"Dancing w/ the Stars" II

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New Semi-Stars Shine on "Dancing"

Sunday December 11 2:13 AM ET by Joal Ryan

Dancing with the Stars is going to be bigger. But can it possibly produce better ratings?

ABC's surprise summer hit will answer its own question mark starting Jan. 5. The second-season premiere will boast 10 ostensible stars vying to be crowned an ostensive dance star, up from the gang of six who started stepping on toes last June.

As announced Thursday, the all-new Love Boat will set sail with the following passengers: Wayne's World shwing-er Tia Carrere, 38; original Access Hollywood host Giselle Fernandez, 44; WWE star Stacy Keibler, 26; 98 Degrees pop singer Drew (Not Nick) Lachey, 29; ESPN veteran Kenny Mayne, 46; trivia question answer Tatum O'Neal, 42 (the youngest-ever Oscar winner); future NFL Hall of Famer Jerry Rice, 43; soap star Lisa Rinna, 42; rapper-actor Romeo, 24; and, in a nod to the inevitable, George Hamilton, 66, player of self in film, commercials and, now, Dancing with the Stars.

Keibler is such an obscure name, at least to ABC, it misspelled her last name in its press release ("Kiebler").

"At least you can't say they've lost their [knack] of going after the really big stars," cracked pop-culture pundit Robert J. Thompson, director of the Center for the Study of Popular Television at Syracuse University.

Minneapolis Star Tribune TV critic Neal Justin admitted to being intrigued by the "pretty interesting lineup," and especially by Mayne, Rice and a certain famously troubled ex-Bad News Bears curveballer.

"I wanna see Tatum O'Neal dance--sober," Justin said.

That said, Justin doesn't see Dancing with the Stars returning to the heights scaled by the cha-cha-ing Kelly Monaco and John O'Hurley, who despite their own lack of A-list-ness, helped the show average 16.8 million viewers last season.

"This has all the makings of being a summer fling," Justin said. "The risk is, are they burning off a nice summer franchise? If this bombs in January, they can't bring it back in summer."

The tap shoes already looked scuffed in September when Monaco and O'Hurley, the last two semi-stars standing from season one, returned for a so-called "dance off." Whereas Monaco's season-ending victory in July was watched by 22.4 million, O'Hurley's revenge-is-sweet comeback in the fall was watched by fewer than half that many, 10.5 million.

As it is, even 10.5 million would be an improvement for ABC in the 8 p.m. Thursday hour that Dancing with the Stars' competition episodes will occupy. (The 30-minute results episodes will air at 8 p.m., Fridays, starting Jan. 6.) Alias, which is being benched for two months to make way for Dancing, was attracting only 7 million on Thursdays for ABC.

The 8 p.m. Thursday wars, long intense, have become even more heated of late with UPN making noise with Everybody Hates Chris, and NBC yanking Joey (as of January) and hoping a tired Will & Grace will lead in big to the all-new Four Kings, which it hopes will lead in big to the night's would-be savior My Name Is Earl. Looming above all these shows and moves: CBS' Survivor.

To Thompson, Dancing with the Stars will never compete with Survivor for drama. "There is so little at stake...I think Dancing with the Stars depends more on the personality [of its contestants] than just about any other reality show out there," the professor said.

If it's easy to imagine ABC casting Hamilton to fill the older gentleman role played by O'Hurley last summer, then it's harder to imagine the gambit will work. "You can't script that kind of thing," Thompson said of O'Hurley's emergence as a fan favorite.

While Dancing can't be scripted, it can be formatted. As such, the new season, like last, will pair amateur dancers with professional dancers. Four of the pros are vets of the show: Jonathan Roberts (previously teamed with Rachel Hunter), Edyta Sliwinska (survivor of Evander Holyfield), Ashly Delgrosso (late of Joey McIntyre) and the ponytailed Louis Van Amstel (harsh taskmaster of Trista Sutter).

Alec Mazo, who made a dancing queen of Monaco, and Charlotte Jorgensen, who made an Astaire of O'Hurley, are not noted as returning. ABC didn't return a call Friday seeking comment on their MIA statuses. Likewise, there was no word on first-season cohost Lisa Canning. Only Tom Bergeron, with whom Canning was paired during the summer, was announced as a host for the new season.

O'Hurley diehards, meanwhile, are advised that their hero will be back in spats come January: As a star of Broadway's Chicago.

Are you gonna watch? :woot:
 
Master P Fills Romeo Void on 'Dancing with the Stars'

Wednesday, December 14, 2005

An "untimely basketball injury" has forced teenage rapper/actor Romeo to drop out of ABC's "Dancing with the Stars." Fortunately, his dad has his back.

Hip-hop impresario and sometime professional basketball player Master P (aka P. Miller) has agreed to take his son's place on season two of "Dancing with the Stars," which premieres Thursday, Jan. 5.

Miller, who starred with his son in Nickelodeon show "Romeo!" a couple seasons back, has sold millions of records and is head of the No Limit label, which flourished outside the mainstream hip-hop scene in the 1990s and made Miller one of Forbes magazine's "40 Richest Under 40" in 1999.

He's also a fairly respectable baller -- good enough to earn a tryout with the NBA's Toronto Raptors a few years back and to play with the Las Vegas Rattlers of the American Basketball Association and on some summer pro league teams.

