Rodgers Review: Dancing Shows

Originally, I never watched any reality television. Then, I gave Dancing with the Stars a try, mostly because Emmett Smith and Mario Lopez were on it but I digress. Since then, I have grown to love the show. This past summer, I gave another dancing show a try, So You Think You Can Dance and I loved it as well.
In 2009, both of these shows had two seasons and exciting casts of dancers. I have to say, I liked the first season of both shows a lot better than the second.
Let’s begin with Dancing With the Stars, DWTS. They had a season in the spring. I found the Top 3 dancers just outstanding. Iowa’s own Shawn Johnson, totally gorgeous Gille Marini and my favorite dumpette from the Bachelor, Melissa Rycroft. It was a great season to watch mainly due to the talent of  these three dancers. I was ecstatic when Shawn Johnson won. She was the one I voted for to win and she did.
My luck in voting for the winner continued when I picked up So You Think You Can Dance, SYTYCD. I started watching the fourth week of competition and fell in love with Philip and Jeanine. They were the whole reason I continued to watch. Unfortunately, Philip didn’t make the Top 10, but Jeanine did and that was great for me. She made it to the finale.  I loved everything she did that night and I voted for her for two hours. It is amazing how often you can vote with redial and two phone lines.  Then when it was announced that she won, I jumped for joy!
So after two great seasons of my dancing shows, I was really excited to watch two new seasons of dance. I have to say I was a little disappointed on both accounts. There was just something missing with both shows. That is not to say that I didn’t enjoy the dancing.  I was just not hugely impressed with the set-up of them.
For DWTS, there were far too many competitors and a lot of people I had never heard of. I knew maybe three going into the competition -- never a good sign. The lowlight of the show for me was one of my favorite dancers in Natalie Coughlin got voted of in Week 4 -- that was just awful. She was a lot better than other people that stayed. And to top it off, the person I wanted to win, Mya, didn’t. I don’t have anything particularly against Donny Osmond; in fact, I’m happy that his professional partner, Kim Johnson won. She has been on several seasons and has never won.  She is just a fantastic dancer. I voted for Donny occasionally. I just think he has already had more success than a lot of people in his business, so he didn’t necessarily need to win this show. Sadly, Mya came in second.
Now back to SYTYCD. A lot of the judges were just fawning over the new dancers like this was going to be even greater than last season. They definitely fell short in my book. Again, I enjoyed the dancing, but it didn’t quite reach out to me the same way that Season 5 did. I guess the difference is that no one stood out to me. They were all equal. There wasn’t one person that I saw above the others. Jakob was the closest. I really wanted him to win. Much to my dismay, he came in second behind America’s new Favorite Dancer Russell, a dancer whom I never voted for throughout the show. I think it’s great that he won. In all honesty, he will benefit more from winning, but I still would have loved it if Jakob had won. After the show was over, that was it for me. I moved on almost immediately, which was not the case with the last season (the season 5 finale is still on my DVR). I couldn’t imagine two more different reactions to the same show.
All in all, 2009 was an up and down year for me with the dancing shows. I can’t wait to see what the 2010 seasons will bring.