so many hours of one's time. Even the ''celebrities'' that they do get have conflicts and have to practice wherever they are. The pro partner flies to wherever the celebrity has an appearance and they get in practice in between leaving the celebrity with even more stress. The show does need to do something but it isn't adding on people. If it is because they don't have enough Real Stars lining up, then they should spread out what they do have instead of piling them all up in one show. They will run out of this level of celebrity faster and then what will we be left with? The judging has gotten to a point where it does seem like the judges expect them to be as good as the pro partner. They really seem to expect too much lately. It started out as a dance competition and has become a popularity contest. The trouble is, sometimes, you don't know these people so there are some that aren't popular at all. The funny thing is, every off season you hear of those that really want to do the show. I have heard of bigger celebrities that would like to do the show but their trouble is time. If there wasn't such a demand on how well the celebrity has to learn a dance, maybe more would want to do it. This show has a lot to revamp and I think the way they are going about it will just burn the show out instead. Thanks for your honest comments. ~ eom. Linda

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