(S03E11) After a crazy performance show it was only natural to expect that anything could happen on elimination night. Things started out normally enough with a group performance to "The Lion's Hunt" from the Lion King soundtrack, choreographed by Tyce Diorio. It was not my favorite of the group performances, but it was fun. The thing I found interesting was that, like last week, this one also ended with the focus on Sabra. I'm taking that as a subliminal message for people to vote for her. She's quickly becoming my favorite in the competition.
As is par for the course, they cut right to the results following the big opening. Lauren & Neil and Lacey & Kameron were first up. Cat teased that one was safe and one was in the bottom three. Lacey & Kameron are moving on. Mary said that she was shocked that Lauren & Neil ended up in the bottom three.
The next group included the overwhelming favorite from the TV Squad poll, Jaimie & Hok. They were joined by Sabra & Dominic, and Sara & Jesús. It was a strange group because I thought that all three of them would be moving on. Unfortunately, Sara & Jesús were the next couple in the bottom three. Debbie tried to put a nice spin on it, saying that it just meant America wanted to see them dance their solos. When you have lemons...
Cat recounted the Jessi/Pasha story and reiterated that Jessi was going to have to dance in the solo round for having missed performance night. But then they surprised everyone by bringing the two of them out to do the number that we didn't see last night. It's really too bad that things transpired the way they did. Had they been able to do that on performance night it would have been my favorite of the night, and I don't think Jessi would have been in danger of going home. After the dance Cat announced that Pasha was safe.
Shauna & Cedric joined Anya & Danny on stage to get the last of the results out of the way. I think most people were expecting that Shauna & Cedric would be the last couple in the bottom three. In something of a surprise, Anya & Danny were the third couple. Nigel quipped that 5 million people voted and 5 million people got it wrong, which I think qualifies all 5 million of them to be judges.
It was time for the solos and Lauren led it off. She had a really nice performance. Rather, she had half of a really nice performance. I don't know what she was thinking with that extended entrance walking out on to the stage, but with only thirty seconds to put your best foot forward, there is not time for opening theatrics.
Neil was up next with what was my favorite solo of the night. In his element, he is an amazing dancer. He jumps and spins in ways that nobody else in the competition has shown that they can match. He was followed up by Sara doing a solid, if not awe-inspiring, b-girl routine. I liked it, but nothing in it made me sit up and take notice.
Jesús had a very nice solo. It didn't have any huge tricks like Neil's leaps, but it seemed to be the most put together of the solos as it stood on its own as a performance, not just a display of his talent. Jessi was next with a solo that I really wasn't expecting. Her popping routine was quite a departure from her last trip to the solo round. The versatility scored points with me, but I didn't like the outfit.
Danny, on the other hand, did exactly what I expected him to do. It was very polished and very professional. I can't say anything bad about it, but I can add that it didn't measure up to Neil. And Anya finished things off with another ok piece in a very strange black catsuit thing.
As the judges headed back stage to throw darts, flip coins, or roll dice... whatever it is they do to decide who gets eliminated, Fergie came out to do her song "Glamorous" with Ludicrous. He was very good, and she was ok. It seemed to me that the audio team kind of dropped the ball with half of her lyrics being too low. Still, that's a pretty impressive musical guest.
Finally, the judges were back to crush dreams and make 8 million palms slap 8 million foreheads as we all uttered a collective WTF? To really get it, I'm going to go out of order. They started with the girls, but we'll take the boys first. Nigel opened by telling them that the judges were unanimous in their decision. He then told both Neil and Danny that they were outstanding tonight. When he got to Jesús he said that he had been outstanding throughout the entire competition, not making one wrong step, but he was out-danced tonight. Now, if they really want to play it that the decision is based only on the solo, I think that's stupid, especially with three performances to base the opinion on. But if those are the rules, fine, you can certainly make a case that Danny's solo was better than Jesús'.
However, if the solo really is the thing, then the decision on the girls makes no sense at all. Nigel started by telling them that the decision was split, and that all of their performances were not good enough. He then chastised Lauren for wasting half of her solo getting to the stage. Then, with no explanation for the decision at all, he told Jessi that she was going home. Huh? If you tried, you could convince me that Sara was better than Jessi in the solo round, but I thought she was clearly a step ahead of both Lauren and Anya. I'm left wondering just what the heck the judges are doing.
I guess it does make it interesting. They didn't announce that Sara and Pasha would be partnering next week, so there is the possibility that they will be mixing up the couples.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
6-29-2007 @ 7:23AM
Georgia said...
