How can we vote Samantha Harris off "Dancing"?
Posted: Monday, November 03, 2008 6:00 AM by Gael Fashingbauer Cooper
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TV
Every week, "Dancing With the Stars" votes off another celebrity dancer. A combination of judges' votes and viewer calls determine who goes home. But there's one "Dancing" participant who can never get the boot, and sadly, she's the one person many viewers would most like to see leave the show: Co-host Samantha Harris.
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Does "Dancing With the Stars" really need Samantha Harris?
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I came late to the charms of Tom Bergeron. The main "Dancing" host struck me as smarmy at first, but now that I have to regularly watch "Dancing" for work, Bergeron has really grown on me. It can't be easy to listen to an incomprehensible Italian-accented speech from judge Bruno Tonioli and respond quickly and wittily, yet Bergeron manages to do just that every single week.
Bergeron introduces the show, plays mediator between the judges and the dancers, and keeps things moving along. "Dancing With the Stars" is hardly brain surgery, or even "Masterpiece Theatre," but give credit where it's due. The show is enormously popular and Bergeron keeps it family-friendly and even somewhat funny.
On those rare occasions when someone's feelings get hurt or a judge goes too far, Bergeron's quick to leap in, smooth things over with a joke, and move the show along. He even says what the viewer was thinking -- recently calling judge Carrie Ann Inaba out for her constant flirting with former NFL player Warren Sapp. Bergeron is so deft at what he does, it's no wonder I didn't appreciate him at first. He just makes it look easy.
But after Bergeron has had the judges give their critiques, he sends the dancing couple backstage to find out their scores and then be interviewed by Samantha Harris. First off, is it really necessary that the couple leave the stage to get their scores? Would Cloris Leachman actually launch herself at Len Goodman if he gave her a 3 and she was still standing right in front of him? I think they should just leave the couples onstage to get their scores.
And secondly, why is Harris needed at all? She plays the part of the sideline reporter in a football game, sticking a microphone in the face of someone who's just performed and asking for their comments. Often the celebs and their pro-dancing partners kind of run roughshod all over her, especially Leachman, who seems to have no patience for Harris' awkward attempts at interviews. While Bergeron is nothing but smooth and unruffled, Harris often stammers and seems frightened of the dancers. Once in 2007, she gave out the scores before the judges did.
I know some Harris fans will write in and say "you're just jealous because she's hot!" OK, so she is lovely, and I'm kind of fascinated by the weird things the show's stylists do with her hair. She had kind of a Princess Leia cinnamon-bun 'do going one week, and an elaborately braided Civil War bride thing another week. I was also impressed at how blazingly fast she came back to the show after giving birth last fall, much to the disappointment of those who loved her fill-in, Drew Lachey. And she was raised in Minnesota's Twin Cities, just like I was -- another point in her favor. Plus she apparently played Dawn Wells (Mary Ann) in the TV movie about the making of "Gilligan's Island." So she's got that going for her.
But I don't think her role on "Dancing" is necessary, and I bet the show could be about a half-hour shorter if her backstage fumblings were cut out completely. "Dancing" fans, what say you?
