Backstage Report: Dancing Battles a "Nice" Problem
Dancing with the Stars Results Show by Kelsey McNeal/ABC
At first, the rumblings were off the record. But now, as Kristi Yamaguchi, Jason Taylor and Cristian de la Fuente head into next week's finals, it's being discussed quite openly: There is a "nice" problem at
Dancing with the Stars.
All three of the finalists are some of the nicest people you'll ever meet. Happily married with young children, professional, collegial, and extremely supportive of one another. In short, a nightmare for television producers in general and for
Dancing in particular. They toss footballs and soccer balls around in the parking lot. Jason Taylor and Cristian de la Fuente went out to buy an umbrella table and four chairs - dubbed "K-Mart Village" - where everyone hangs out when they're not on set. Taylor was showered with kisses when he delivered boxes of L.A.'s famous "Sprinkles" cupcakes to the trailers of his competitors and the pros. "It's going to go right to my behind," joked pro Karina Smirnoff as she hugged him.
"It's a real problem," says host Tom Bergeron, who has seen his share of diva-like behavior over the past six seasons, culminating in the whirlwind of drama that was Marie Osmond. "You don't want every season to be the same. But as I was telling someone here, 'This has been almost
Waltons-esque compared to last season. You can just hear them: 'Good night, Kristi.' 'Good night, Jason.' 'Good night, John Boy.'"
Even the pros have been getting along famously. "Usually, there are one or two dancers who create problems," says pro Louis van Amstel, "but this season, there has been none of that. No fighting at all."
As the brain trust behind the show looks ahead to season seven, you can bet that the waters will not be so placid. They're looking for a little more edge, a little more attitude. "I hope we have some fisticuffs," says Bergeron. "That's why I've been pushing to get Paula [Abdul] over here. Let's just drop her right in the middle of all this and see what happens."
For the record, Bergeron is part of the problem. What other TV host do you know who would get down on his knees to interview the next generation of ballroom dancers? "How can you not go down on your knees?" he asks. "I didn't want to lurch over them." He also makes himself accessible to the older dancers, like Mel B., who made a habit of goosing him after every dance last season. As she tries to distract him from this interview, he calls out to her. "Don't make faces, Mel, when I'm talking to TV Guide. But if you'd like to grab anything, you know you have carte blanche."
Speaking of nice, there is Marissa Jaret Winokur. She apologizes, for goodness sake, after being voted out. "I'm so sorry!" she says. "I feel like I let everyone down." But she's looking ahead to two new births: the child coming in July (via a surrogate) and her new talk show. "This has definitely prepared me for the work load that's coming," she says. What has
Dancing taught her? "This is not like Broadway," she says. "On Broadway, you rehearse and rehearse and perfect everything for months before you go to the audience. Here, you've barely got the routine down before you're dancing live in front of 20 million people. You wear your heart on your sleeve. You can't hide. I've never been so open with my emotions for everybody to see. And that's what would make for a good talk show, which is just being true and honest."
Like we said, too nice. -
Deborah Starr Seibel
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