Dancing with the Stars – Round 1 – Men’s Night

So we’re off and running with season six.  Once again, they are doing a two night premier with the men dancing tonight and the women dancing tomorrow night.  And the first elimination doesn’t happen until next week.  But we’ll be losing two stars at that time, one man and one woman.  That will be interesting.

But before we get there, we’ve get to enjoy week one.  I don’t know why, but I enjoy week one so much.  Probably because it’s a fresh slate.  We really don’t know what to expect from anyone and there’s so much potential to be surprised by the dancers.  After a few weeks, we know who is good and who should be going home.  Not that people necessarily go in the order they should, but that’s beside the point, right?

But let’s get to tonight’s dances, shall we?

Penn Jillette & Kym Johnson – Cha Cha – I’ll admit, this is one of the stars I’m most excited to see.  Ever since he and Teller showed up on Babylon 5, I’ve been a fan of his clean stuff.  I was beginning to worry that he wasn’t a dancer with all those tricks they had in the beginning.  And still, it wasn’t the best first dance of the season, but there was definitely potential there.  When Penn actually danced, he looked good doing it.  It was lots of fun, and I loved that magic trick at the end.  (It was great to see Teller in the audience, too.)  The judges seem to be on the same wavelength with me, lots of fun but the footwork and hips were stiff.  I saw it, too.
Scores: Carrie Ann – 5 Len – 6 Bruno – 5 Total – 16  I’ll admit, I probably would have given it a 7, but these are more honest scores.  Especially after watching more of the performances.

Jason Taylor & Edyta Sliwinska – Foxtrot – Okay, I may have to root for Jason after his quote, "Real men ballroom dance."  And he’d be a good choice to root for based on this dance.  That was a smooth, fun Foxtrot with much more content then Penn had.  The judges picked on him for not having enough "acting" in it, but those are details that can hopefully be added later.  I say hopefully because not all the stars have been able to do that in previous seasons (90210 cast, I’m looking at you.)
Scores: Carrie Ann – 7 Len – 8 Bruno – 7 Total – 22  I’m more with Len on this one then the other two.  I obviously need to get in sync with the judges again.

Cristian de la Fuenta & Cheryl Burke – Cha Cha – I’ll admit I’m rooting for them just because I’d like to see Cheryl get a better partner then Wayne Newton this go around.  So after them talking about his hips, so much, I spent a lot of time watching them.  They seemed to come and go.  At times they seemed smooth and at other times they were a little stiff.  Granted, at all times they were smoother then mine, so I shouldn’t be saying too much.  Again, it was a first week performance, but I’d say it was a rather strong one.  I was so busy watching the hips that I missed the shoulders and upper body that the judges picked on.
Scores: Carrie Ann – 7 Len – 7 Bruno – 7 Total – 21  So, you know how I was saying I needed to get in tune with the judges?  I guess I’ve gotten there because I would have given it sevens as well.

Adam Carolla & Julianne Hough – Foxtrot – I’m sure lots of people will be tuning in to watch him, but I’m not familiar with his comedy.  I am interested to see how Julianne will fare and if she can go for win number three.  Adam seemed a little wooden to me.  I’d say he’s still not comfortable with the idea of dancing.  Not the strongest debut we’ve seen tonight, but not the worst by far.  Julianne is going to have her work cut out for her if she’s going to win again.  Heck, Len even said that after I typed it.  I think either Adam will do very well or he will go early.
Scores: Carrie Ann – 5 Len – 5 Bruno – 5 Total – 15  I thought this was better then Penn’s dance, so maybe I spoke too soon about being in sync with the judges.

Mario & Karina Smirnoff – Cha Cha – Now this is the debut I’ve been waiting for.  I’m not an R&B fan, so I wasn’t familiar with Mario, but he’s off to a great start.  But it looked great and very little wrong with it in my eyes.  The judges picked on a few things like heel vs. toe leads, but they seemed to like it best so far.
Scores: Carrie Ann – 8 Len – 8 Bruno – 8 Total – 24  Definitely agree with this one.  A great score to match the best dance so far.

Steve Guttenberg & Anna Trebunskaya – Foxtrot – Okay, while I’m a fan of Steve Guttenberg’s work, it’s not for the franchises he’s most famous for.  And can we just leave it at that?  I’d like to see him go far here, but that’s all up to his dancing.  I’ll admit I didn’t give him much of a chance.  Not quite sure why that is.  But I was pleasantly surprised.  Granted, there is still a long way to go.  And I’m not sure if he’s got the Latin dances in him.  But I’m holding out a little more hope for him then I was before the show started.  And I’ll agree with Len that he looked like he was enjoying himself.  The technique could use a little work, but it was certainly a good first week.
Scores: Carrie Ann – 6 Len – 6 Bruno – 6 Total – 18  Okay, I knew this wasn’t the best, but I was expecting at least one 7.

So the men don’t seem to be the strongest this season.  There’s plenty of potential here.  None of them seem to be horrid, and none of them have no promise.  I’ll be interested in watching how they progress as the season moves on.

In the mean time, I’ll be back tomorrow night to see how the women do on their first round of dancing.

Mark