Dancing with the Stars premiered its 17th season competition tonight and quickly tripped over its own feet and fell flat on its face.
Let’s be honest here, the fall actually begin when the 17th season “stars” were announced two weeks ago.
Here’s the list: Elizabeth Berkley, Corbin Bleu, Brant Daugherty, Bill Engvall, Valerie Harper, Keyshawn Johnson, Christina Milian, Bill Nye, Jack Osbourne, Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi, Leah Remini and Amber Riley.
There are some celebs there of course, but many of these left us with a “hunh?” Even the ones that are well known aren’t really celebs we want to see dancing. Just not a very interesting mix.
After the reveal of the celebs came the show itself…
The crazy, spastic, intro was our second hint that things are going awry this season. It just seemed like it was working so hard too be glitzy that it came off feeling cheap. Is DWTS trying too hard?
Then there’s the new stage set up. What’s with having all the dancers sitting next to the judges table? It’s just odd. Gives it that everyone-hanging-out-at-the-gym feel. It seemed strange not to have the celeb aquarium in use.
And there’s the lack of after-dance interviews. Actually my wife cheered this change – she doesn’t like Brooke. But I enjoyed hearing the dancers’ first thoughts after a dance.
Overall, the whole show seemed to have a less polished, chintzy, feel to it.
So did DWTS 17 jump the shark?
No… but there’s just one thing that saved it.
The dancing!
The stars and pros pulled out all the stops and the dancing was addictive, making you want to watch one after another (um, ok, if you don’t count the science guy’s). Even famously grumpy DWTS judge Len Goodman commented about how great the dancing was for this being the first week of competition.
It is the dancing that will bring us back again to watch next week (not tomorrow night, DWTS has been downsized to a once a week show – we have to wait until next week to get the results).
If the dancing had been sub-par this week, DWTS would have been doomed.
Ok, let’s turn this over to you!
What did you think of the changes? Let us know in the comments section below – and be sure to Like, Tweet, Pin and G+ this page to get your friends and followers involved!
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