Last year, I made the mistake of predicting the outcome of Dancing With The Stars<\/i> before watching any of the
\ncompetitors. That was a disaster of epic, Charlie-Sheen-as-a-babysitter proportions. However, after the first viewing,
\nmy revised handicapping was pretty darned good, if I do say so myself (and I must, because no one else will). I picked
\nJennifer Gray, Kyle Massey, and Brandi Norwood to finish in the top three, and nailed two of them. Would have been
\nthree, but who could have predicted the Bristol Palin juggernaut?<\/p>\n
So, illogically emboldened, and having watched TWO dances this season, I now offer my expert opinion as to how this
\nseason will unfold, thereby saving you the trouble of having to actually watch it unless you don’t have anything better
\nto do, in which case I’d advise you not to admit it.<\/p>\n
But first…let me just observe that this year’s cast is remarkable in that there are no “sleepers,” no dancers in
\namateur clothing. I think everyone is equally new to dancing, and while that doesn’t imply that they’re equally talented
\nor motivated, this should make the competition much more, uh, competitive than in the past.<\/p>\n
And, for whatever reason, it seems that the judges have also elevated their expectations. Some of the performances
\nin the first week would have been lauded in the fourth or fifth week of earlier seasons, and they were met with
\ndisapproval by the judges. Len, in particular, seems to be more surly than usual, and out of step with the other two
\njudges.<\/p>\n
OK, here’s my handicapping, based SOLELY on dancing ability and potential (that is, I’m ignoring the “Bristol Palin
\nFactor,” although the only person who might benefit from it is Kirstie Alley). The celeb name is first, followed by his
\nor her pro.<\/p>\n
OK, it’s probably hard to figure out my predicted lineup based on the preceding, so here’s a more direct
\nversion…my predicted order of finish. Check me in May!<\/p>\n
Update: The numbers in parentheses show the actual week of exit for each celebrity.<\/i><\/p>\n Should you have the good sense to disagree with my predictions, please leave your own in the comments.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Last year, I made the mistake of predicting the outcome of Dancing With The Stars before watching any of the competitors. That was a disaster of epic, Charlie-Sheen-as-a-babysitter proportions. However, after the first viewing, my revised handicapping was pretty darned good, if I do say so myself (and I must, because no one else will).… Continue reading Handicapping DWTS, Season 12<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dancing-ballroom","category-television-radio","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=548"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14134,"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548\/revisions\/14134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n