11/19 DWTS 27 FINALE Show Discussion

Well that was a disappointing end to this season. Everything was so rushed at the end. The last three weeks were just too crammed full. They had 4 people eliminated in the previous two weeks and still had four on finale night. I didn't think there's ever been 4 couples standing up there waiting to hear who won the MB, has there?

Milo was my choice with Evanna a close second. I wouldn't have even minded Alexis. Bobby winning just doesn't seem right at all.

I am not usually a fan of contemporary but I did love Milo and Whitney's freestyle.

I have a feeling Milo & Evanna split their votes. I personally was torn between the two. I attribute Bobby's win to hardcore country fans, fans who want Sharna to win a mirrorball and fans who want a non-dancer to win. I personally feel this season was all over the place and rushed. So fans had no real interest. Alexis and Alan and their showmance screwed any chemistry they had in the beginning and turned some fans off as well.

This is soooo disappointing. I’m on the west coast and came here to be spoiled. Gonna just skip it and catch Evanna and Milo’s dances on YouTube. Worst season so far. Ugh.

So basically, the way that the voting works and because of the jacked up reasons people have for voting, fans of actual dancing are forever prevented from enjoying this show ever again.

But I guess that lesson was learned several seasons ago. But the results just get more and more cockeyed as the show lumbers on.

Oh wow. I think I may have just watched the end of an era. This has been the weirdest season. I mean I get it. Voters gonna vote. Bobby obviously had the most fans voting and by the rules is the winner. The celebration at the end was pretty underwhelming.

Evanna or Milo should have won. But based on pure dancing, Juan Pablo or even Tinashe should have been in the finals.

Personally, I felt less connection this year. JP, Milo and Evanna all grew on me, but I was much less invested.

I only watched the first 4 or 5 weeks of this season because I found this season to be rather boring and none of the "stars" competing this season caught my attention or interest so I stopped watching about halfway through this season, I couldn't get into it. But I did watch the finale just to see who won, I didn't really care who won but I'm just glad that Sharna finally wins her first Mirrorball, it was a long time coming!  As for her partner Bobby, it sounds like he was the weakest performer in the finals, and based on all of his dances that I have watched, he wasn't that good. But as we all know by now, DWTS has become more of a popularity contest in recent seasons, it's not all about the dancing anymore...nowadays if you have an interesting personality that's often enough to get you far into the competition and maybe even win.

I couldn’t be more disappointed with these results. I wasn’t fully engaged this round because I didn’t know any of the “stars”, but I watched enough to know who was good, who improved, and who was just getting popularity votes not based on dancing. To actually win based on popularity only, cheapens the whole show. They could give the judges a save, give the scores more weight, or have that secret clause like American Idol that the votes can be overridden by TPTB. Do they restrict the number of votes per viewer? The live votes at the end aren’t fair at all.

Probably an unpopular opinion coming...

I'll preface this by saying Milo was my favorite. He is such a charismatic, down to Earth and charming young man who could dance his pants off. Oh...and 'he loves his Mama' too! I was rooting for him. Alexis was a good dancer and Evanna was definitely most improved, but neither really did anything for me. (I've never seen or read Harry Potter either...GASP....which could have something to do with it!)

That being said...I enjoyed Bobby's enthusiasm and he was always grateful for being on the show and for Sharna as well. He didn't come from much, but seemed to appreciate how that made him who he is. He was never smug or arrogant and he knew he was far from the best dancer there. To say he didn't 'deserve' to be in the finale, isn't exactly fair. The people voted him in, so I guess he deserved it. There have been a myriad of 'stars' who they have paraded in front of us, that for some reason or other, got further in the competition than seemed right (ringers, sob stories, connected people, etc)- Bobby just happened to get the furthest of all of them. It's not like he won a million dollars- he got a trophy. I'm actually happy for Sharna, who has come thisclose 3 times, and now has a win.

