I'll end the suspense on another one those questions early, too. Fox has corrected the spelling of Jaymz's name, although it is still hard for me to use the word "corrected" in conjunction with the word "Jaymz." Thanks to all those who pointed out that "Jamyz" was a typo by Fox. It's kind of poetic justice, though - if you name yourself something completely stupid, you can hardly be annoyed if people make a mistake and think it's something even MORE stupid. There was one commenter who thought that I should have Googled Jaymz so that I could have learned that he is sometimes referenced as James "Jaymz" Tuaileva. I think maybe from now on I am going to call him James "Jaymz" Tuaileva all the time. Again, he gets what he asked for. I sure hope he gets kicked off soon.

In related news, watching the opening sequence, I continue to think that James "Jaymz" Tuaileva's partner, Jessica, is the single worst dancer remaining in the competition. I originally pegged her and Joy as the two clunkers. One down. Other things I notice during the opening sequence: Almost everyone looks totally hot, especially Musa, over whom I can barely restrain myself from drooling. Ivan is starting to remind me of Kevin Covais, in a variety of ways. Aleks seems to have recovered from whatever was causing her to look like she had just swallowed a bunch of broken glass last Thursday. Ben has on the coolest red socks/legwarmers.

Chicken Little learns to dance?

There is no super-awesome opening group dance. Why? I mean, they all dance around a little, but nothing fancy. Boo! Then Cat tries to boogie down with them for a few seconds when she comes down onto the stage. Oh, Cat, you really shouldn't do that. Does Ryan Seacrest try to sing? NO. Learn from the master.

I think it's funny that Cat plays the Ryan Seacrest role on this show, but they don't quite trust her with all of Ryan's responsibilities. For example, it's Nigel, not Cat, who announces the actual eliminations. Maybe someday, Cat, if you work extra hard, they will let you read more things off of a card.

There are FOUR judges tonight: Nigel; drunk-seeming choreographer Mary Murphy; and hip-hop choreographer duo Cicely and Olisa. They were the ones who tried to explain the differences between Old School/New School, and West Coast/East Coast, in the context of Aleks's abysmally white hip-hop dancing. I like them - they seem spunky.

The judges are, once again, asked to reminisce about auditions. There are flashbacks of some people sucking and/or spraying obscenities. I ignore this. Really, y'all, it wasn't that entertaining the first time. Or the second time. Please stop doing it. It's okay to make the show 90 minutes instead of two hours. There's no shame in that.

Next there are some (previously unaired) flashbacks of the contestants marching into the studio before Thursday's results show. Apparently, before the results show, they were quite nervous. Who knew? We see some very brief clips of Joy and Jason post-elimination. They were both kind of bummed. Shocking! I swear, if there are any more revelations of this caliber, I am going to have to make sure my defibrillator is charged before I watch this show. The contestants talk about how crazy their days are, and I believe them. There is a cute moment when Natalie tells Musa she wants a divorce. She so doesn't, y'all.

Let's play "divorce." Then later we can play "naughty motorcycle cop," okay?

Some guest dancers do the Lindy hop, or something. It's okay, but I would so much rather see the actual contestants. The amount of filler amazes me more every time I see this show. Will the show shrink down from two hours when there are fewer contestants? Or will they have them do two dances per couple instead? Either way, we're obviously in some trouble for the next couple of weeks, when they still have too many contestants to shorten the show or double up the dances, so every time they eliminate someone, they are just going to have to add even more filler. I am going to have to take up knitting.

There are some commercials, and then at long last we introduce Ashlee and Ben at 21 minutes in. And I think of them as one of the weakest couples, but I am so happy to see them right now. I missed you guys! Those Lindy hoppers just didn't fill this hole inside my soul! They draw hip-hop, which is Ashlee's thang. (Actually, her dance style is called "poppin'," but apparently that's a subset of hip-hop.) She has lost her voice due to a cold, so Ben has to talk for her. It's sort of cute.

Posted by Amanda on June 29, 2006 11:41 AM