This article is from the source 'nytimes' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/12/arts/television/sean-spicer-dancing-with-the-stars.html
The article has changed 5 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 1 | Version 2 |
|---|---|
| Sean Spicer Eliminated From ‘Dancing With the Stars’ | |
| (32 minutes later) | |
| Sean Spicer tried to dance. He wore a floofy neon top. And for eight weeks, he withstood the mockery on social media and the icy commentary from unimpressed judges on ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars.” | |
| Finally, on Monday, not even President Trump’s support could save Mr. Spicer, and the president deleted a tweet that had asked TV voters to stave off the inevitable: The former White House press secretary was eliminated from the reality show, ending what somehow counts as a chapter in American politics. | |
| “I’ve loved being on this show, thank you for making me part of it,” Mr. Spicer said after being eliminated. | “I’ve loved being on this show, thank you for making me part of it,” Mr. Spicer said after being eliminated. |
| [“An untruthful dancer”: Read our dance critic’s review of Sean Spicer’s run on the show.] | [“An untruthful dancer”: Read our dance critic’s review of Sean Spicer’s run on the show.] |
| He clearly had a lot of fans, as evidenced by his remaining on the show into the final six contestants even after judges expressed dissatisfaction with his skills. But from the day he was announced as a contestant in August to his elimination on Monday, Mr. Spicer’s presence on the show grated on two groups of viewers: Those unforgiving of his stint as a White House spokesman, and those who like to watch good dancing. | He clearly had a lot of fans, as evidenced by his remaining on the show into the final six contestants even after judges expressed dissatisfaction with his skills. But from the day he was announced as a contestant in August to his elimination on Monday, Mr. Spicer’s presence on the show grated on two groups of viewers: Those unforgiving of his stint as a White House spokesman, and those who like to watch good dancing. |
| On the dancing front, he won over few admirers. The judges routinely criticized his performances and seemed to lose patience with fans voting to keep him around over more qualified contestants. His time on the show may be remembered mostly for the jet-engine-loud, lime-green shirt that he wore during the season premiere in September. | On the dancing front, he won over few admirers. The judges routinely criticized his performances and seemed to lose patience with fans voting to keep him around over more qualified contestants. His time on the show may be remembered mostly for the jet-engine-loud, lime-green shirt that he wore during the season premiere in September. |
| “He’s as stiff and two-dimensional as a sheet of cardboard, with feet that move as if stuck in slabs of cement and arms that look like they’re still gripping the lectern,” Gia Kourlas, the dance critic for The New York Times, wrote last week. | “He’s as stiff and two-dimensional as a sheet of cardboard, with feet that move as if stuck in slabs of cement and arms that look like they’re still gripping the lectern,” Gia Kourlas, the dance critic for The New York Times, wrote last week. |
| On the political front, many viewers and commentators had little desire to rehabilitate the image of an official whom they saw as a mouthpiece for the Trump administration’s dishonesty. | On the political front, many viewers and commentators had little desire to rehabilitate the image of an official whom they saw as a mouthpiece for the Trump administration’s dishonesty. |
| Still, Mr. Spicer appeared to relish the experience. His time on the show was supported by Mr. Trump, who on multiple occasions urged his vast number of Twitter followers to vote for the administration loyalist. | Still, Mr. Spicer appeared to relish the experience. His time on the show was supported by Mr. Trump, who on multiple occasions urged his vast number of Twitter followers to vote for the administration loyalist. |
| Mr. Trump deleted a tweet, sent before the episode aired on Monday, campaigning for Mr. Spicer to stay on the show, then sent a congratulatory message after his elimination. | Mr. Trump deleted a tweet, sent before the episode aired on Monday, campaigning for Mr. Spicer to stay on the show, then sent a congratulatory message after his elimination. |
| After a night that included an Argentine tango to “Bills, Bills, Bills” by Destiny’s Child and a foxtrot to “Story of My Life” by One Direction, Mr. Spicer’s time came to an end. He was among the bottom two contestants in votes from viewers, and the judges chose to send him home. | After a night that included an Argentine tango to “Bills, Bills, Bills” by Destiny’s Child and a foxtrot to “Story of My Life” by One Direction, Mr. Spicer’s time came to an end. He was among the bottom two contestants in votes from viewers, and the judges chose to send him home. |
| “I really thank you,” said Bruno Tonioli, one of the judges. “You’ve been such a good sport, you’ve been really entertaining.” | “I really thank you,” said Bruno Tonioli, one of the judges. “You’ve been such a good sport, you’ve been really entertaining.” |