I cannot figure how they let Jessi go. There must be "more" to the hospital visit than we are being told. Other than that, between watching her dance with Pasha and doing her solo, she should have been solid. I think twice Nigel has "spoken" to Lauren about not really dancing for her life; but, she keeps getting the pass. Be interesting to see why they keep doing that.
I really hated to see Jesus go. People got behind Cedric just because of the dressing down he keeps getting. I'd rather Jesus stayed and Cedric gone home -- uh.. or rather straight to the Debbie Allen School of Dance.
I think it's all hokey - just like Idol was this year.
I missed the opening number - reckon it's online somewhere?
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6-29-2007 @ 8:04AM
Jez said...
It's here Georgia: http://youtube.com/watch?v=5nTYLNSSHd0
Anyhow, I'd rather see Danny go than Jesus.
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6-29-2007 @ 8:36AM
Porchland said...
Fergie: If you're going to lip sync on national TV, don't use the album version. WAAAAY to obvious.
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6-30-2007 @ 8:56AM
Tonya said...
Georgia.
This was Lauren's first trip to the bottom 3 so Nigel has never evaluated a "Dance for your life" performance of hers before; ironically, I think that you are thinking of Jessi -- who Nigel gave a pass to last week.
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6-29-2007 @ 8:41AM
Ryan said...
The judges definitely dropped the ball second week in a row. This time it was the girls that got screwed.
Even though Jessi's solo wasn't as great as it should've been, they must have (should have) taken into account that she was in the hospital as recently as the day before and she performed two full-blown performances (group dance and the Cha Cha with Pasha) before her solo. As her dance with Pasha WAS pretty hot, their choice on ONLY the solo was I thought pretty short-sighted (unless there IS more to her health condition that they know and that we don't).
Having said that, it's too bad that Cedric IS still here this week because Jesus shouldn't have gone, but I knew as that being up against "audience and judge favorites" Neil and Danny, he was a goner.
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6-29-2007 @ 3:04PM
Carlene said...
I think the judges brought it on themselves in not being able to vote off Cedric. They made so much talk of his leaving this week that I feel the audience voted for him in reaction to the judges primature goodbyes! Very dissappointing!!
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6-29-2007 @ 9:18AM
David said...
The judges are looking for what? I don't know and I don't think they do either.
Jesus was on of my favorites. I think he didn't dance "manly" enough for the judges. That seems to be something the asshole brit likes. Need "manly" guys and Jesus wasn't manly enough for them. I saw no other reason why they would pick him.
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6-29-2007 @ 9:28AM
stummies said...
I don't know, I don't think it was a bad decision to send Jessie home. I think that all of the girls did sub par solos, and Jessies was the worst. I found her solo to be boring, but maybe that was just me. She had a poor solo last week and the judges told her that she would have to step up her solo if she ended up in the bottome three again, but she didn't.
As for the guys, it's a shame that Cedric didn't get the chance to go home. I wonder how long we'll have to deal with pity votes from the fans. When Neil was in the bottom I had originally hoped for him to go home (not that I have anything against him, but I like Danny and Jesus better) but his solo was great. I wish Jesus hadn't gone though, he was my favorite of those three :(
On another note... what was with the "Pasha is my boyfriend/wannabe boyfriend" stuff from Jessie? It all seemed really awkward to me. Either he's more than a "wannabe" boyfriend or she is really, really pining for him, lol.
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6-29-2007 @ 9:31AM
Erin said...
I agree with both decisions the judges make. Firstly, I love Jesus, but you just can't compare him to who he was stuck with in the bottom two. Danny and Neil were/are amazing, and it was unfortunate luck that he had to be in the bottom three with them.
Jessie: I never liked her in the first place. In my opinion, she never really danced. She was full of gimmicks to get attention, like baby oil and jumping out of suitcases. Have you ever seen her attempt to do ANYTHING in her solos that is different? It's all the same. I was surprised she even made it into the top 20.
And why does there have to be a "conspiracy"? She was in the bottom three last week and they said she needed to do better, then continued to "dehydrate" and miss the show completely, and then did a semi-ok solo again two weeks in a row. I thought it was completely fair.
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6-29-2007 @ 9:37AM
Erin said...
I meant bottom three in regards to Jesus :)
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6-29-2007 @ 9:35AM
sarah said...
i agree. i thought that, out of those in the bottom, Danny and Anya should have gone. when both were safe, i figured the partnerships were about to change. Danny is way too cocky and Anya too limited. no way should Jesus and Jessi should have left. Jesus' body of work in the competition has been outstanding. i think, if anything, they let Jessi go because they felt she might be hindered by the partnership changes that were about to happen. the couples are way close this year and Jessi and Pascha seem to really dig each other on and off the stage. maybe that doesnt sit well with the judges. this is prolly why they gave no explanation to her when she was cut.
