Anniversary Season, Great Stuff or Blah?

It's a good cast, the dancing is good, certainly a number of couples who can be competitive for the MB...

And yet...

I don't know what it is, could be me, could be that they're over-hyping the anniversary and not focusing enough on the couples and the dancing for my liking, I truly don't know, but so far the season is slow starting.

What I do find interesting, another poster on another board used the word fascinating, and I think that's the right word, is how Sharna and Noah are working together. And what's coming out of that is a real chemistry. I also like the pairing of Robert and Kym a lot and to me, these are the two chemistry couples.

Of the couples generally looked upon as the "best dancer" couples I'm liking Rumer and Val.

And that's where I'm at. I don't think anybody has a lock on the MB, there are other really good couples and there's potential for a lot of momentum swings before the final.

I understand why the show thinks it's important for Derek to participate each season. I just think they make a big mistake in making it all so public and it's made Derek a polarizing figure with the fans.

Without the show making a such a fuss over him, most people would acknowledge he's been a breakout star of the show. He's won five times, he's won the Emmy, those accomplishments speak for themselves. If producers didn't give interviews saying stuff to the effect of how important it is for them to keep coming up with new challenges for him, giving him perks like directorship of the Macy's Stars of Dance, and now an assistant so he can do DWTS while headlining the Radio City show, the Derek/Anybody But Derek online war might not have mushroomed as it has. But what the show has done is create a distinction between Derek and the other pros while he is still competing against them and that understandably grates on people. Because while Derek's got the biggest fan block, there are 11 other pros on the show in a given season and all told they have a lot of fans, too.

So by treating Derek like a favored son, the fans of the other pros (and the celebrities who are paired with them) are concerned that their favorites don't have a chance to win.

Hindsight's always 20-20, but for the past while I've been thinking it would have been better if Derek's breakout stardom and his importance to the show each season had been acknowledged more privately in his paycheck. Because now he has a negative no other pro has to contend with (at least not to such a large extent) and that's a chunky block of viewers who are unlikely to vote for him no matter what he does or who his partner is.

One irony could be that the show doesn't necessarily care whether an Anybody But Derek vote is building, or whether it has now reached a size that might even prevent him from winning, though, because I don't think they're overly invested in whether he wins. I do think they're always hoping he makes the final because they want his fans tuned in for the whole season, so holding the Derek fan block as part of their ratings formula is probably their main interest and the extent of it.

Last season we also might have gotten an idea of how far Derek's fans can advance him in the competition when he has a somewhat better than average but not a great partner. Bethany has a huge fan base, but there was also some evidence that they hadn't followed her to DWTS. Reportedly a lot of them were miffed because she wasn't posting videos at her usual rate. Plus there's always a question as to whether younger fans follow younger celebs to DWTS, and it appeared as though Bethany's didn't help her nearly as much as they could have. So Derek's fans probably did most of the heavy lifting and D&B made it to fourth place.

What's interesting about this season is that Derek does have an excellent partner who could become a great one, normally a F2 for sure. But since the last time Derek made an F2 two things have happened. The show brought Julianne on as a judge and now it's given him an assistant. So it's going to be interesting to see how voters respond to that, even with a great partner.

I like Derek and would vote for him again if he was partnered with someone that made them my favorite couple for that season.

I think I might be more bothered by some of Derek's fans. Some, not all, of course, but there are some who are very sensitive. I like the guy, I've voted for him I think four times out of his five wins, but I don't always like everything he does. And I find it's very difficult to say when I don't like something he does without getting someone upset.

And I definitely don't like to do that.

But I do like to chat about the show. And just in general, not necessarily in relation to Derek, it's getting more and more difficult to chat online about the show without someone taking offense. So more and more I'm not saying what I think. This season it's like walking on eggshells. I can see it being like that further into the season when the competition starts tightening up, but there's been this eggshell atmosphere from the start, which seems odd.

I dunno, maybe people are extra anxious to see their favorite be the one to get that gold MB