DWTS - Season 28 - Episodes - Discussion - *Sleuthing Spoilers*

The song choice for the Samba for Hannah was awful. I have danced my entire life with a good bit of experience with latin. The song was not a Samba rhythm. Latin dances all have their own rhythm and you can identify it when you hear it. Samba is the quickest rhythm. When I have taught it, I start by doing a double heel pop - which anyone can do. If you do, you will see that it is a double rhythm and in no way near the rhythm of Southbound, Honestly, Sweet Home Alabama could have worked (cheesy, but closer rhythm) It's easy to see why Hannah received the commentary she did for the dance.
Not a fan of any of the costumes this week.
James' samba was the right rhythm. Did not have that much samba in it, but it was good.

I will admit right up front that the following is nothing more than a conspiracy theory rolling around in my head but here goes...

Does anyone think/know if the judges know at the beginning of the show who the bottom 2 are? Could they have given Sailor's stiff jive 9s to try to avert having both Ally and her in the bottom two? Just seems to me that the whole show last night was more odd than usual.

@Doats, the rumor has been circulating on some dance blogs that Len always knows who is in the bottom vote wise. I never believed especially since it’s now live voting but the way Len scored Sailor’s vote convinced me that he must have known, jmo.

Also just want to note that one of my favorite winners is Rashad Jennings not because he was the best dancer in his season but for how much he worked hard. Hannah is similar in the sense that she works her butt off every week and IMO, it does not matter if she wins or not, she should be proud of herself for putting that much work in weekly because that IMO iwill help her consistently give her all in future endeavors; hard work pays off no matter what, jmo.

I've thought for a long time that the judges have an idea of how the vote is going for the contestants.  Many times the one going home has gotten their highest scores of the season on the night they go home and lots of praise about how far they have come.  Sort of like having them go out on a high note.

Something that was noticed on the puredwts live blog last night was that Erin shook her head before they started announcing who was safe... I didn't notice it but if she did, another giveaway that someone besides Spicer was going home.

@mercieme Have you ever heard any rumors about how scores are figured besides the 50/50 between scores and voting?  

I read an interesting scenario about another country's scoring system (can't find it now though) where everything is ranked from worst (1) to best (9 last night).  Top score contestant would get a 9 and top vote getting would get a 9. Then down the ranks.  After adding both together, the 2 lowest totals are the bottom 2.  Now in a "if this is how it was done" scenario, Sean Spicer has to be getting the most votes.  He would have gotten a "1" for scores in that scenario.  Since Ally and Kel were tied, I split the 2nd/3rd place numbers and gave her a  7.5.  The highest total Sean could get would be a 10 if he is top vote getter (1+9). Ally had to be in the bottom 2 of vote getters to be below that 10.  With 3rd lowest, she would have had 10.5 which would beat out Sean. If he is not the top vote getter, he has to be 2nd and Ally had to get the lowest... which I don't see.

Even in this scenario, the scoring of Ally and Sailor (to bump them up the leaderboard) didn't help. I mean Sailor had a 27 (which IMO was high).  Ally might have been helped if she had gotten a 27 instead of 25... it would have put her at the top of the leaderboard (but again, her dance was not 27 worthy).  Had she gotten a 27, she would have been safe... unknown who would have been in the bottom 2 with Sailor but I don't think it would have been Sean.  IMO, Sailor was going home last night no matter what because she isn't getting the votes.

No matter what, I think Spicer is going to be around for awhile.

Sorry this was long but the number nerd came out and I had to play with some.  But, this definitely strengthens my thoughts that the judges' scores and voting should not be given equality in determining who goes home.  Judges' scores need more weight in the formula.

Edit: Did some more playing with the numbers.  I think they have to have a tie-breaking formula in there as well if this is the system they use.  In 2 scenarios on vote ranking, Ally is tied with either Lauren or Hannah if she is the 2nd lowest vote getter. I have guessed that the number of votes/ranking would be the tie-breaker.  If this is true, then Hannah may not be getting the votes we think she is and she might have actually been the 3rd lowest.  In my estimation I have Hannah/Lauren as getting the 3rd and 4th highest number of votes and Ally as getting 2nd lowest.  Either Hannah or Lauren is tied with Ally depending on which one has less votes. So there has to be a tie-breaker either votes or average scores (Hannah has the highest average of 23. Lauren has an average of 21.8, Ally has an average of 22.7.... If Hannah was tied, average score or votes could be the tie-breaker. If Lauren was tied, it has to be votes.

Gonna be a long season, people.

I have a thought that Spicer was the one expected to go home last night...his wife was there, the flowers, the intro etc.  Add to that the 7s, one given "for effort".  It would have been a nice send off and that's what I think some were expecting, hence the surprise.   As someone who lives on the west coast, I thoroughly hate this season's audience "voting" method.

@pavalygurl So agree with you on the voting!