On "Dancing with the Stars," Miller will team with professional dancer Ashly Delgrosso. Delgrosso is taking her second turn on the show, having paired with former New Kid on the Block Joey McIntyre last summer.
 
I don't what the deal is in America, but in Australia, Dancing with the Stars is the biggest joke... seriously...

I'm sure that a lot of effort goes into it, and that the stars work hard and all the rest of it... but just... *shudder*
 
CBS Takes Thursday; 'Dancing' Strong, 'Earl' Survives
(Friday, January 06 08:54 AM)

LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) Fast National ratings for Thursday, Jan. 5, 2006
The second-season premiere of "Dancing with the Stars" made ABC an instant contender on Thursday nights, and for the most part, the audience for NBC's comedies "My Name Is Earl" and "The Office" followed them over from Tuesday nights.

None of that, however, was enough to knock CBS, which averaged a 13.3 rating/20 share for the night, out of the top spot in the ratings. ABC finished second with a 9.7/15, and NBC was third at 7.1/11. FOX, 3.1/5, took fourth, followed by The WB, 1.6/2, and UPN, 1.4/2.

CBS also led among adults 18-49 with a 6.8 rating. NBC snagged second in the key ad-sales demographic with a 5.0, beating ABC's 4.1. FOX was fourth at 2.2. The WB averaged 1.0 and UPN 0.8.

"Dancing with the Stars" won the 8 p.m. hour for ABC with an 11.2/18, on par with its average last summer. A "CSI" rerun put CBS in second with a 9.7/15. "Will & Grace," 5.7/9, and the premiere of "Four Kings," 5.8/9, were third for NBC. FOX went with the movie "The Hot Chick" to finish fourth. A "Smallville" rerun posted a 1.9/3 for The WB, good enough to beat repeats of "Everybody Hates Chris" and "Love, Inc." on UPN.

A new "CSI," 16.8/25, moved CBS into the lead at 9 p.m. The second hour of "Dancing with the Stars" ticked up to 11.6/17. NBC stayed in third with "Earl," 7.0/10, and "The Office," 5.5/8 -- "Earl" was down some from its season average, "The Office" up a bit. FOX's movie concluded with a 3.2/5. The WB aired a "Beauty and the Geek" repeat, while UPN went with "Eve" and "Cuts."

"Without a Trace" closed the night for CBS with a 13.4/22 at 10 p.m. "ER" averaged 9.2/15 for NBC, and ABC's "Primetime" scored a 6.2/10.

'Dancing' Steps Lively, NBC Holds Its Own on Thursday

Friday, January 06, 2006
03:39 PM PT

Ratings king CBS needn't be quaking in its crime-scene booties after Thursday, but an infusion of new shows on TV's most lucrative night definitely made the Nielsen race more interesting.

ABC's "Dancing with the Stars" returned in a pretty big way, helping the network vault into a second-place finish overall and its best rating among adults 18-49 in 11 months. NBC, meanwhile, brought back its two-hour comedy block and got decent numbers from Tuesday transplants "My Name Is Earl" and "The Office," finishing second on the night in the 18-49 demographic it cares about most.

The two-hour season premiere of "Dancing with the Stars," in which the likes of actress Lisa Rinna and NFL legend Jerry Rice showcased their waltz and cha-cha-cha chops, drew an average of 17.5 million viewers and a 4.8 rating among adults 18-49. Both numbers are significantly better than the show's debut last summer (13.5 million viewers, 4.3 in 18-49), when the competition was decidedly softer.

"Dancing" also more than doubled ABC's season average for its time period, which was previously occupied by "Alias" and "Night Stalker." Overall, ABC had its best Thursday since Feb. 3 of last year, when a "Happy Days" reunion special drew an audience of better than 19 million.

At NBC, "Earl" and "The Office" went up against the second hour of "Dancing" and the top-rated "CSI" and emerged relatively unscathed. "My Name Is Earl" scored a 5.2 rating among adults 18-49 and about 11.2 million viewers -- not quite at the level of its season averages (5.5, 12 million viewers) but a fairly decent showing considering the stiffer competition. "The Office" actually improved on its numbers, hitting a season high with a 4.5 among the 18-49 crowd and drawing 8.7 million viewers, above its season average of 8.1 million.

The premiere of "Four Kings" at 8:30 p.m. brought in a shade under 8.9 million viewers, building on its "Will & Grace" lead-in in both viewers and adults 18-49.

Sitting atop it all, as usual, was CBS, which won the night handily on the backs of "CSI" and "Without a Trace" -- although "Earl" and "Dancing" made a slight dent in "CSI's" younger audience. The top-rated show of the season drew an above-average total audience of 27.2 million viewers, but its 9.2 rating among adults 18-49 was the lowest of the season for an original episode. Still, it beat everything else on the night by a wide margin.
 
Honestly I don't like this time around...for one thing Kelly Monco won last year and because of that I don't trust it. Also look at who was on it Tatum O'Neal...i'm glad she is the youngest oscar winner but did ABC forget she was a herion and cocain addict????? WTH why would you put someone on like that?
I hope Drew wins and I think he will too!

Mel
 
I love this show ... I am so sad that Tia left this week ... and I am actually rooting for the underdog Lisa Rinna and Louis ...

Stacey and Drew are neck in neck ... so, its gonna be tough these coming weeks ... :woot:
 
Yeah! Drew and Cherly won! I was so happy for them. They were such a fun couple,their technique was good, and he wanted it so bad. They deserved it!
 
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