elsewhere: talking trash ... tv, that is (EDITED)

[iainpj]

Media Relations: Circus of the Stars, aughties version:
You know, I hate to say it, but NBC's Celebrity Circus is actually ... kind of fun. Interesting. Entertaining, even. Mind, it does suffer from a severe case of "Who the hell IS that, anyway?" But still, you've got celebrities (of a sort) doing things that no reasonably sane person would do at their stage of life with that little training, and paying the price, too. Stacey Dash had broken ribs (but her performance apparently managed to turn the gay judge straight) and Christopher Knight had a broken arm. I missed the first two competitors, Antonio Sabado Jr. and Rachel Hunter, but their routines looked interesting on the recap.

The judges are an interesting motley. Mitch Gaylord is a former Olympic gymnast and actor (if that's quite the right word -- I've seen some of his film work). Aurelia Cats is a circus performer -- contortion and trapeze -- as well as an experienced circus festival competition judge (i.e., the member of the judging panel who actually knows what she's talking about). Louie Spence is a dancer and choreographer, as well as having judged other countries' versions of the show; he's also very very very very gay (believe it or not, this is actually relevant, if not precisely a qualification). As far as I can tell at this stage, the judging appears to be a mix of that from American Idol and that of Dancing with the Stars; it uses the same 1-10 point scale as Dancing, but like the AI finals, the judges' actual votes are meaningless, and it all depends on the viewers' votes. Also like AI, Celebrity Circus at least pretends that the competition has something to do with performance, as well as popularity, barring votes before the broadcast ends, but limiting both phone and online voting to only two hours after the show.

EDIT: It turns out that I missed the explanation of the judging. Circus has, in fact, completely absorbed the judging model from the first season of "Dancing with the Stars", in which 50% of the score comes from the judges, and 50% comes from the viewers. Presumably, this means that people are simply ranked in order of the total votes received, and also the judges' vote ranking. In theory, this should mean that if you pay attention to the judges' votes, you may be able to tell which people are safe, and which are at risk, at least for the next three weeks. Beyond that, there aren't enough people left to be safe, no matter what the judges do.

EDIT 2: Louie Spence's comment to Rachel Hunter about perhaps shining in the Spanish Web indicates that the celebrities will be rotating through the apparatuses. On the one hand, that's understandable -- you don't want the audience to get bored with seeing too much repetition -- but at the same time, I wonder how wise that was. Presumably, the eight weeks of rehearsal was to allow them to rotate training through each apparatus, and then the week before the show, they concentrate on the one for the upcoming broadcast. I would think that spending so little time on each apparatus would make them more prone to injury.

EDIT 3: Having now seen the entire show, including the first two routines, I'm beginning to suspect that Joey Fatone is perhaps the wrong host for the series. He's personable and enthusiastic enough, I suppose, but he seems a bit lost some of the time. And he really seems to have no idea how to handle Louie Spence and his sexual innuendoes at the various celebrities; that would be understandable if Louie were aiming his remarks at Joey, but he really doesn't speak to Joey after the introductions. Really, it needs someone with a certain engaging smarm who can give as good as he gets, like, say, Tom Bergeron.

Observational side notes:

What's with all the writhing dancers during the celebrity performances? Wouldn't you want people to be watching the celebrities, and not the scantily clad women? Why do you send the camera to zoom up their legs during the performance? Seriously, that's just ... weird.

For a 36-year-old woman who no longer competes in Olympic-level swimming and who had a baby 18 months ago, Janet Evans has awesome abs.

If I had been either Rachel Hunter or Blu Cantrell, doing all that spinning in mid-air, there would have been bazooka barfing during the performance, as well as rehearsal. The audience would not have been amused.

Is it wrong of me to want to vote for Antonio Sabado Jr. purely because he's the prettiest one there? It is, isn't it?

Comments

[nonelvis]

Aw, man, I totally missed this! And I used to love Circus of the Stars.

[iainpj.livejournal.com]

Well, it seems that the complete episode is streaming online now (http://www.nbc.com/Celebrity_Circus/video/episodes.shtml?apl=true) for free. In fact, it appears to have a tiny bit extra -- probably commercials -- as its running time is 64 minutes, as opposed to the normal network 48 minutes. (Having finally seen the beginning, I would just like to note that Antonio's stage makeup is perhaps just the teensiest bit excessive. As in, stick him in an evening gown, and drag queens everywhere would be happy to welcome him to the fold.)

And it's running for the next six weeks, unless it tanks in the ratings.