joey fatone

(S04E16) We've reached the (thankfully) Cyrus-free semifinals, and it looks like tomorrow's elimination will be a nail-biter. There was absolutely no dead weight on the dance floor, a fact that made for an exciting evening of performances. There were perfect scores, pelvic thrusts, and the phrase "Yours is bigger." What's not to like?

Apolo Anton Ohno and Julianne Hough (Quickstep) - This week the contestants got to pick their favorite Ballroom and Latin dance styles. For the Ballroom round, Apolo and Julianne chose the Quickstep. Revealing his competitive spirit, Apolo set quite a few goals for himself. He wanted tens for his Ballroom round, and he wanted perfect scores for both dances.

(S04E15) I thought that Mandee made a great comment on the post for last week's results show. She said, "You know, the Results show has been morphing into a terrific '60s style variety show, with comedy segments, guest musical performers, and, of course, lots of dancing. A slice of retro-cool, for the whole family, from grandma to pre-tweens." I completely agree with that.

The results show has always had to fight the problem that they only have about two minutes of actual results for their 60 minute show. Right now, it's as good as it has ever been. It's always going to be behind the performance show, because the star's performances are what it's all about, but the producers deserve credit for how much work is going into the results show. Enough about that though, we have results to get to.

We are still a couple weeks away from the big finale of Dancing With The Stars (I'm betting on Joey vs. Apolo) but rumors about the next cast of celebrities are already circulating. One of those being mentioned is boxer Oscar De La Hoya.

According to the article at contactmusic.com, Oscar has said that once he retires from boxing he will do Dancing With The Stars. That would make him the third professional boxer to enter the competition, following Evander Holyfield and Laila Ali. I think it would be a great bit of casting for the show. Oscar has a huge following, and while I have never seen him do the foxtrot, I'm reasonably confident that he would be successful making the transition to dancer.

(S04E13) This week's elimination wasn't exactly surprising, but the entertainment value of the results show made up for it. I wish that ABC had made DanceCenter a regular part of the elimination episodes instead of the Jimmy Kimmel segments. Nothing against Guillermo, but Kenny Mayne grilling Len Goodman is just good TV.

The judges chose the encore performance by a coin toss, but they would have picked a winner either way. Laila and Maksim won out over Joey and Kym, and their Samba was as hot as ever. I initially thought the judges were going to let both couples perform, since the results shows are normally so padded. This week, however, there were some amazing and hilarious segments.

(S04E12) Laila Ali is the only woman left in the competition, but I have a feeling that she'll make us proud. Samantha was under the impression that tonight's show "defines the season." I'm assuming that she was referring to the contestants having to learn two dances, but who knows? Len warned the contestants that the expectations were higher for the Ballroom and Latin rounds, and hoped that they would rise to the occasion. Did they? Let's find out!

Details are finally being revealed today about the Robot Chicken: Star Wars special that is coming up on June 17th on Cartoon Network. We first heard about it last fall when Adam interviewed Morel Orel creator Dino Stamatopoulos, who shares a studio with Robot Chicken. The news today is that George Lucas and Mark Hamill are both participating. Lucas will play himself and Hamill will play Luke Skywalker. And, as Adam reported late last year, producers Seth Green and Matthew Senreich are actually working with LucasFilm Ltd. to create the 30-minute parody of the Star Wars series. Senreich says it's a dream come true and "How many people can say that George Lucas let them play with his entire Star Wars universe and do Robot Chicken-like things to it?"

I'm really looking forward to this episode. Green and Senreich have pretty much been obsessed with Star Wars and it has appeared in Robot Chicken many times. But- to be able to recreate the entire series with the blessing of The Godfather? Awesome!

By the way, this will be Mark Hamill's second visit to Robot Chicken. He voiced three characters, one of them was himself, in a 2005 episode. Other celebrity voices in the Star Wars special include Conan O'Brien, James van der Beek, Hulk Hogan, Abraham Benrubi, Breckin Meyer, Joey Fatone, and regular Seth MacFarlane.

(S04E11) ABC brought George Lopez back out of mothballs this week, so there was no 8:00 recap show. Instead, Tom and Samantha ran through the performances quickly at the beginning of the show. The best part of that was seeing Ian's reaction to the judge's comments last night. Much like many of the readers here, Ian didn't really understand where they were coming from.

