Dancing With the Stars Producers Deny Bristol Palin Conspiracy at Work
by Free Britney at .The fact that Bristol Palin made it into the finals has a lot of people scratching their heads (or mailing white powder to the set). But it's no conspiracy.
"She deserves it," Dancing With the Stars executive producer Conrad Green says. "A significant portion of our viewing audience believes that, too."
Week after week, as Bristol advances and superior talents like Audrina Patridge, Rick Fox, and Brandy have fallen, conspiracy theories have surfaced.
DANCING FINALIST: Like it or not, Bristol Palin (with partner Mark Ballas) will be competing for the MirrorBall trophy in this week's finals. Will she actually win it?
Speculation has arisen about whether the Tea Party, which strongly supports her mom Sarah, is involved in an organized effort to promote Bristol.
On one conservative Web site, Freerepublic (dot) com, some of the site's 300,000 users have used discussion threads to encourage votes for Palin.
Bristol Palin, that is.
One asked users to "make liberal heads explode and vote for Bristol" Nov. 8 to advance her to the semifinals. That's pretty much what happened.But Green insists, "There's nothing in the voting system that looks at all strange."
He says that the entire process – text votes, call-in votes and email votes – "is all overseen by the Broadcast Standards team, independent of us and the network to make sure that everything is absolutely done scrupulously."
While some say the show's credibility is in question after this year, Green says this isn't the first time a less skilled dancer has made it this far.
Of Bristol's surprise run, he says, "You can argue whether or not she deserves to be there more than someone else who the judges have assigned to be a better dancer, but then make sure you vote for that person. It's not rocket science."
He also notes that plans to change the system to give the judges' scores more weight than audience votes are false, because that's already in place.
"Everyone is having a go at our system, but unlike American Idol, our professional judges count for half of the total for each couple each week, so there's already a built-in attempt to make the dance quality matter," Green says.
"We set the rules down and this is the game and if this is how it turns out, then this is how it turns out. I think it's absolutely fair."
What do you think? Does Bristol Palin deserve to be in the finals?
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Comments (7 Total)
I'm voting for Bristol because I think she represents the average person. She came into the show unable to dance at all and as learned and advanced in her ability to dance. Unlike the some of the others who were already dancers before they came. I think if she gets the highest votes she should win. And this is from someone who was sure they were going to vote for Jennifer until the show got started.
Brandy may have been eliminated last week,but she will always be remembered for her role as the one who ended up with the crown, the glass slipper,and The Prince in (the starring role of) Cinderella.
Haha all these lame democrates crying like a baby...haha
I think it is sad that people are not letting Bristol stand on her own two feet. Do I think she belongs in the top, no. Do I think she is trying to break away from her mother's political agenda and create a spot for herself? Yes. Why can't people worry about what is happening in their own life and just enjoy the good entertainment provided by the show and vote if you don't like who is winning. You go Bristol. More power to you. I wish I could do what you are doing.
ABC needs to ensure fair voting on tonight’s DWTS by avoiding votes from robo-calls and robo-dial computers. DWTS can prevent rigged votes by: 1.Rejecting calls without caller ID 2.Only accepting calls where caller ID shows first and last name