If they want to make the show about the absolute best dancer than they need to change the format and the voting methods. I actually think the first third of the season the judges should only be allowed to use paddles #1-5. Giving out 8's on night one or two cheapens those same 8's on weeks 9 and 10. I like how So You Think You Can Dance does it, where the pubic votes and the judges pick from the lowest 3 vote getters. This gives the public input, but also allows for a more 'talented' winner over a more 'popular' one. Whenever you invite the public to vote, you open yourself up to a popularity contest. People like whom they like, for whatever reason...and this time they liked Bobby. Oh well. Congratulations to him.

It's always been part popularity contest and part dancing. This isn't the first time I personally thought the winner was undeserving, which is why when we have someone deserving, the season means so much more to me.

I saw his charm, and commented that I wouldn't be surprised if he won, but I was stunned. Honestly don't understand how popularity could keep someone there so long. But he must have zillions of fans. I didn't have a clue who he was before the show.

I am disappointed that Evanna and Milo did not get rewarded for their beautiful performances. I do think the judges score should be at least 60% of the voting power. Usually the winner is a good dancer by the end, but this was so off the wall. Juan Pablo, Evanna and Milo were my favorites.

There were non-viewers voting for Bobby, but for the most part that was due to his radio audience.  Country radio has an incredibly loyal following, and he benefited from it. Quite frankly, the show benefitted from him bringing that audience or attention to the show, which is probably why they cast him. He wasn't getting votes from a "this guy dances the worst, tank the show and vote for him" in the same way that years ago Howard Stern campaigned for votes for Sanjaya on American Idol. Rather, they were people who adore Bobby for his day job, and supported him in his dancing - even if they didn't watch him.

What's changed since the early seasons is social media. At the start, there was no Facebook or Twitter, and people only voted by phone or at the ABC website. So you had to be watching the show to know/care about voting. Now people can send out a tweet or a put a post on reddit, and soon people are voting in armies for a name without ever having watched the show.

The social media explosion is something that has come close to ruining almost every reality competition show where the viewers play a part. For some reason, people feel the need to make statements with their votes that have nothing to do with the competitions. People are weird.

I agree that DWTS has always been partially about the dancing and partially about the popularity, the show was never really about voting for the best dancer, it has always been about voting for America's favourite dancer, and the favourite dancer among voters and viewers are not necessarily the best dancers in the competition, a fav dancer could be mostly based on popularity and not really the dancing, it is simply the competitor who has the most amount of voters and fans. Many of the winners over the years were not necessarily the best dancers during their seasons, but they gained enough support and votes to win. 
I reckon in the past DWTS was probably 50% about the dancing and 50% about the popularity...but I think in recent seasons that ratio has become imbalanced and the show has mostly become a popularity contest more than a dancing competition in recent years, except for a few seasons. 

I sometimes watch the original British version SCD, and on SCD the judges have the power to eliminate one of the couples that are in the bottom few every week, and these couples don't necessarily have the least amount of votes, so the SCD judges basically have the power to eliminate whichever couple they want from the bottom few couples each week. I don't know why this power is not given to the judges on the other versions of the show...but maybe that's because the show is suppose to be for the public and viewers to vote for their favourite competitors, and not about the judges' favourites. If the judges were given the power to eliminate whichever couple they want from the bottom every week in the other versions, then I think it would give the judges too much power, and it would no longer be about the country's favourite dancers as voted by the public, but rather the judges' choice.

  

Derek and Joanna's Futuristic Paso Doble

Oh MFW, I miss moments like this..( sigh) 

Now it's troupe from start to finish, to cover up no dancing. At least Alan and Keo tried not to give us that every dance, JP/Cheryl were at least a tad bit exciting, but to no avail. It's a darn shame, while I'm pleased for Sharna, I wonder how satisfying this win felt..

My recording stopped before the announcement. I know this because I turned on the 11 PM news hoping to not be spoiled and ran into the big ending that lasted for 7 min into the hour. I was reading a good book last night and thought I could catch the show today...nope. I deleted it because what was the point? As Fanny pointed out, I can catch the routines on You Tube if I want to. I did watch their GMA moment and while tired, they all seemed upbeat.

I knew who Bobby Bones was coming into the show because of his mentor gig last season on American Idol. Happy for him but shaking my head along with the rest of you on how popularity trumps watching the show and voting for the best dancer.