Why did Stacy Keibler lose to Jerry Rice?
Maybe they used Diebold machines in the count. I asked the wonderful TV critic Heather Havrilesky at Salon to explain this to me.
(Jerry Rice danced better than her? Maybe in Bizarro universe.)
Dear Heather:
Please explain why Jerry Rice beat out Stacy Keibler in the final of Dancing with the Stars? I can understand Drew and his partner winning, but JERRY RICE coming in SECOND PLACE?! WTF?
I have my theory but I'd like to hear yours, both in terms of the narrative that the show's producers wanted to tell, as well as the reasons behind the public's voting (or alleged voting) for Jerry vs other performers.
My take? There was one standard for Jerry (and maybe George Hamilton) and another for everyone else.
I view this result not unlike the way our idiot President was positioned for the debates. "Al Gore is a PROFESSIONAL DEBATER! George Bush is just a cowboy of few words. Simple words. Monosyllable words. When you hear complete sentences from him that's like a little leaguer hitting a home run in the big leagues." And, "Of course John Kerry won the debates, but we don't need professional talkers and thinkers in the job, just people you want to have a near bear with! He's a regular guy! Not a wind surfer!"
George Bush was being set up as winning if he could keep from drooling on TV, Jerry Rice was set up as a winner if he didn't trip on his own feet. It was almost as if, "Look! The Football player can walk in time to music! 9 points!" He positioned himself as a guy who is TRYING REALLY HARD, and GETTING BETTER.
Rice also got to play the game of offended superstar, allowing his fans to proclaim "How dare those judges call him the worst! He's JERRY RICE!" In some ways he was like George Hamilton, there for the comic relief, not for his dancing chops. I understand that, it's just smart TV. Rice was there for the "dog on a skateboard!" appeal. And while that is fun to watch, after awhile you just want to watch something that looks more like a dance and less like a 5th grade boy at a cotillion.
I wonder if there was a cabal of football fans calling in for Jerry week after week? I'm not on any football player message boards where guys are telling each other to call in and vote each week, 'He might be dancing on a fru fru show, but I'll be damned if he loses to some lady rassler! Betty bring me the phone!"
It was PAINFUL to watch Rice dance each week whereas Keibler was not only delightful to watch but filled with positive energy.
Finally, I don't follow all the ins and outs of the scoring, but this article explains how
(Jerry Rice danced better than her? Maybe in Bizarro universe.)
Dear Heather:
Please explain why Jerry Rice beat out Stacy Keibler in the final of Dancing with the Stars? I can understand Drew and his partner winning, but JERRY RICE coming in SECOND PLACE?! WTF?
I have my theory but I'd like to hear yours, both in terms of the narrative that the show's producers wanted to tell, as well as the reasons behind the public's voting (or alleged voting) for Jerry vs other performers.
My take? There was one standard for Jerry (and maybe George Hamilton) and another for everyone else.
I view this result not unlike the way our idiot President was positioned for the debates. "Al Gore is a PROFESSIONAL DEBATER! George Bush is just a cowboy of few words. Simple words. Monosyllable words. When you hear complete sentences from him that's like a little leaguer hitting a home run in the big leagues." And, "Of course John Kerry won the debates, but we don't need professional talkers and thinkers in the job, just people you want to have a near bear with! He's a regular guy! Not a wind surfer!"
George Bush was being set up as winning if he could keep from drooling on TV, Jerry Rice was set up as a winner if he didn't trip on his own feet. It was almost as if, "Look! The Football player can walk in time to music! 9 points!" He positioned himself as a guy who is TRYING REALLY HARD, and GETTING BETTER.
Rice also got to play the game of offended superstar, allowing his fans to proclaim "How dare those judges call him the worst! He's JERRY RICE!" In some ways he was like George Hamilton, there for the comic relief, not for his dancing chops. I understand that, it's just smart TV. Rice was there for the "dog on a skateboard!" appeal. And while that is fun to watch, after awhile you just want to watch something that looks more like a dance and less like a 5th grade boy at a cotillion.
