Dancing With the Stars

Last night's premiere of Dancing With the Stars was actually a lot better than I thought it would be. Sure, probably about half of the people watching tuned in just to see if Heather Mills's leg would fly off (why do you think the producers had her dance toward the end?). And sure, I've started watching every season of the show, then lost interest after a few episodes. But for now, I'm definitely interested.

Some of the "stars" were actually pretty good. The guys, mostly. Ian started the show off strong. And Joey drew upon all those years dancing with N'Sync to do a really good job as well. It was refreshing to see both of them actually dance - a lot of times the guy "stars" do a lot of walking around while the girls dance around them. I also loved that Joey's partner has taken to calling him "Joey Fat One" as well (come on, his last name is FATONE; isn't everyone making that joke?). I also really liked Apollo, and not just because he's one of my favorite winter athletes (don't make fun of me for following winter sports...). He showed why athletes usually do really well on the show - I think he's the dancer to beat.

Then there were the "stars" (and yes, I think the word star really does need to be in quotes) who did pretty good, especially considering the fact that they're not dancers. Paulina, Laila, and Heather fall into this group. Heather was actually one of the best girls to dance, and considering the fact that she has a lot more work to do, it's pretty impressive. The camera work, though, as she danced was really choppy. You could tell that they didn't know where to focus - do you just show her artificial leg, or show her body as well? (and they had to make sure they had at least one of the cameras on her leg...you know...just in case...)

And then there was the bottom group. No surprise about some of them - no one really should have expected Billy Ray or John to be very good. Leeza was pretty miserable as well. And I think you have to put Shandi and Clyde in the bottom group as well. I also really wonder just how much botox Leeza has had for her face to look like that. And that's just on regular old tv - I fear for the people who watched her in HD.

So next week they'll dance again before an actual results show. And I think I'll stick around for that.