‘Dancing with the Stars’ 19: How America can vote live as guest judge on ABC.com

Tonight, “Dancing with the Stars” is doing something that the series has never done before, and it could either be seen as a cool twist, or one more desperate attempt for a ratings-challenged reality competition to get some attention.

At this point, we at least give the show credit for trying to make this even more of appointment television than it already is. Here’s how tonight’s competition will work.

• During each routine, viewers will have a chance to go on ABC.com and give out a score for the routine. The one flaw we see in this is that voting begins with the start of each performance, which means in theory that someone could go on and give someone they don’t like a 1 at the beginning.
• Voting stays open for around two minutes and fifteen seconds.
• The score is calculated based on the average of all the votes received.
• Someone will still go home at the end of the episode based on the votes and scores from last week.

One more thing that we’re worried about is that this will expose who the public’s real favorites are, but then again, it may not. The difference between this and the typical public vote is that nobody is voting for just their favorite; basically, you are scoring everyone, and if you are indifferent to a performer, you may at least give them a decent score. We at least hope America is a fair judge.

What do you think about this twist: Is it a cool idea for “Dancing with the Stars,” or something that makes them look a little silly in your eyes? Share some of your thoughts with a comment, and dance over here if you want to see some spoilers for tonight’s show. Also, sign up now to get more updates on everything we cover our official CarterMatt Newsletter.

Photo: ABC