DWTS rigging claim

StockingfillerStockingfiller Posts: 3,302
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Has anyone else seen reports about this ? Hope Solo, a female twice Olympic gold medallist soccer player ( female) has a new book out. ( That rings a few warning bells for me ! ).

She claims that DWTS is rigged and that her pro partner Maksim Chmerkovsky told her about it, including about a 'secret memo' that is sent round each week saying who is going to be eliminated from the competition.

Hope claims that Maksim told her that he'd create some fireworks with the judges so that he and Hope would be kept in, due to having caused a bit of excitement. They weren't eliminated that week.

I'm surprised that she's gone public with something difficult to prove even if it's true.

Comments

  • boddismboddism Posts: 16,436
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    If true, I doubt the UK version is rigged in this way.

    I suspect the BBC are very sensitive to these kinda accusations.

    Theres such a thing as audience manipulation, but outright rigging of the type you've indicated??
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 6,505
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    LolWUT? :D
  • StockingfillerStockingfiller Posts: 3,302
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    That's why I'm amazed that someone said it in her book. Maybe she's claimed that rigging goes on to increase interest in and sales of her book but it seems like a risky tactic !

    I don't know what the legal situation is here or in the States re possibly damaging a programme's reputation without concrete evidence but rather her than me ! :eek:
  • jake lylejake lyle Posts: 6,146
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    Hope Solo is nuts, so I would take her comments with a heavy pinch of salt. Didn't she recently say that Max beat her and then retracted it.:rolleyes:
  • LilystarLilystar Posts: 396
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    jake lyle wrote: »
    Hope Solo is nuts, so I would take her comments with a heavy pinch of salt. Didn't she recently say that Max beat her and then retracted it.:rolleyes:

    Yes. She seems to have a similar grasp on reality to Nancy at times.
  • fridgesoupfridgesoup Posts: 17,089
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    boddism wrote: »
    If true, I doubt the UK version is rigged in this way.

    I suspect the BBC are very sensitive to these kinda accusations.

    Theres such a thing as audience manipulation, but outright rigging of the type you've indicated??
    I think that's true - after all the telly-voting scandals a while back, I can't imagine they would even think about it. (Just maniplate us in other ways! :p)

    Anyway, this is the article about Hope's claims:
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/27/hope-solo-dancing-with-the-stars-fake-rigged_n_1918633.html?utm_hp_ref=sports
  • SaraV1308SaraV1308 Posts: 9,760
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    Shouldnt this thread be in the DWTS sub forum (at the top)??

    Mods please move the thread to the appropriate sub-forum in the attic!
  • Smokeychan1Smokeychan1 Posts: 12,040
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    fridgesoup wrote: »
    I think that's true - after all the telly-voting scandals a while back, I can't imagine they would even think about it. (Just manipulate us in other ways! :p)

    Anyway, this is the article about Hope's claims:
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/27/hope-solo-dancing-with-the-stars-fake-rigged_n_1918633.html?utm_hp_ref=sports

    AKA the return of the Dance Off :p
  • MonksealMonkseal Posts: 12,008
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    jake lyle wrote: »
    Hope Solo is nuts, so I would take her comments with a heavy pinch of salt. Didn't she recently say that Max beat her and then retracted it.:rolleyes:

    She said he slapped her, and she hasn't retracted. When the allegations came out, there was some noise about Maks suing her for defamation of character, but nothing's happened, and it was all months ago now, so it's unlikely to happen.

    Do I think DWTS is rigged in the manner described? No. Do I think Hope might be making it up to sell books? Possibly. Do I think Maks might have told her that the show is rigged against him, because he's paranoid? Possibly.
  • breppobreppo Posts: 2,433
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    Monkseal wrote: »
    Do I think DWTS is rigged in the manner described? No. Do I think Hope might be making it up to sell books? Possibly. Do I think Maks might have told her that the show is rigged against him, because he's paranoid? Possibly.

    I agree Monkseal. What possible reason could ABC have for rigging? OK, they've brought back that homophobic, racist and hypocrite monster Palin to boost the ratings, but that's all in the open. Rigging a show like DWTS makes no sense. It's not like X-factor where a lot is riding on a favourable outcome.

    What we all could see is that Maks was very negative, right from the start. Hope was sucked down by all that negativety and helped to make the prophecy come true. It was Maks' worst season with dreadful choreo and even more dreadful costumes. It's quite something to make Hope look like the uglier sister of Wurzel Gummidge, but they managed all right. Maks effectively sabotaged Hope. With her professional career successes, she was (almost) a certainty for the finals.
  • fridgesoupfridgesoup Posts: 17,089
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    breppo wrote: »
    With her professional career successes, she was (almost) a certainty for the finals.

