Tuesday, October 2, 2007

UPDATED: Dancing with the Stars Mark Cuban watch: Week Two

By April Powell

Updated 08:22 a.m., October 3, 2007

UPDATE: Somehow, despite his low judges score, Cuban was saved by the fans and will be back next week.

Mark Cuban and professional partner Kym Johnson presented their second dance performance Monday, October 1 on ABC's Dancing with the Stars. They danced the Mambo to a cover of rapper Nelly's "Ride With Me." Having criticized Cuban's Raggedy-Andy tailcoat last week, I'll say that his Monday-night basic black ensemble was an improvement, with a sleeveless shirt being the only cheese-ball element.

Cuban's performance earned him three sixes from the judges, a thee-point drop from last week's score of 21. The judges praised Cuban for his hours of practice during the past week (which Cuban details on his blog). But the judges also had criticism. Said judge Bruno Tonioli: "It was like watching a bulldog chasing a squirrel." Judge Carrie Ann Inaba again pointed out Cuban's apparent inability to refrain from singing along with the song while dancing, a persistent distraction in his performance.

Cuban is not a natural for this style of dancing, despite his competitive personality, and it will probably take more than just hard work to keep him in the competition much longer. His judges' score this week places him much closer to the bottom of the pack ("Mr. Las Vegas" Wayne Newton's score of 15) than he was last week, when he just barely escaped elimination.

After seeing Cuban present two dances, I've decided that he really reminds me of singer/actor Billy Ray Cyrus, from last season's competition. Like Cyrus, Cuban just never looks quite "right" in his dance performances, despite obvious enthusiasm and long hours of practice. But, unfortunately for Cuban, he does not have a tween-princess daughter like Billy Ray does, or a co-starring role on her popular Disney television series to help him garner enough viewer votes to overcome his lackluster judges' scores.

Tune in to the results show Tuesday, October 2 at 8 pm to see if Cuban will hang on another week.

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