@HavaDrPepper, I have not heard any rumor other than the 50/50 spilt. I do agree with other posters on dance forums though that there needs to be a switch to have the judges score weigh more. I like how you broke the numbers down though but I am still not convinced there is a tie break in there. The reason is because I think Len also over-scored Ally’s performance deliberately, gosh the missteps were right in front of him and no way was that performance better than Kel’s. Of course we can’t prove it but me thinks Len knew both Ally and Sailor were in jeopardy hence the over scoring IMO. Have you seen the Pure DWTS recap person break down the vote differences, she does it using a votes per million cast approach in terms of what separates the dancers based on average scores of the past two dances I think but check it out if you have a chance.

@pavalygurl the “7” for effort from Bruno was kinda bad how he verbalized it because it’s giving fans ammunition to rib the judges for how unfairly they score which personally I know they do but Bruno kinda admitting it by saying that was ridiculous IMO. I also don’t think Spicer was going home last night just based on how the judges scored Sailor IMO. I will admit that I was against Spicer entering this season just because I knew folks that don’t watch the show will phone it in on his behalf daily. I am prepared now that he has a good chance to get to the finale as long as the scoring remains 50/50 between judges and votes cast....all jmo.

I love Southbound by Carrie Underwood but agree def. more a song for a cha cha or freestyle. Lauren's dance made me tear up.

Still annoyed Sean Spicer is never in the B2. Sailor and Val's dances were okay but didn't really warm me up so I don't have an issue with her leaving. If there is another season they need to change this voting process ASAP because voting randomly is not fair.

Lauren Alaina has lost weight on DWTS!

https://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-body/news/lauren-alaina-has-lost-25-lbs-on-dancing-with-the-stars/

Doats wrote:I will admit right up front that the following is nothing more than a conspiracy theory rolling around in my head but here goes...

Does anyone think/know if the judges know at the beginning of the show who the bottom 2 are? Could they have given Sailor's stiff jive 9s to try to avert having both Ally and her in the bottom two? Just seems to me that the whole show last night was more odd than usual.

HavaDrPepper wrote:I've thought for a long time that the judges have an idea of how the vote is going for the contestants.  Many times the one going home has gotten their highest scores of the season on the night they go home and lots of praise about how far they have come.  Sort of like having them go out on a high note.

snipped

No matter what, I think Spicer is going to be around for awhile.

Bringing these two posts over because ITA. I was suspicious from the beginning. When CA said last week Spicer's dance took her breath away as he stomped around like a clown, I knew he will probably be around for awhile.

I missed it last night (hockey season!) but I thoroughly enjoy reading everyone's input!

I came across this article today. Great read IMO.

The show has always been a bit of a popularity contest, but this is so blatant that it makes us wonder what the point of the show even is.

eonline.com

GuardianAngel wrote:

Doats wrote:I will admit right up front that the following is nothing more than a conspiracy theory rolling around in my head but here goes...

Does anyone think/know if the judges know at the beginning of the show who the bottom 2 are? Could they have given Sailor's stiff jive 9s to try to avert having both Ally and her in the bottom two? Just seems to me that the whole show last night was more odd than usual.

HavaDrPepper wrote:I've thought for a long time that the judges have an idea of how the vote is going for the contestants.  Many times the one going home has gotten their highest scores of the season on the night they go home and lots of praise about how far they have come.  Sort of like having them go out on a high note.

snipped

No matter what, I think Spicer is going to be around for awhile.

Bringing these two posts over because ITA. I was suspicious from the beginning. When CA said last week Spicer's dance took her breath away as he stomped around like a clown, I knew he will probably be around for awhile.

I missed it last night (hockey season!) but I thoroughly enjoy reading everyone's input!

I came across this article today. Great read IMO.

The show has always been a bit of a popularity contest, but this is so blatant that it makes us wonder what the point of the show even is.

eonline.com

Thank you for posting this!!!  IMO the DWTS show runners have made a huge mess of the voting process this season and have actually compounded the problems from last season's show.

And I can not for the life of me see how Sean Spicer is getting those inflated scores that he is receiving from the judges!!!  As a dancer he is one of the absolute worst, and the only thing keeping him there is the campaigning for votes by him and his wife, as he himself alluded to. IMO he is helping to make a mockery out of DWTS this season.   It is called self promotion in the most blatant way possible.

I can't even say that this is a true "popularity" vote, because that would have to mean the Sean Spicer is actually "popular".  And I just don't buy that.  To me it feels more like someone is "thumbing their nose" at DWTS.
  
IMO there are still some decent "dancers" left that have shown us that they do deserve to be there, but on their OWN merit, and not by an over inflated number in a voting block.  But it is becoming harder and harder for me to keep watching this farce week after week.  This new wonky scoring method has definitely messed things up.  And the longer Sean Spicer sticks around, the less interest I have to tune in and watch this season altogether.  In fact, this could be my last season.

@GuardianAngel great article. I agree that voting is total mess.