    ...but she was a lousy dancer :confused:
  • breppobreppo Posts: 2,433
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    fridgesoup wrote: »
    ...but she was a lousy dancer :confused:

    Most of the time, yes. But there were moments when you could see that, with the right partner and positive encouragement, she could have done much better.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 3,390
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    I do think Maks verbally abused Hope. He's a terrible teacher if the other person doesn't have a very strong personality like Kirstie or Mel. Hope would never have been great, but she could have been an awful lot better with someone else.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 226
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    I'm sure there are such rumours that circulate about who is eliminated each week but there is no reason why it would be rigged.. If you look at Season 13, each elimination made sense. Kristin and Chynna were eliminated too soon but they were not big characters or people who were well known while Chaz and Nancy stayed in longer than expected but they were arguably endearing performers.

    Maks' outburst was more about his annoyance with the judges than it was about anything to do with Hope. His outburst was a long time coming I felt. The 'secret memo' thing could have easily been a joke by Maks to instill a sense of fear in Hope to make her perform better. In 15 seasons of the show, Hope & Maks' relationship appeared to be the most destructive. Hope possibly just wants her revenge on the show especially since she was under the impression that she was better than what she was hence her constant backstage moaning about her scores.

    I could understand why someone who was fame hungry would make such claims but Hope is highly successful in her field of work and is not in need of further publicity. However, her book is controversial as a whole which makes me doubt the validity of her claims. She is trying to be shocking to gain attention I feel.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 949
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    I'm sure there are such rumours that circulate about who is eliminated each week but there is no reason why it would be rigged.. If you look at Season 13, each elimination made sense. Kristin and Chynna were eliminated too soon but they were not big characters or people who were well known while Chaz and Nancy stayed in longer than expected but they were arguably endearing performers.

    Maks' outburst was more about his annoyance with the judges than it was about anything to do with Hope. His outburst was a long time coming I felt. The 'secret memo' thing could have easily been a joke by Maks to instill a sense of fear in Hope to make her perform better. In 15 seasons of the show, Hope & Maks' relationship appeared to be the most destructive. Hope possibly just wants her revenge on the show especially since she was under the impression that she was better than what she was hence her constant backstage moaning about her scores.

    I could understand why someone who was fame hungry would make such claims but Hope is highly successful in her field of work and is not in need of further publicity. However, her book is controversial as a whole which makes me doubt the validity of her claims. She is trying to be shocking to gain attention I feel.

    Good points. Hope was a difficult partner in many ways and frustrated the heck out of Maks (as it would me). During their week 2 Jive rehearsals, Hope said she had soccer practice in the mornings and dancing rehearsals in the afternoon. Maks told her bluntly, "You'll be all free and ready to soccer practice in week 3." "Why week 3?," Hope asked. "Cause that's when we will get eliminated," Maks replied.

    But it's not hard to believe the basic truth of what she wrote because the proof is right there in three different clips from Weeks 7 and 8.

    - In the Group Paso Doble rehearsal clip, beginning at 1:20 we see Maks slap Hope's shoulder and drag her roughly around by her armpits. We see Rob and Cheryl's uncomfortable reaction. We hear swear words bleeped out and hear Hope ask Maks, "Can you stop?" as Maks shakes his head and replies "No!" We see Hope protest and watch Maks storm out the door and slam it shut. We hear Rob Kardashian say, "It's getting crazy in there, tensions are high." We see Derek go over to Hope, "Can you go here, baby?" and see Derek rehearsing the Paso with Hope and teaching her the routine. Just as Hope said.

    The following week, in their Quickstep rehearsal footage, we see Maks tell Hope at the 0:44 mark, "Last week was ridiculous. I will take full responsibility for being, you know, overly rough. It's 100 percent on me."

    Following their Quickstep performance, Brooke addresses the issue at the 6:58 mark, asking Hope, "Well you saw a gentler side of Maks this week. Do you think that helped to bring out a better dancer in you?" Hope tells Brooke, "You know, we hit the reset button and we are a new and improved team ready to go all the way." Brooke continues, "You also went to a family dinner with Maks. What did you learn about him from that experience?" Hope: "That he truly is a gentle soul. Nobody would know that but he has a lot of love in his heart."

    Hope wrote that the producers offered to give her a different partner. Kelly Monaco told Tom Bergeron during Season 9 that Alec Mazo was so difficult to work with that she called him "The Ice Man," and that producers offered her another partner. But was it a coincidence that Maks took Hope to a family dinner or was it directly related to the very rough way he'd treated her a few days earlier? You make the call but I bet it's the latter.

    Friends in the book publishing business say that booksellers often tell them, "If there's nothing sensational in it I can't buy it because I can't sell it!" So it may have been Hope's editor who played up that part more than Hope herself. I can't say because I don't know.

