Johnny Weir on Dancing With the Stars

[ManyCairns]

Boo! for sure -- I do think Johnny should have been in the final-- definitely over Nelly and Kaitlyn, imo. Justina and Skai were a little on and off for me, even up to the end, but a Johnny, Nev, Justina final would have been great.

The judges seem more excited over Nev than I am -- I think he kind of just walks around a lot of the time, but the judges love him.

I really enjoyed Johnny's dances a lot. He really impoved tons on the salsa tonight, from the first one. His freestyle would have been awesome, I bet, based on how good his contemporary and jazz were.

 

[nickp91]

Johnny Weir and Britt Stewart came in sixth place on season 29 of Dancing with the Stars

 

[TeamBrijo]

Even though I should have seen it coming I'm still quite shocked. Out of the 3 dancers in the bottom 3, he was the best. I'm glad he was able to have such a good time with Britt and I hope he knows his fans love him. We just weren't able to overcome Bachelor Nation and whoever is out there voting for Nelly.

 

[Gia_Sesshoumaru]

It sucks that Johnny got eliminated. I was hoping he could make it through, but I knew it would be harder for him and it was so close between all the couples last night. He did great tonight, and they should be really proud of how they did.

 

[Mathman]

We just weren't able to overcome Bachelor Nation and whoever is out there voting for Nelly.

But seriously, who is out there voting for Nelly. Has the rap/hip-hop crowd suddenly taken up an interest in ballroom?

 

[NanaPat]

But seriously, who is out there voting for Nelly. Has the rap/hip-hop crowd suddenly taken up an interest in ballroom?

Remember back in the dark ages when Master P was on? A lot of people voted for him without actually watching the show.

I believe he was the impetus for changing the scoring to "percent of judges marks" and "percent of votes" instead of using rank. I gave the judges more influence, as a very low score would accurately reflected; with ordinals, he came out as "worst" but not as "much worse than all the other dancers". Oh, those ordinals!

 

[skylark]

Remember back in the dark ages when Master P was on? A lot of people voted for him without actually watching the show.

Same with Bristol Palin.

 

[Mathman]

Bristol Palin I can understand. It was a chance for people to "pwn the libs." Sean Spicer made it deep into the contest by equating a vote for him with a vote for Jesus.

Master P. -- he was just an opportunity for everyone to troll the universe. (We bad, we bad.)

 

[moonvine]

Adam, coming off as a popular figure from the Korea Olympics, was initially announced as a contestant against Harding, who the producers thought would give good ratings after the "I Tonya" movie. Thus Adam vs Tonya was hyped from the start. Other contestants were added later. Mirai badly wanted to be on the show, publicly lobbied for it, and was probably the last selected. Mirai created a problem for the producers. She danced as well as Adam, far better than Harding, and was an obstacle to the preordained Adam vs Tonya final. How to get Mirai out and Tonya in? In the penultimate show, the producers arranged a phony Adam vs Mirai skateoff to reach the finals. Tonya, well past her prime, had no skateoff requirement, with the skids greased for her advance to the final show. I am sure Mirai got her pride hurt, not reaching the finals against lesser dancers, but picked up a nice paycheck to soothe the loss. It's likely all contestants sign non disclosure statements, so the real story never comes out.

It is interesting how opinions differ. I don’t know if you are a dance expert - I am not. Ballet lessons as a young girl do not a dance expert make - so I am judging by my opinions. I believe Adam was and is the best dancer to have ever been on the show. Even better than my pretend Olympic boyfriend Apolo Anton Ohno. I hated it was a truncated season. I hope Mirai did not get her pride hurt. There have been very good dancers who have been knocked out earlier than her. It’s basically a popularity contest and Mirai isn’t that well known outside of the skating world. Everyone knows who Tonya is, at least in the US. Adam was riding a post Olympic high where NBC chose to give him a lot of attention. I didn’t watch this season because they fired Erin and Tom. And I won’t going forward. But based on the dances I saw my favorite would have been Nev Shulman.

 

[moonvine]

Same with Bristol Palin.

