marissa jaret winokur

With another week of dances in the books, it's time to check in with our favorite professional dancer. This week Jonathan once again gives us his perspective on all of the couple's performances. Then we make our way through some of the reader questions.

Along the way we learn about his past with Cheryl, Edyta, and Alec. He also touches on the difficulty of balancing what the judges want in a dance with what the viewers want. It probably won't mean the end of the questions, but Jonathan does his best to try and answer the age old DWTS puzzler, how the heck does the lift rule work anyway? And... Jonathan on waxing. All that, and more, after the jump.

(S06E10) There wasn't much room for mistakes in last night's performances, and several of the stars needed fan votes to make up for lackluster scores. I panicked after realizing that I forgot to vote on Monday, and wouldn't you know it? One of my early favorites landed in the bottom two. This week's results show brought us performances by James Blunt, Ozomatli, and more of the aspiring Dancing With The Stars Junior Champions.

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We're back for what ended up being something of a strange week five. After the highlights and big scores of week four, things were a little rougher this week. I talked with Jonathan about that and a number of other things.

After the jump, find out how the difficulty of the samba and the rumba might have contributed to those scores. Jonathan also gives a little more background about what happened with Shannon & Derek and what his role as potential stand in was. We also touch on what might be the cause for the string of male winners on the show. And there was just enough time to sneak in some viewer mail.

(S06E09) For Latin night, things were pretty tame this evening on Dancing With The Stars. Adam Carolla took a lot of the show's spontaneity and humor with him when he left. This week, the contestants tackled either the rumba or the samba. With a few exceptions, most of the stars gave safe, middling performances. I expected more at the show's halfway point.

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(S06E08) Another week, another results show. But this is no ordinary, run of the mill, results show. After three weeks of keeping the bottom two a secret, this week we finally get an idea of just how that fan vote is going. Even with no prior knowledge of what the fans have been doing with vote, the big question was pretty obvious. Did Adam and Julianne have a big enough fan vote to overcome the 19 from performance night? Along for the ride this week was musical guest Sheryl Crow, and the debut of Dancing With The Little Kids. All that, and more, after the jump.
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Jonathan is back this week, and all of my electronics decided to behave, so we have a much more in depth interview. He touched on all of the week 4 performances, but as you might have guessed, given Jonathan's week, we spent the most time on Shannon & Derek. We even found out how close we were to seeing Jonathan perform that waltz with her.

There was just enough time left to get to all of the reader questions from last week. So, hit the link to find out how Jonathan and Anna met, his thoughts on the music of the show and what it can do for a performance, where Maks is, and when we might see the Jonathan and Anna dancing on the results show, among other things.

(S06E07) Back for week four, with less Guttenberg, and more 10s. It's still early in the competition, but some of the stars are really stepping things up, as evidenced this week by some very high scores. There were many questions coming into performance night. Would Kristi & Mark continue to run away with the competition? How did Carrie Ann's comments effect Marissa? And interestingly, would we be watching Shannon & Derek, or Shannon & Jonathan? The answers to those, and a rundown of the whole shooting match, after the jump.
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(S06E06) Tom informed us that since they never announced last week's bottom two, no one knows where they stand this week. I doubt that Kristi Yamaguchi was sweating this one out, but no matter. This week's Dancing With The Stars results show featured Kylie Minogue, a little April Fools' joke, and an all-male encore performance courtesy of Steve and Jonathan.

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(S06E05) We're down to ten couples after last week's double elimination, and I'm more than a little surprised to see Adam Carolla. I have to agree with Brett that Julianne might be carrying her partner in votes as well as technique. This time around, the contestants had a mere five days to learn either the jive or the tango. The results--and the scores--were mixed.

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(S06E03) Alright, back for week two. With no eliminations in week one, that means we had twelve performances in a jam-packed two hour show. As is usually the case, now is when we start to get a good feel for who the contenders are. A couple people showed themselves to be just that. Along the way, we also were reminded of some classic DWTS bits and pieces. There was the couple with a weaker performance getting soft balled on their critique, and the couple with one of the better performances taking a few extra jabs from the judges. And, of course, there was the usual bit of questionable scoring. It's a lot to get to, and we'll give it a shot, after the jump.
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(S06E02) The season premiere of Dancing With The Stars gave the men a chance to showcase their talents on the dance floor. The second night of competition was all about the ladies, who danced either the Foxtrot or the Cha Cha Cha. Len warned the ladies right from the start that he was cranky, and it showed in his comments. His remarks ranged from rhyming to his dislike of all things hip-hop. Fortunately, his grumpy mood improved once the front runners hit the dance floor.

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(S06E01) Tom Bergeron opened the season premiere by telling us that "anything can happen" this season, and I officially began my Dancing With The Stars exaggeration tally. They're changing things up a little for Season Six. Week One will feature two nights of performances and no elimination. Week Two will include one night of performances and a double elimination on the second night. Next Tuesday the lowest-scoring man and the lowest-scoring woman will be sent home. Got all that? Now, let's get to the performances!

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