Dancing With The Stars - Night 1 - Guys Dance

Last night was the season premier of Dancing With The Stars! This is a 3-night event. Last night we saw the guys dance. Tonight we'll see the ladies, and Thursday night we'll have a double elimination of 1 male celebrity and 1 female celebrity. Here's a quick recap of last night's show:

Pop-cutie Aaron Carter and Karina were up first dancing the Cha Cha Cha. It was pretty good. Aaron kind of reminds me of that High School Musical cutie, Corey, who danced with Julianne a couple season's ago. He's kind of lanky and goofy but he has rhythm and potential to be pretty good. I can already tell he's a little cocky though. He clearly checks out the field of competition and realizes he's 1 of the 3 best men in the competition, and that's why I voted for him tonight. The judges gave them a 22.

MMA Fighter Chuck and Anna were up next. I had to laugh when Anna said that Chuck was the manly man she'd ever met. I somehow don't have any trouble believing that given her chosen profession! They danced the foxtrot. The judges weren't as rough on Chuck as I thought they would be. I guess there were parts that were sort of okay, but mostly it was choppy, awkward, had no musicality, and there was a lot of Chuck posing with his arm stuck out as Anna danced around him. It doesn't really matter to me if we see him back next week or not. The judges gave him a 16 which is a low score but would turn out NOT to be the lowest of the night. However, I didn't vote for him.

Mark Decascos and Lacey danced the Cha Cha Cha. They put a kung-fu vibe on it and I thought it was pretty cute. He's in the top 3 guys in my opinion. I love Lacey and I love Mark. I think that his level of talent, plus the fans that Lacey and Mark both have out there that will vote for them (me included!) just to be able to see them next week will serve him well! The judges awarded him a 21.

Ashley Hamilton danced next with the foxtrot. It was bad. He looks so good with his shirt off I was really hoping for another Gilles, kind of sultry sex bad boy out there! But he's so awkward and you can practically see him counting in his head. Pretty disappointing. He only got a 15 from the judges. He's not that cute or charismatic without the photo retouching his publicity shots had, so he didn't get my vote last night.

Donny & Kim were next with the Foxtrot. The judges thought he was being too theatrical but I thought it fit the music perfectly. He's really good. He rounds out our top 3 guys, for sure and his judges' score of 20 puts him right up there in the top 3, as well. I wasn't very excited about him being on the show this season, but his interview/practice clips and his dancing were the most entertaining of the night.

Louie and Chelsie were next and I really liked them! Louie seems like he might be able to pull it together if he works hard. They also danced the foxtrot and even though he wasn't the best dancer out there, techincally speaking, he was SO adorable and smiled the whole time, and was definitely out there to have fun. I hope he & Chelsie are back next week, now that Julianne is gone, Chelsie is one of my favorite pros.They earned a 19 from the judges which was a respectable score. I think he'll come around and surprise us.

Michael Irvin was next doing the Cha Cha Cha. He wanted to beat Jerry Rice's Cha Cha Cha score but he didn't. It wasn't very good. He was fun to watch because his face makes it look like he's having a great time out there but it was hard to ignore the bad technique. He's in the group that I wouldn't mind seeing back next week, so maybe he'll pull through, but with the lowest score of the night, a meager 13, don't be surprised if he's in the bottom on Results Night.

And bringing up the rear (literally... bringing up the rear... if I have to see him turn around and shake his butt at the camera one more time I may hurl) was Tom DeLay and Cheryl Burke. Now, as most of you know, I teach Jazzercise. Cheryl recently signed with Jazzercise to be a celebrity spokesperson. Maybe you caught one of the Jazzercise commercial starring Cheryl during last night's show! So, this awesome celebrity endorsement is pretty big news for Jazzericse and we instructors are really really happy to have this new relationship with Cheryl! That said - you can understand why several of us were just a LITTLE disappointed with this pairing. How awkward and uncomfortable was it to see him "getting in touch with his prissy side" as he so convincingly stated. Their Cha Cha Cha was pretty bad. Carrie Ann Inaba said he was a charmer but I must have missed that... maybe it was because I had my eyes closed... I am voting for Cheryl out of solidarity with my Jazzercise sistahs but I don't hold out a lot of hope that we'll be seeing much more of her this season. They did score a 16 thought, putting Tom above Ashley and Michael, so you never know!

SO - the new twist are these Relay Dances. It's a sort of group performance where 1/2 the couples dance to the same song for a few seconds each so you can see them in quick succession beside each other. The juges rank them from best to worst, add their score to the score they received during their solo dances, the total of which will be added to America's votes, and that's what will make up the rankings this season. They don't dance at the same time, just to the same song.

Everyone who danced ballroom (Foxtrot) tonight, did the Salsa Relay. So, that's Ashley, Donny, Chuck, and Louie. I like this new addition to the show. Donny Osmond rocked the Salsa earning him the top ranking with a score of 10, Louie did really well coming in 2nd with a score of 8, Chuck got the 6 and Ashley got the 4.

Everyone who danced Latin (Cha Cha Cha) tonight did the Viennese Waltz Relay. Aaron came in first with a 10, though I thought he was really frantic and all over the place, the judges liked it. Mark got 2nd with the 8, Michael Irvin got the 6 and Tom got the 4.

All in all I am a little disappointed with the guy's talent this year. My favorites are Mark, Aaron, Donny, and Louie. The other 4 are definitely early elimination fodder.

The rankings of the judges' scores leave them in this order:
Aaron - 32
Donny - 30
Mark - 29
Louie - 28
Chuck - 22
Tom - 20
Ashley - 19
Michael - 19

You can vote online until 12pm!

Tune in tonight to see the ladies do their thing. Then on Thursday night we have an eclectic array of performances from Sean Kingston, Miley Cyrus, The Lion King cast and a Patrick Swayze tribute to look forward to before we find out who will be leaving on Week 1!

Thanks for reading!