I wonder if there was a cabal of football fans calling in for Jerry week after week? I'm not on any football player message boards where guys are telling each other to call in and vote each week, 'He might be dancing on a fru fru show, but I'll be damned if he loses to some lady rassler! Betty bring me the phone!"
It was PAINFUL to watch Rice dance each week whereas Keibler was not only delightful to watch but filled with positive energy.
Finally, I don't follow all the ins and outs of the scoring, but this article explains how
6 Comments:
I agree with the above...it also seems to me that maybe there was a case of split vote. I would guess that the majority of women voted for Drew, while the men split between the "hot babe" and the "sport hero". America also loves the underdog and can be seen time and again from Idol. Entertainment and showiness is very subjective so I won't speak to that, but as a ballroom dancer who has been competing for almost 12 years I would say that objectively on a purely dance technique level the results should have been 1)Stacy, 2)Lisa, 3)Drew. I think the judges comments pretty much agree with that as well - with Drews better scores primarily are result of show quality.
Wow, my first ballroom dancer reader! Good points all. I hadn't thought about the split vote issue with men.
But what I hope will come out of this are more shows with Stacy Keilber showing that she should have won. And more Keilber dancing is good for America. I don't think that Jerry Rice coming in second will mean he will get more offers to dance on TV which is just as well. He will move on to his next challenge for old sports stars. Maybe he won't go to the announcers booth like so many others. Maybe he will go on to the remake of American Gladiators, "This time losers DIE!"
(just to kick it up a notch!)
Thanks for posting!
Another interesting point... I live in Central Time Zone. After the dancing I tried to call in and vote for Stacy on my cell phone with speed redial. My wife was doing the same thing for Drew, as luck would have it - neither of us managed to get through the busy signals before 9:30 when our time zone voting was closed. I find this interesting in that clearly lack of phone network resources had some impact on the voting. I wonder how things actually went. Was every timezone voting completely filled and people cut off at the end? If so then it would seem that the winner may have been determined by luck of who had slightly better efficiency on incomming call routing. If not, then some time zones may have had a dispropotionate influence. (I would imagine that Jerry is popular on the West Coast)
Yet another interesting point Ballroom Dancer. These things are rarely looked at in detail because it is "entertainment" but is interesting none the less.
It shows that voting can be impacted in ways that are beyond the ol' stuffing the ballet book. Keeping people away from voting through lack of resources is another way that voting can be subverted. Did you know that phone companies can tell when someone is getting a busy signal? If all the numbers are PER dancer, if the producers when to the phone companies they could get a log of the number of people who DIDN'T get through. This data is used by phone companies to sell more phone lines to companies. They say, "You had 200 people who didn't get through to your store between 10 and 1 pm and you need more phone capacity.
So the data exists, but they won't look at it because hey, it's just entertainment! So keep that in mind as you see the numbers. I'd take them with a huge gain of salt.
Stacy lost because the voting public lost their minds in a fit of bitterness. You say that Stacy was full of positive energy, which is perhaps why the voters couldn't understand her, what with all the negative thoughts they have pent up inside. The ABC boards featured some of the most ludicrous posts I've ever seen, including:-
"She shouldn't win because she's sexy and she knows it!"
"She looks weird."
and, "She is just sickening."
My question is, were they watching the same woman we were?
I was a dance instructor for years. Stacy Keibler would have beat Jerry Rice except for one thing. She was competing against John Travolta, not Jerry or Drew. I have learned that you do not compete against perfection and win. There is no one that can do the Gene Kelly dance number "Singing In The Rain" and expect to improve it, Or John Wayne in Rooster Cogburn, or Kansas City by Wilber Harrison. I am old and tired, women and sex aren't real high on my list of prioities, however other than my lovely wife I don't think there is a woman on this planet that can improve on Stacy Keibler! I hope she stands her ground and plays hard to get with the nude publishers. What the public can't get they want that much more.
Sparrow
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