    But Maks is an emotional guy who has said things like he famously said of Kristi Yamaguchi, "A woman will never win this competition again," because women do all the voting and women will not vote for another woman, but for men with impressive chests. Yet Kristi not only won, but 5 more women won after her, so that now just as many women have won DWTS as men have. So he was wrong yet again. He also declared, "I will never speak to that person [Karina] again," but he has.

    He is such an emotional guy that he even said, when asked about Melissa Rycroft, "Tony [Dovolani' is my best friend, but if we're gonna call it what it is, it's very unfair because Melissa's a dancer — she was a cheerleader and did ballet. That's what I would love to end." He didn't mind at all that Kirstie Alley was well known in Hollywood for being a terrific dancer. [URL="http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/s92/dancingwiththestars/news/a317478/ted-danson-kirstie-alley-is-great-dancer.html"]To quote Ted Danson[/URL], "She's a really good dancer," Danson explained. "She was a great dancer on Cheers. [For] wrap parties, she was the girl to go dancing with. She's great."

    It all depends on whose ox is being gored.

    Do I think Maks told Hope that a secret memo circulated each week saying who was getting eliminated? Possibly. Do I think there has ever been any such memo? No.
  • fridgesoupfridgesoup Posts: 17,089
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    But it's not hard to believe the basic truth of what she wrote because the proof is right there in three different clips from Weeks 7 and 8.
    I'm not defending Maks - his relationship with Hope was clearly disfunctional, to say the least - but while I agree those clips make it easier to believe Hope (about the slap), video evidence of one incident of rough treatment is not proof that another, separate assault occurred.

    (fwiw, Hope claimed the slap was caught on video but not broadcast, and that Maks has seen it.http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/hope-solo-maks-chmerkovskiy-dwts-363927)
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 949
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    fridgesoup wrote: »
    I'm not defending Maks - his relationship with Hope was clearly disfunctional, to say the least - but while I agree those clips make it easier to believe Hope (about the slap), video evidence of one incident of rough treatment is not proof that another, separate assault occurred.

    (fwiw, Hope claimed the slap was caught on video but not broadcast, and that Maks has seen it.http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/hope-solo-maks-chmerkovskiy-dwts-363927)

    You're right. The Halloween rehearsal was the same week they rehearsed for the group Paso Doble where we saw Maks treat Hope roughly then storm out the door. Hope and Maks also had the Samba. Here's that rehearsal footage. I will defend Maks to a great degree because it's a tall order to get any celebrity ready in a few days to perform live before millions of people. I'm quite sure I would get very frustrated too, and probably lose my temper. I'd explain that up front and apologize in advance, but what is the alternative? To embarrass yourself and your celebrity with a substandard performance?

    While Hope may have exaggerated Maks' actions, I don't doubt her basic complaint. Maks was clearly fed up with her more than a few weeks. And that's not unusual. We saw Kellie tell Derek this season, "I don't hate you but I hate your ways." We didn't see what all he did to earn that comment, but I never doubted the truth of what Kellie said. In Season 7, we saw Brooke walk out on Derek and a little bit of their clash. But in the blog Brooke kept at the time, Brooke wrote it was so much worse than what was shown on TV. She even wrote in her book about it. Yet you see how close Brooke and Derek are. Publishers practically demand some sensational tidbits that authors may not be that eager to reveal publicly.

    Another reason I tend to believe Hope's basic complaint is the lengths producers went to in order to get Maks to apologize on camera, to take 100% responsibility for being "too rough," and to get him to take her home with him for a family dinner to see his softer side. I don't know that I would have aired any more details in a book, particularly since the contract the DWTS Cast signs specifically prohibits celebrities from talking about any behind-the-scenes details.

    Hope's a big girl. She didn't suffer any permanent or semi-permanent damage. IF he slapped her hard across the face, and we don't know that he did, it doesn't make her look good to whine about it after the fact.

    While I mostly defend Maks, when he gets emotional he can exaggerate himself, so I don't necessarily take either of their words as gospel. It's water over the dam. Once again, I know for a fact that book editors demand more and more sensational revelations because if they can't sell their books, they get remaindered.

    So much for Maks' dream partner being an Olympian. He and DWTS should learn by now that not all sports are equal. Tennis and volleyball players tend to be far less graceful than skaters, simply because their success depends on their ability to make quick, sharp movements--the opposite of graceful. The shortest distance between two points is a straight line, which is the stock in trade for tennis and volleyball players, while skaters require slower, controlled, graceful movements that are, by definition, less efficient.

    Maks made fun of Hope for not being graceful or feminine, and that's true, but that tomboy quality is also what made Hope and Misty May-Treanor so effective in volleyball and Monica Seles and Martina Navratilova so effective in tennis--but nearly hopeless on the dance floor compared to most any other celebrity, and miles from a Kristi Yamaguchi or Evan Lysacek. Guess the bottom line is be careful what you wish for. That said, I did enjoy some of Hope and Maks' dances such as their Foxtrot.
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