SYTYCD: It's all so exciting

Mary: “Where’s Ashton?”

Will somebody please punk Mary? On second thought, it would hardly be worth it. How could the audience enjoy watching her predicament if the whole time her face never moved?

Comfort’s solo: Love!
Twitch and Katee: The Kiss! The Crazy! Nigel was funny! The judges’ excitement is so cool!
Enough with the choreographer worship!
Mark and Comfort Hip Hop: Personality! Amazing lift!
Katee’s solo: Ho hum!
Joshua and Katee Tango: Dmitri is soooo hot!
Mark’s the dorkiest dancer ever! Fun solo, though! Circles and circles – wheeee!
Twitch is a rock star!
Chelsie and Joshua: The Disco Queen and her footman!

Someone over on BSYTYCD said Will was throwing Courtney around. I thought so, too! Perhaps he was trying to be the man that Josh was for her? And I thought we were promised some Josh nudity. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, people?

Favorites of the night: Twitch, Comfort, Katee, Mark

I don’t want anyone to go home...

SYTYCD: Revealing Character

The longer they stay in the show, the more we see of the dancers as individuals, as people. The physical and emotional demands the show makes on them week after week effectively strips off layer after layer of the masks they hide behind until there’s nothing left between them and the audience.

It’s what we want: raw emotion, passion, vulnerability, nakedness. It’s hot. It’s what keeps us coming back.

We watch them practice and interact and perform, and we decide who we like best. As we see more of them as people, we start to make guesses about what they’re about, like, Gev has poor boundaries around women, and Comfort was probably bullied when she was a kid—by an older brother, maybe? And life will be good to Kherington, but for the wrong reasons.

Of course, there’s a selection process at work behind the scenes, too, in deciding what the audience sees, and what it doesn’t see. For instance, we saw Gev swooning over Courtney, and joking about how hot Chelsie is, complete with footage of him pouncing on her during practice. We saw Comfort pull away from her partners. We saw Kherington complain that the judges hate her.

We watch them in these clips, and we form opinions about them as people. I loved it last week when Mary Murphy said, "Dancing doesn’t build character, it just reveals it," but do the show’s editors help that revelation along by choosing what we see and what we don’t? Do they help the fans decide who they’ll vote for by showing the less-attractive traits of the contestants?

— — —

Two predictions for tonight: Mark’s close call last week will bring a flood of support his way tonight, and Joshua will be dancing without a lot of clothes on (they promised!).

And I’m not the only one with a conspiracy theory. Leeloo Dallas thinks s/he(?) knows what’s on for tonight.

BSYTYCD identifies a groundswell of support for Mark.

SYTYCD: Feeling the Top Ten

Gev: I’m ready to see him go home just for the way he drools all over his partners. Gev is one of those guys. You know—one who blithely ignores the fact that your body is not in close proximity to his because you can’t resist his manly hotness, but because the job demands it, and his using the opportunity to hump your leg doesn't make you want to take him back to your room, it just makes you feel squicked-out and too uptight to do your best work. I just know that at some point Chelsie and Courtney have exchanged a look that says, "Sister, I feel your pain.”

And did I hear it right—after the second dance between Gev and Chelsie, did Mary actually say, “It was respectful. It was respectful”? Because that would be a slip of the freudian variety.

Comfort (now I’m channeling Mia): “Comfort, you’ve been hurt, and now you won’t let anyone get close. Your fear stops the chemistry from catching fire. You’re emotionally unavailable, and we can all see it.” I'm a fan of Comfort, but I get the sense that she's doing her best not to feel it.

Will: I think we haven’t seen half of what he’s capable of, and I want him stick around long enough to show us.

Katee: Katee is the best dancer on the show. I’ll hate it when if the voters send her home ahead of a prettier dancer.

Mark: Yawn. Was having Kherington as a partner really that uninspiring? Dude was phoning it in. I was so not feeling it.

Kherington: Ouch. Looking like Sharon Stone might just keep her in it for another week, which is too bad, because Comfort is so much more fun to watch. Double plus unfeel.

Chelsie: She’s awesome, but I couldn’t stop cringing for her the whole time she was dancing with Gev. Please people, send him home.

Twitch: He’s got a lot of personality, and I have a wee crush on him, but he should go home soon (just not before Gev).

Courtney: She seems so much more comfortable with Joshua (“He’s such a man!") than she did with Gev. I feel Courtney, but it's a small feel.

Joshua: Break-out dazzler of the night. Wow. I thought his “It’s so much more than just dance” was over-the-top pandering cheese, but apparently he really is that sweet. I loved his face buried in Courtney’s hair. So, so hot. I am feeling Joshua. Nigel is, too. Nigel sez: “You were just so butch all the way through it, but a lot of women like that.” It’s true, Nigel, we do. That must have been awfully hard on you.

Most sublime comment of the night:

Mary: "Dancing doesn’t build character, it just reveals it."

Word.

SYTYCD: Compare the solos

From Season 2, Heidi:




Chelsie:

No Emmy Nomination for Cat Deeley

What the hell is the matter with those people? Here's the list that the adorable, fabulous, incomparable Cat is not on:

Outstanding Host For A Reality Or Reality - Competition Program

American Idol • FOX • Ryan Seacrest, Host
Dancing With The Stars • ABC • Tom Bergeron, Host
Deal Or No Deal • NBC • Howie Mandel, Host
Project Runway • Bravo • Heidi Klum, Host
Survivor • CBS • Jeff Probst, Host

Seriously—Howie Mandel? They've got to be kidding.

(thanks to Ted Natalie at BSYTYCD for the heads-up)