“For the first time in a while, the consistently weaker couple has been eliminated before they ended up overstaying their welcome, so thank goodness for that,” says Gold Derby contributor Jeffrey Kare about the “Dancing with the Stars” elimination of Carole Baskin on “Disney Night.” I convened with Kare and Cordell Martin to discuss the third episode of the season, and also to discuss how new host Tyra Banks is doing so far. Watch our video recap above.
Martin wasn’t surprised about Baskin’s ouster: “Once we found that she was in the bottom last week with [Charles Oakley, who was eliminated], to me it just showed that she didn’t have the support from viewers and fans like past controversial stars that appeared on the show. So I knew her time was coming.” But as Kare pointed out, it’s been a while since we had such consistent results, with the lowest-scoring dancers on the judges’ leaderboard being the bottom two when viewer votes were factored in.
Usually there’s at least one celeb whose fan base keeps them around longer than their dancing would merit. We theorize that perhaps the unusually high number of celebs this season (the competition started with a whopping 15) is spreading out viewer votes enough to dilute their effect against the judges’ scores. If that’s the case, it’s possible we’ll start to see the results get screwier by mid-season.
Speaking of screwy, many “DWTS” fans were surprised and upset when Banks was hired to replace Tom Bergeron and Erin Andrews as host of the show. But now that she’s had three weeks under her belt, how is she doing? “I just don’t think … that she’s been able to find her groove yet,” argues Martin, who thinks her hosting style is a little too “dramatic” so far. Kare agrees, “It does look like she still needs some getting used to.”
But with each two-hour show thus far crammed with so many contestants, Banks’s job thus far has mostly been to keep the show moving. Our jury is still out on whether her addition to the show is ultimately a change for the better or the worse. What do you think?
Be sure to make your predictions so that the contestants can see how they’re faring in our racetrack odds. You can keep changing your predictions until just before the next episode airs every Monday on ABC. You’ll compete to win a spot on our leaderboard and eternal bragging rights. See our contest rules and sound off with other fans in our reality TV forum. Read more Gold Derby entertainment news.
