‘Dancing with the Stars’ 17 review: Did Bill Engvall survive over Snooki, Leah Remini?
For the first few weeks of “Dancing with the Stars” this season, we had a pretty predictable series of eliminations as we progressively said goodbye to the likes of Keyshawn Johnson, Bill Nye, and Valerie Harper. Then some weird things started to happen with the elimination of Christina Milian from the show, and it only got a weirder when there was not any elimination at all last week.
Going into tonight, the obvious feeling here was that we were going to see the exit of Bill Engvall and Emma Slater; while it was pretty clear that he was the worst dancer on the show going into tonight’s episode, he has a devoted following that are mostly in the show’s older, conservative demographic. That is enough to allow him to stay a little while longer, and that is also what dooms a certain someone like Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi.
The first problem with Snooki this season originated from herself, when it felt somewhat as though she was trying to distance herself from her own nickname and her past image, which is what so many loved about her in the first place on “Jersey Shore.” The people that already hated her weren’t going to suddenly change their minds just because she is a mom. Seeing her go home here was not a surprise, even though she didn’t really deserve it. People who watch MTV are not regular viewers of “Dancing with the Stars,” and the problem for her is really as easy as that.
But as for how long Bill could stay in the competition now, we give him maybe two more weeks. There are some other okay dancers that he could pass (Leah Remini being one of them), but he’s not going to compete against the beasts of this competition. He is just a likable guy that some in the south identify with, given that he is not coming into this with any real experience in the dancing world.
In case you missed it from earlier in the night, Cher is going to guest-judge next week’s edition of the show. We’ll give the program tonight a B- as our grade, mostly because of the drama that the eliminated created. The series is at this point otherwise getting listless.
Photo: ABC