Dancing With The Stars - Season 8 (1 Viewer)

[Brett_M]

I didn't watch the finale last night but based on your spoilerish comment, I am in no way surprised about Shawn Johnson. She nailed her dances Monday night and improved the most from the first week. Not only is her dancing technique nearly flawless, she changed the most in terms of performance. I think that Olympic competitors fair so well because they can deal with the mental pressure and they are so in tune with their physicality that they can improve through practice and muscle-memory faster than anyone else.

I can't help but feel bad for Melissa because she and Tony were may favorite couple this year. Their dancing aside, she is so cute it hurts. She looked so gogeous on Monday during the paso. She definitely fits right in with the other hotties on that show.

 

[Charles Ellis]

I think that Gilles should have won. He came out of nowhere and proved himself. Shawn should have NEVER been put on the show- as an Olympic athlete, she had an unfair advantage. It's no accident that every time an Olympian has been on this show, he or she won the championship. Look at Apolo Anton Ohno and Kristi Yamaguchi. They both have years of discipline to endure weeks of competition. Shawn Johnson was a ringer who had an unfair advantage over everyone else. This to ABC: NO MORE OLYMPIANS ON THIS SHOW!!! It's more fulfilling to see someone not known for their dancing ability win (Brooke Burke, Drew Lachey, Kelly Monaco, Helio Castroneves). Theorectically, in you had in a future installment of the show Kathy Griffin up against Peggy Fleming, it's all too obvious who the favorite would be, and therefore would be anticlimatic. Less Olympians, more celebs from other walks of life- even politicians and journalists! How about Al Gore and Matt Lauer? Caroline Kennedy and Mary Hart? Anderson Cooper?

And how come no hockey stars- what about Mark Messier or Brett Hull?

 

[James Lee]

So what about Misty-May Treanor and Maurice Greene? They're ex-Olympians.

I would have been happy if any of the three finalists won. I expected Gilles to win and was happily shocked to see Shawn win. She deserved it. The fact that she was an Olympian is irrelevant. Look at the strengths and weaknesses of her and Gilles. Gilles is by far the better artistic dancer. Shawn is the slightly better technical dancer. He's smoother and lighter on his feet, while she is the more energetic dancer. The point is that each brings something different. Yes, Gilles probably should have won based on week to week consistency, but the results in the final came down to the audience vote. The judging gave each of the two 88 out of 90 points, which left it to the viewer voting, and even that was separated by a difference of less than one 1% if you believe what they said.

It was a very entertaining season and probably the strongest finals they've ever had. It was touching to see how much the whole experienced affected Gilles' life. You could tell dancing meant a lot to him emotionally.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

Heck, it's a big step from just being "that guy who was naked in that one movie!"

("Dancing With the Vaguely Familiar," indeed!)

I missed the last half-hour due to a power outage. Sigh.

Jeffrey Ross is not really appropriate for this show, but he sure was funny last night.

 

[KevinGress]

Ugh! You want to give people more reason not to watch?! The people you mention, other than maybe Mary Hart, need LESS exposure, not more. I guess the only positive to them being on the show would be they'd have less time to negatively impact the public.