April 3, 2007: American Pie
Shandi, we hardly knew ye. And that was probably the main reason Shandi Finnessey was the second person to leave the competition: the lack of a large fan base. Add to that her OK but not great performances and a professional dancer who's so new to
Dancing with the Stars that he didn't have a following of his own, and her early departure really didn't come as a surprise. It's a bit ironic that the pair the judges deemed the "all-American couple" did the classic American jive, and yet America did not vote to keep them on the show. I never really felt that all-American vibe the judges kept forcing upon them - if anything, I got more of a plastic vibe from them. So maybe that other nickname of "Barbie and Ken" was more appropriate, albeit not in a good way. I was even trying to muster up some hometown pride and get behind Brian since he was getting a lot of "local boy" coverage here in the Philadelphia area, but that didn't work for me, either.
Speaking of Philly, I blame last night's show for not being able to get
Rocky III's "Eye of the Tiger" out of my head. They really had a jam-packed musical night, with absolutely no central theme. There was
Ciara singing and dancing with a lot of background dancers. Then Josh Groban sat and sang - but at least his song had lyrics about dancing (it's nice when they can find a song like that), and a barefoot Julianne gave quite a graceful ballet-like performance during that number (yes, Tony was good, too). What was not quite as graceful: when the camera went to an empty spot on the stage, zoomed in on
Leeza and Tony, and then lingered on them as
Samantha talked about
John and Edyta's results (this was a behind-the-scenes error, not Samantha's fault). But it's fun that there are moments like these to remind us that this is indeed a live show.
Leeza and Tony wound up being the safe couple in the final two. Considering they had such high judges' scores, they must have had pretty low voter turnout to wind up in that position. That doesn't bode well for them next week - unless their numbers are aligned or they're giving off good aura colors (yes, I'm referring to the numerology/clairvoyant segment). Until then, we'll say bye-bye only to Miss American Pie - I mean Miss USA.
