Oh, I do, too. I was cheering her on. It was just that something had changed in the past two weeks - the competition had certainly gotten harder, but she had been doing great before that.
When she fell, the judge Carrie Ann said she thought it was a great reminder to everyone what kind of difficulties Heather had been working with. It was not a “demerit” in any way. (It was after the dance, anyway.)
But then I noticed the strap being so prominent in her last two weeks of dances, and quite distractingly so, not even wrapped with matching fabric or a scarf or something. Just a big white wraparound thing like a neck collar.
And then when they did their first group dance that was shown “last night” (whenever they actually tape it, I don’t know), Joey Fatone said something about how he was sorry Heather couldn’t be there for it.
They just had a little while to all rehearse and get their costumes. The dance was a swing number (vintage-type GI’s and USO girl outfits - I loved it!) and at first, I couldn’t see Heather in it.
Then when I would think I had spotted her, the camera would move to someone else, never staying on her at all. Finally, at the very end, there she was, just doing fine, from what I could see. It was repeated tonight and I noticed the same thing - as if she had come in towards the end of it - but she was in it and did two great lifts.
So, is the judging or grading cumulative or or is it independent week to week? It must be independent because If it was cumulative, it seems she got big points early on and that should have sustained her through a lukewarm week or two.
I just have to scratch my head because Billy Ray Cyrus looked like he was dancing with steel toed boots (bless his heart!) in every clip I saw ~LOL!
I have to give them “all” credit, because I have heard that they really go through rigorous training—almost like a boot camp and they really give a lot of themselves to do this show.