It's a good point, and something that seems to happen every season. For whatever reason, the judges get a burr under their saddle and just go after one of the better contestants, while soft-pedaling some of the lesser routines. His best course of action is to move along and know that he's in good company.

(S04E10) With only seven couples left, it's getting tough to fill that 90 minute block. Rather than force ABC to trot out another sure to disappoint sit-com, the powers that be at DWTS added the group swing performance. Having now seen it, I have to say it was a good idea. We'll get to that in a moment though. First, the couples all had to perform for the judges.

(S04E09) After three weeks of watching women get sent home, it was about time that a male contestant got the boot. Samantha mentioned that the show has reached its midpoint, and it is time to get rid of the lackluster dancers and focus on the real contenders. I have a feeling that the next few eliminations will be as predictable as this week's.

As many fans guessed, the judges chose Apolo and Julianne for the encore performance this evening. The couple's Samba was called the dance of the season. No arguments here. Apolo and Julianne's performance was just as exciting and sexy as it was last night, and it was great to see it again.

(S04E08) Leeza Gibbons is gone, which means that there are only two women left to compete. After some of the men's performances tonight, I doubt that Laila and Heather are worried. There was an informal "muscle shirt" theme this evening, and the men's attempts at fun and sexy had mixed results.

(S04E07) They opened the show tonight by naming Apolo and Joey as the standouts. I think they have it right on that one. Ian and Laila have the stuff to get themselves back in contention, but as we sit now, Apolo and Joey are a step ahead of everyone else. Two steps in front of a few people.

When it came time to pick the encore, Len credited Ian, Apolo, and Heather as having great performances the night before, but the encore went to Joey & Kym. It was a good choice. They were the best of the night, and their paso doble was just as good the second time around. They were followed up by the first musical performance of the night.

(S04E06) Tom kicked off week four by proclaiming, "It's time to go big, or go home." I would disagree with that. We are still early enough in the competition that people can continue to skate by on popularity. When they get down to four couples, then it will be time to go big.

Len followed that up by going to the stats. According to his numbers, this group has been slacking on the practice. They have only been practicing 13 hours a week. The teams from the last season averaged 19 hours. He said that it shows in their performance, but I don't notice a stark difference between the two seasons. I think we have a similar division of couples again this year. He followed that up with a threat of lower scores for anyone he thinks isn't putting in the work. I wasn't buying that, but in retrospect, this was some of the tougher judging they have ever done. That said, on with the show.

(S04E05) Another week, another "shocking" elimination. The hosts were all about hyping the "jam-packed" results show, bragging that there was more music and dancing "than ever before." What else would there be on a dancing show? An ad for a workout DVD? Oh, wait, I'm getting ahead of myself.

The behind-the-scenes interviews were combined with recap footage from last night's performances. A big deal was made of the unprecedented four-way tie. Joey Fatone was offended by Len's butt comment, and stuck out his rear (and his visible panty line) in protest during his interview. Heather wanted to advance even farther than Jonathan's previous two-legged partners. I'm still hoping that Heather's dancing talents will start to overshadow her disability. It was a valid topic in the first few episodes, but enough is enough.

The dance of love is never easy, especially not with a light saber. Dancing With The Stars never ceases to surprise us with the blank canvas that is a dance floor. How many of us out there would be able to incorporate Star Wars with a tango? In this clip of last night's show, Joey Fatone seems to seamlessly incorporate a light saber during his performance.

Speaking of love and other Tangos, hearts were broken on several dating reality shows last night...

(S04E04) We're back for another week of dancing, and the lovely Paulina is no longer with us. Many of the dances were inspired by movies this week; we had Star Wars, Pulp Fiction, and even Goldfinger. Contestants danced either the Jive or the Tango, and the results were very entertaining.

Shandi Finnessey and Brian Fortuna (Jive) - Shandi and Brian's Jive was good, but forgettable after all of the performances were finished. Their performance was fun and spirited, and Shandi wisely showed as much skin as possible. She can't compete with the other contestants' technical skills, but she's doing her best to corner the market on hotness. The judges were impressed with her progress and gave the couple a 21 (7, 7, 7).