Dancing With the Stars

It's just what TV viewers want in summer -- fun. [23 Jun 2005]

Maybe it's the heat, but it's difficult to imagine anyone disliking Dancing With the Stars, so far the most entertaining new series of TV's off-season. [22 Jun 2005]

Dancing With the Stars is an improbable, goofy delight, more fun to watch than the bombastic American Idol for at least two reasons. The first: Unlike Idol wannabes, contestants on DWTS know they're amateurs. ... The second reason DWTS makes for better watching than American Idol is purely kinetic: Bad dancing is simply more fun to watch than bad singing is to listen to.

You get the absorbing pleasure of watching celebrities try a demanding art form that could leave their toes blistered and their egos bruised. It also has the potential to make them look like dorks. [9 Jun 2005]

Like the millions of other emotionally unstable imbeciles who tuned in, I found myself strangely drawn to the idiotic flair of the whole thing. Watching this show is like traveling back in time, to a simpler era, when most of our pop culture was considered foolish and sad.

While mildly amusing, what the show lacks is charm. And humor. And tension. [2 Jun 2005]

The stars (Trista Sutter, John O'Hurley and Joey McIntyre, et al.) are strictly marginal. The host (Tom Bergeron) is excruciatingly lame. And the dancing is only sporadically scintillating. [26 Jun 2005]