Dancing With The Stars

So last night I watched the first episode of season four of Dancing With the Stars. I love that show!! But I have to admit I was a little disappointed... Here's why:

Billy Ray Cyrus is partnered up with Karina Smirnoff (who was partnered up with Mario Lopez last season). But that is only part of it. The worst part of it was he did not dance nearly as well as I hoped he would dance. I was so bummed. I mean he's a performer and he puts on a good show, he sings and well dances as well as you can onstage while performing. He has rhythm, so you think he'd be able to... He didn't, it was so sad. I hope he can overcome some of his hesitation and shyness before next week and hopefully he can dance better...

Other than that, the show was great!!! Everyone did very well considering it was the first night of the show and they had only practiced for four weeks prior to the show (and that isn't even entirely true...). John Ratzenberger (Cliff Claven from Cheers and several voices on several Disney/Pixar films) only had two weeks to practice, because he filled in for a guy off of The Sopranos who just wasn't man enough to do it (he was exhausted). Plus Apolo Anton Ohno was also skating short track speed skating and he was in Milan, Italy last week winning the world championship. (Of course I have some jealousy here, because his partner is this little cute blond thing from Provo who is only 18, and she's been following him around to his meets, etc so they could get in as much practice for DWTS as possible. Hello, I want to follow Ohno around the world...)!

Other stars on the show include:

Laila Ali (pronounced Lay-la)--She is the daughter of boxing great Muhammad Ali. She is also a boxing champ herself. She was so cute when she was talking about how exciting it was to get to dress up in the fancy clothes and wear make-up and do her hair. It was great, she isn't a girly-girl, so it was so funny.

Billy Ray Cyrus--country singer and actor of shows Doc from PAX and Hannah Montana on the Disney Channel. His own real life daughter plays Hannah Montana on the show. Her name is Miley Cyrus and she has a budding singing career as well. I already spoke of Billy Ray some, but they say he is shy, so that plays a role in how he's doing.

Clyde Drexler--Clyde the Glide is his nickname from his NBA days when he would glide to the basketball hoop. He isn't quite as smooth as Jerry Rice or Emmit Smith were, but hey, it was only the first show. He did well enough and boy oh boy he is way tall and he's got an awfully short partner (she's only an inch-and-a-quarter taller than me).

Joey Fatone--from N'Sync fame. I have to admit at first I was like, oh great another boy band leftover, but you know what, this boy can dance, and he had so much fun and you could tell. Not only that, but his microphone battery pack came out of his costume and it was swinging around and he kept dancing, didn't miss a step, an finally managed to yank the cord to break so it would come off. It was awesome and the judges praised him for his professional efforts. He's partnered up with cutie Kym Johnson--she's Australian, and she's was champ of the Aussie DWTS and she did very well with Jerry Springer last season.

Shandi Finnessy--she is a past Miss USA winner (2004). She did well enough, but her partner, well, I don't know if it was his makeup or what but he was a little scary.

Leeza Gibbons--from Entertainment Tonight as well as her own daily talk show. She wasn't too bad, but she was a little worried about her hair coming loose, so she ended up being a little stiff. But she seemed to be having a good time--and to me that counts for something.

Heather Mills--she is probably best known for being Paul McCartney's soon-to-be-ex-wife. She's an activist for several underdog causes around the world and she's also disabled, she has an artificial leg. She was struck by a motorcycle police officer and somehow lost her leg. She didn't do too bad, and I appreciate her efforts to show those with disabilities that they can still do anything. She's getting a bad rap thought on the message boards associated with DWTS, they claim she's only famous because she was married to Beatle heartthrob Paul.

Apolo Anton Ohno--I mentioned him previously, gold medal winner in short track speed skating. The man is smooth. He got out there and danced and had a great time.

Paulina Porzikova--supermodel from the 80s. She was evidently the youngest supermodel ever to grace Sports Illustrated coveted swimsuit issue cover. She was rather graceful, especially since she said that she's always been a bit of a klutz and her own family said she was as graceful as a two-by-four.

John Ratzenberger--again previously mentioned, but hey, it's Cliff from Cheers. Only thing better would be if Norm were there too!!

Ian Ziering-- (pronounced Eye-An as opposed to EEE-An) But then I may have known that had I been a 90210 fan. Yes he was on Fox's teen television show. As for what else he may or may not have done I am unsure. But he's partnered up with Cheryl Burke, Season 2 and 3 DWTS champ (yep--she helped Emmit win!!).

Okay, now that you know far more than you ever wanted to know about Dancing With the Stars, it airs on ABC. The next episode will air on Monday, March 26, with the first results show airing Tuesday, March 27 where the first couple with the lowest set of scores will not go on, but go home.

I guess I'll make my next post more about me and less about what my latest obsession is.

Until the next time...