| Mr. Spicer told People magazine that he was both “relieved in a way” and “somewhat disappointed” to be going home. | |
| He also thanked his fans and Mr. Trump, saying that the president’s support “means a lot.” | |
| “I appreciate his support and his continued friendship,” Mr. Spicer said. “I thank him for that.” | |
| Mr. Spicer was only the latest in a long procession of public figures who have sought to use “Dancing With the Stars” to portray themselves in a more flattering light. We took a look back: | |
| Paula Deen, the self-proclaimed queen of Southern cooking, was dropped from the Food Network and lost a book deal after acknowledging in a deposition that she had used racist language, condoned pornography in the workplace and tolerated racist jokes in the past. | |
| A few months later — after she drew criticism again because her son had posed for a photo in brownface — ABC announced that Ms. Deen would be joining the show. | |
| When greeting her partner, Louis Van Amstel, she grabbed his head and told him to “put your head on mommy’s bosom.” | |
| The producers of the show allowed Ms. Deen to skip the usual script, and she did not say, exactly, why she was on the show. “I’m probably most known for cooking,” she said instead. | |
| After six weeks of competition, she was voted off after flailing her way through Madonna’s “Vogue.” | |
| “I’m so excited,” Ms. Deen responded when the host, Tom Bergeron, broke the news that she was out. “I get to go see my grandbabies.” | |
| In August 2016, the swimmer Ryan Lochte set off a controversy in Brazil after he reported being robbed at gunpoint during the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, only for his story to turn out to be fake. | |
| Mr. Lochte apologized and lost the support of several of his sponsors. He was also suspended for 10 months from domestic and international swimming competition. | |
| “I’ve been in the media for the wrong reasons,” Mr. Lochte said during the preamble to his first appearance on “Dancing With the Stars,” which aired in mid-September. “This is my second chance and I don’t want to blow it.” | |
| Then he performed the Foxtrot with his dancing partner, Cheryl Burke, to “Call Me Irresponsible,” wearing perhaps the most clothing he had ever worn in competition. | |
| As the judges were handing out their verdicts, protesters shouted “Liar!” and at least one rushed the stage wearing an anti-Lochte T-shirt. | |
| Mr. Lochte was not physically harmed, but the swimmer said his feelings were “a little hurt.” | |
| In the eighth week of the show, after rumba-ing, cha-cha-ing, and quickstepping, Mr. Lochte was given the boot, despite receiving that night’s highest score. | |
| “Now that the show is over for me I can sit down, take a deep breath and start thinking about the wedding,” he told People Magazine about his nuptials to the Playboy model Kayla Rae Reid. | |
| The former House majority leader Tom DeLay, who resigned from Congress after being indicted on charges of money laundering and violating campaign finance laws, became the show’s first professional politician (if you don’t count the former Cincinnati mayor turned talk-show host Jerry Springer). | |
| The show’s executive producer at the time, Conrad Green, said Mr. DeLay did not require convincing to join the show in 2009. | |
| “Within 10 minutes, we were done,” Mr. Green said. | |
| Mr. Delay, also known as “the Hammer,” said he was worried about “embarrassing” himself. Nevertheless, he donned a brown suit trimmed with sequins, lip-synced to “Wild Thing” and slid across the stage on his knees. | |
| One of the panelists, Bruno Tonioli, said Mr. DeLay was “crazier than Sarah Palin.” | |
| “I got bigger critics than those judges,” Mr. DeLay quipped. | |
| But after experiencing stress fractures in both of his feet, Mr. DeLay withdrew from the show. | |
| In 2011, Mr. DeLay was sentenced to three years in prison, a verdict that was later reversed. | |
| Long before the conservative television pundit Tucker Carlson was excoriated for calling white supremacy a “hoax,” he was pilloried by Jon Stewart, the former host of The Daily Show,” in a 2004 segment on CNN’s “Crossfire.” | |
| In 2005, CNN cut ties with Mr. Carlson and canceled its long-running daily political discussion program, “Crossfire.” | |
| About a year later, Mr. Carlson signed onto the third season of “Dancing With the Stars.” | |
| “I’m not defending it as the smartest choice,” he told The Washington Post. “But I think it’s the most interesting.” | |
| Mr. Carlson’s dance partner, Elena Grinenko, said teaching him the moves was “like Einstein teaching addition to a slow child.” | |
| In their first (and last) prime-time cha-cha, Ms. Grinenko ripped the bow tie from the neck of his white dress shirt at the beginning of the act (Mr. Carlson has not been spotted with one since), but the judges said that was the best part of the performance. | |
| “What an awful mess,” Mr. Tonioli said. “It looked like you were sitting on a toilet.” | |
| Mr. Carlson was the first contestant to go. | |
| About seven years later, Mr. Carlson told Slate that the show “allows celebrities to say, ‘I understand I’ve been knocked off my perch.’” | |
| The show’s producers “are able to ensure that you may look slightly silly, but you’ll never really humiliate yourself,” he added. “It’s a Nerf environment.” |