The booing started as Palin was getting to her seat. You can see the surprise of Derek, Jennifer and Brooke, they had no idea what was going on "out there." It wasn't instantaneous with the score delivery, but seconds later. Something else was going on, and it happened as Sarah Palin was being led to her front row seat. It died down when host Tom Bergeron sat next to her to give her face time.
I wouldn't have booed her, but it was gross having her forced on us like that and it spoiled the show for many... check the twitter feeds. Viewers also had to sit through an interview at Palin's house in Alaska. Enough to make one gag. Tom DeLay didn't get this much time when he was a contestant and he was a personality in his own right, unlike Bristol, who only got the part because her mother is famous and divisive. (And Tom DeLay was personable and likable, despite his politics. Sarah Palin is not.)
The show is called "Dancing With the Stars" because the contestants are supposed to have been famous or infamous in their own right at one time. As Palin's partner said tonight, Palin went right from working in a dermatologist's office in Alaska to Hollywood and had never danced a step in her life. His words, not mine. She should never have been cast.
We're also stuck with Bristol for a while, because Michael Bolton and Florence Henderson and maybe Mike the Situation will go home first.
Tom Bergeron on Jimmy Kimmel last night tried to say the audience was booing because Jennifer and Derek got 8's and they thought she should have gotten 9's. He could barely keep a straight face with that one. Kimmel asked him if he was "sure about that." He smiled like he had been caught, and said, "Mostly." And then he told Jimmy most of the audience is drunk anyway. Nice, Tom. Bash the fans who stood outside in 113 degree heat for hours waiting on line to get inside.
DWTS should stay out of politics. It's not what we tune in for and it's Bristol, not Sarah, who's competing. It's more than enough to show Sarah's beaming face in the audience a few times, like they do the other proud parents. There's no need to make us listen to her. I would have much rather heard what Brad Womack had to say about returning to be the next Bachelor, and all he got was five seconds.
On a positive note, I loved watching Margaret Cho's proud and beaming parents. They didn't even need an interview, they just radiated it. Like the Osborne's last year.
