Maksim Chmerkovskiy
Hi everyone!
Hope you're all having a great 2011 so far. Are you ready for Season 12?
Everything is going great so far. As you now know, Kirstie Alley is my partner. We are having a blast. She is doing really well. What I like is that she's a lot better than I expected. I'll be honest: I came in and said to her, "You are out of shape." She said, "I am and I'm not hiding it. It's a great opportunity to get into shape. I don't want any limits. Do whatever needs to be done. It's a learning experience." I said, "Great!" And I came back with a routine and choreography like I would with anyone else and she gives me 100 percent in rehearsals every day.
Kirstie has a lot of ...
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This week we traveled to Wellman, Texas to surprise the Brown family. You know, the Brown's are really an amazing family — Jeanne, Johnny Mac and their daughter Katrina. They absolutely have had one of the most tragic situations, losing their child Alex to a texting while driving accident. They have been able to look beyond their own personal grief and realize that the message is more impactful than their grief. As a mother I can tell you that there's nothing in the world I can imagine worse than losing a child. The fact that they lost a child and they were immediately able to take a message and move forward with it just testifies to the integrity and the character of this family.
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Okay, gang, so this week we are in Savannah, Ga. and we're here to meet the lovely Simpson family.
Their story is a bit of a tough one. You've got a beautiful little boy by the name of Zoe who was born with some very, very bad conditions. He has fluid retention in the body and also his brain, which not many people survive. If that wasn't bad enough, he was also born blind because he had detached retinas. The amazing thing is that this child is still alive and now 2-years-old.
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We are here this week in Florida for an extremely wonderful family, the Gastons. Finis, the oldest member of the family, has really drawn our attention. He was away at college when his mother suddenly passed away. Instead of letting his nieces and nephews go into the foster care system he came back to be the man of the household. He did what was right in his heart. It has not been easy for Finis, but he is a happy, grateful, wonderful person who just has this inner peace about him. This family is so incredibly deserving of a home that suits their needs, and we are here this week to give them just that!
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Kyra Sedgwick
Welcome back.
For the next five Monday nights, we will wind our way through both the holidays and the end of our sixth season. In between wrapping gifts, holiday feasts and gatherings with family and friends, we hope you have a little extra time to spend with Deputy Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson as she gets to the bottom of several new mysteries. As always, our "back five" episodes offer us the chance to tell the kind of stories we would not attempt during our regular summer run, emphasizing our characters almost as much as the murders they are called upon to solve.
It's no secret that Deputy Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson, like most homicide detectives, doesn't care too much about drugs...
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Maksim Chmerkovskiy
Hi everyone,
Hope you had a great week. Thanks for voting for us.
Well, we came up short. It is what it is. I'm enjoying the somewhat controversial spotlight. You have to embrace everything. People have told me that we looked mad on Tuesday's show before the results were announced. I really was not concerned at all. Brandy's always nervous on every results show. I try to tell her that it's not worth it to be nervous. We did our job on Monday. I feel like everything is according to plan. If anything, I learned from spending time with Brandy and Kurt Warner. They're both very spiritual people in their own way. I've never have been, but I've learned a lot from both of them. I think it was pre-ordained.
Did anyone expect it? I think to have lost the way we have, I would take that any day than to have won under different circumstances. I'm very proud of ...
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This week we traveled to Nashville to build a new structure for the Lighthouse School because they've sustained a massive amount of damage during the floods back in June. I think everybody in the country saw on different news stations part of the school floating down the river. I'm from Tennessee, born and raised, and there wasn't anyone who could have looked at that footage and not go, "Oh my gosh."
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Maksim Chmerkovskiy
Hi everyone,
Hope you had a great week. Thanks for voting for us!
I just want to get this out of the way: Everything's cool with Carrie Ann. She's passionate and I'm passionate. We made up afterward. Everything's back to normal. I never expected it to get blown up like it did, but I guess it was like, "reality drama"! We talked after the show and everything's great now. The post-mortem is that ...
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This week we are in Pocatello, Idaho helping the Marshall-Spreier family and what a great family they are! There's Jane, the mom, and then there are eight kids. Jane suffered from cancer and on top of that, an electrical fire took away their home. For the past 18 months they've been living in a little trailer and a tent in their backyard. This family has lost everything and yet life is still pretty sunny for these folks. The entire family is very competent in their musical abilities and I think what holds this family together is that they have their music to go to. You shut your eyes and you play music and you're everywhere.
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Maksim Chmerkovskiy
Hi everyone,
Hope you had a great week. Thanks for voting for us!
Well, we had another very good week. Our team dance went great and I'm so proud of Brandy for the foxtrot. Gilles was funny because he came up to us afterward and apologized for giving us a 9. I told him, "Friendship aside, you were being the judge."
I mean, I've got to admit, I felt like the whole time the celebrity judges weren't particularly looking for anything. I think having the celebrity judges was an exciting gimmick. They were more or less there to say something nice, give a 10 and move on. I felt like Gilles wanted to give a 10. I don't think there's anything wrong with them handing out "free" scores to inflate our scores.
Len's 10 was the highlight for Brandy this season. She was like, "Oh my God!" I'm not ...
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