‘Dancing with the Stars’ season 17 spotlight: Valerie Harper and Tristan McManus
Everyone loves an inspirational story, and we imagine that you are going to get quite a big one on this coming season of “Dancing with the Stars” (premiering in one week!) with Valerie Harper. This is a woman who earlier this spring, only had a few months to live following a serious cancer diagnosis, but she has since conquered the odds, and it now seems like it is close to being in remission.
There is basically no way that you can do anything other than admire Valerie for her bravery, and for her taking on this challenge at a time when her body is not in the best shape. We don’t know whether or not she has any real shot at winning, but she is going to have the sympathy of America for at least a little while.
Professional partner – Tristan MacManus. The perfect person for her to work with, as Tristan has worked with many older celebrities (Gladys Knight, Nancy Grace) and knows how to get an elegant performance from them. He’s also very likable.
Strengths – The biggest one here is clearly determination. Compared to staring death in the face, the former “Mary Tyler Moore Show” star is going to have no problem doing the cha-cha-cha across the floor of a cheesy dance show. She’s got entertainment in her veins, and she will probably play up this angle in order to get some laughs from the audience.
Weaknesses – The biggest one for Valerie is simply that we don’t know how her body is going to hold up to this not long removed from battling cancer. We don’t expect her to be the best dancer on the competition, and there is going to come a point in this season where the scores will matter more and more as the amount of dancers decreases.
Prediction – There is no way that Valerie goes home first. Even if she gets low scores, the public is going to put her through. We see her almost in a similar sort of situation to Bill Engvall or maybe Bill Nye the Science Guy: These three will probably all go home within the first four or five weeks of the competition, but she should outlast most of them thanks her fan base.
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Photo: ABC