I Confess

It’s time I come clean with a full confession: I have found a TV show that I love. It’s Dancing With the Stars – the ballroom dance competition that pairs a star (and they do use the term loosely) with a professional ballroom dance partner. Viewers watch the competition on Monday night, call in their votes and then watch again to see the results on Tuesday night. One couple is eliminated each week until only one remains at the end of 11 or 12 weeks. I understand it’s a clone of a show in the UK and we even have two of the same judges they use.
Anyway, I am usually away from home on Monday and Tuesday nights, until the very last 10 minutes or so of the show, so I have to videotape it and watch it later. That’s okay, because I can fast forward through the MANY MANY commercials. It turns out that it only takes about 70 minutes to watch a 120 minute program.
My favorite stars this year are Apolo Ono, a speed skater, and Heather Mills, whom they identify as a professional activist, but her better known claim to fame is as Paul McCartney’s ex-wife. She has an artificial leg, but it doesn’t seem to be slowing her down much. She still does better shimmies, grinds, jumps, kicks and twirls than Leeza Gibbons and Laila Ali.
Apolo Ono is partnered with the youngest professional dancer to ever participate. She’s 18 and her name is Julianna something and besides dancing their hearts out every time, they make the CUTEST couple in the bunch.
The music is live; the costumes are sparkling, flowing and brilliant. The close-up vignettes of each couple between each dance are humorous. I find it all elegant and charming – what’s not to like?
Another reason I like this show is that it is so completely opposite of what is usually on in our house. My family likes the shows that involve crime solving so, in the course of an average week, we have a least 15 rapes, beatings, robberies, and/or murders and their subsequent autopsies taking place in our living room. Sometimes they switch over to the supernatural side of things where we have vampires, demons and ghosts with slayers and mediums to sort it all out.
I prefer dancing.

Do you have a favorite TV show?
If you are a Dancing With the Stars fan, who is your pick for this year?