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6-29-2007 @ 10:45AM
Rachael said...
Jessi is clearly completely smitten with Pasha (and who wouldn't be!?) but based by the look of utter shock on his face from the "boyfriend" comment, I'm pretty sure it wasn't reciprocated. I thought her release from the show was pretty harsh, although not unwarranted because a) her solo stank and b) liability issues since this is the second time she got sick. I mostly feel bad for her for so obviously wearing her heart on her sleeve where Pasha's concerned on national TV - and awful for him too, because how awkward that must be! He's a dance instructor so he must be used to his students developing crushes on him - but his partner on the show? if I were Pasha I'd be relieved she's gone so I wouldn't have to continue dealing with the awkwardness of that situation. Let's see if Sara gets similarly infatuated.
I'm bitter and angry about Jesus's departure. It isn't right.
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6-29-2007 @ 10:54AM
Where did my stars go? said...
Do you think that the make-up dance that Pasha and Jessi did was in front of the judges? I was surprised that they didn't cut to them for comments. I really can't see how they could have cut Jessi if they had seen that Cha-Cha routine.
Mary was confused how Lauren and Neil ended up in the bottom 3? Wasn't she the one that went on and on about how disappointing they were?
I think Jessi got screwed. Out of the women up there Lauren was the weekest from week to week and had the poorest solo. I thought it was odd how she got a dressing down, then Jessi was just axed and nothing else was said to the other two. Anya's dance was odd and boring. Sara's was predictable.
I knew Jesus was a goner when I saw who he was up against. There is no way they are going to let Danny go at this point. There is a love fest going on there. I do like to watch Danny dance, but his arrogance is wearing thin on me.
And David, I think you are letting Nigel's "dude" references get to you too much. He means that the men need to stay in command of the dances which require it, i.e. Ballroom. If the men don't lead properly the dance becomes unbalanced.
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6-29-2007 @ 12:56PM
La-di-dah said...
I don't know if the judges are trying to annoy annoy annoy, but their obvious favoritism of Danny/Anya AND Lauren/Neil, but mostly Danny/Anya, is wearing thin on me, even more than the fact that Danny can't dance anything other than ballet and that he is mucho arrogant. On top of that, I actually expected a awe-inspiring solo to stick it to all of us who don't like him, but that stunk to high heaven too.
I would have loved Danny/Anya to just go away ... ahem home ... but since the judges were not going to admit that their hiphop sucked (especially in light of that so many couples were better than them on Wednesday), my next choice of couple to go home (due to lackluster performance - the most un-passionate tango!) was Neil and Lauren,
and yet again, Jesus and Jessi gets screwed. Achhhh. Look Jessi was not my odds-on favorite, but she dances so well and has huge chemistry (make that pining) for Pasha. And Jesus' has not taken a wrong step in the competition - he is so much versatile than Danny (compare Jesus' krump attitude - he looked the part, to Danny, who just looked like a ballerino dancing hiphop). Achhhh. And the worst of it, Pasha will have to try to keep B-girl in synch with him. This stinks.
Jesus, Jessi, Pasha and Sara getting screwed (by getting getting separated from their partner) so Neil can ogle Lauren about as much as a 2-yr old and so that Danny can wow us with another ballet routine stinks.
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6-29-2007 @ 4:04PM
diana siapkas said...
NO DRAMA - BAD RATINGS- NO SHOW!!! GET THE PICTURE???
-Diana
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7-02-2007 @ 4:30PM
Rob said...
Cedric = Sanjaya
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7-05-2007 @ 2:34PM
anthony said...
This was such an odd show. Does someone have the answers to any of this?
1.) Jesus' goodbye speech - the audio and video cut away in the middle of it, as if he had said something that was not appropriate. Anyone in the studio audience that could inform us of what he said?
2.) The judges based Jesus' departure on the solos. However, there was no explanation given to Jessi for their decision even though her solo was better than two of the other females. I too, think there was something more to the medical condition.
3.) Danny's laughing when Nigel explained how him and Anya were in the bottom three. He continued to laugh through three separate back-and-forth camera shots between him and Nigel. What was so funny? He was being told bad news.
4.) Jessi's goodbye speech was incredibly awkward. Why didn't Kat or any of the judges rescue her when she was struggling with her words as they normally would? I think something happened between Jessi and the show. Her dance with Pasha on the results was really really good and the solo wasn't the worst! Very odd.
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