And the young lady from Duck Dynasty,,,Sadie? I’m willing to bet a lot of baseball fans voted for the Cubs player right after they won the World Series. I did, but not because of the baseball, but he was having such a great time out there! I think the show is a combo of who can dance well and who is popular. Most of the voters are not going to have the dance background to make a determination of who is better unless someone is absolutely awful.

 

[b-man]

It is interesting how opinions differ. I don’t know if you are a dance expert - I am not. Ballet lessons as a young girl do not a dance expert make - so I am judging by my opinions. I believe Adam was and is the best dancer to have ever been on the show. Even better than my pretend Olympic boyfriend Apolo Anton Ohno. I hated it was a truncated season. I hope Mirai did not get her pride hurt. There have been very good dancers who have been knocked out earlier than her. It’s basically a popularity contest and Mirai isn’t that well known outside of the skating world. Everyone knows who Tonya is, at least in the US. Adam was riding a post Olympic high where NBC chose to give him a lot of attention. I didn’t watch this season because they fired Erin and Tom. And I won’t going forward. But based on the dances I saw my favorite would have been Nev Shulman.

I am not a dance expert, and seldom watch the show, though I did watch some when Meryl and Charlie were competing. I am a big Mirai fan, and was certainly sensitive to any slights or unfairness she received. Both Adam and Mirai were coming off Olympic highs, as her triple axel was replayed numerous times on national TV. Both performed well, and were by far the best dancers that season. Once the judges found how good Mirai was in the first show, they tried hard to criticize each Mirai dance and keep her out of the finals. The producers stuck with their preconceived plan of an Adam vs Tonya final, which was how the show was initially promoted. The Adam vs Mirai dance off to reach the finals was a very contrived effort to get a Tonya with diminished skills past a better dancing Mirai and into the finals.

You mention popularity. Using instagram followers as an indicator, a quick survey shows Adam is far more popular than I thought, well beyond what his success with skating medals would warrant. He has 840k followers, Weir 530k, Tara 389k, Meryle Davis 339k, Nathan 338k, Gracie 283k, Kwan 236k, Ashley 205k, Mirai 187k, Jason 147k, Madison Chock 67k, Bradie only 56k. Tonya Harding has 1k followers, while Nancy Kerrigan has 27k.

 

[Mathman]

I believe Adam was and is the best dancer to have ever been on the show. Even better than my pretend Olympic boyfriend Apolo Anton Ohno.

Adam and Apolo were good, but better than my pretend Olympic girlfriend Meryl?

But based on the dances I saw my favorite would have been Nev Shulman.

Me, too. I watched most of the series and i thought that Nev was consistently the best -- much better than the winner and quite a bit better than the other two in the finals.

... The producers stuck with their preconceived plan of an Adam vs Tonya final, which was how the show was initially promoted.

To tell the truth, I don't see any motivation for the producers to fix the show. If more people vote for Mirai than for Tonya, what possible gain is it to the producers of the show to stack the deck against Mirai? (Personally, I thought that the football player was pretty good in that abbreviated season, too.)

 

[b-man]

To tell the truth, I don't see any motivation for the producers to fix the show. If more people vote for Mirai than for Tonya, what possible gain is it to the producers of the show to stack the deck against Mirai? (Personally, I thought that the football player was pretty good in that abbreviated season, too.)

Pure speculation on my part. I note Adam and Tonya were among the first cast members chosen. Mirai badly wanted on the show and lobbied for it, but was the last, or among the last chosen. She wanted to win the ball award like queens Kristi and Meryl before her, or at least finish no worse than second to Adam. During the first of four shows, it was clear to me Mirai and Adam were on a different level than other contestants, and had a clear path to the final in a fair competition. Yet I remember Mirai got a 7 from one judge on her first dance, with the judge being more critical than for others for a very minor perceived flaw. So the judges from the start did not favor Mirai. People in the business, TV and radio, say its all about ratings. The show did not want three skaters in the final. Two skaters and a football player potentially could appeal to a wider audience than three skaters. The producers judged Tonya, coming off the movie, vs Adam would give better ratings than Mirai vs Adam. It never made any sense why Mirai and Adam had to do a dance off, while the weakest dancer of the three, Tonya, did not, unless the skids had to be greased so Tonya could make the final. The NYT covered the show and seemed surprised as well, "DWTS chooses Tonya over Olympian,"