Ding! Ding! Round 2 of the ongoing battle between Dancing with the Stars judges Brendan Cole and Craig Revel-Horwood continued in this week’s third episode.
Not only do the pair frequently disagree with each other but they make such a song and dance over the whole thing. They both have a habit of prefacing all their comments with, “I disagree with… [insert Craig or Brendan]” although the habit is more pronounced in Craig. Is it not possible for them to comment without drawing attention to the fact that they disagree with each other? And, why does Brendan appear to have it in for Tina Cross? Greer Robson speculates that it has something to do with the personal history between Aaron Gilmore and Brendan. Aaron used to partner Brendan’s sister Vanessa Cole in competitive dancing when he lived in Australia.
The most recent argument broke out during the third episode when the judges critiqued Tina Cross doing the Jive with Aaron. Brendan bagged the performance saying it was stiff, hard and frantic and didn’t have the jive essence. Later, Craig said Brendan was wrong; Brendan interrupted and spoke over the top of Craig, who told him to “shut it”.
CRH: I think Brendan is speaking a load of rubbish, to be honest. [Doesn’t he always?]
BC: Is that from your technical background? [Ooh, sarcasm]
CRH: You’ve had your turn Brendan. You can just shut it for a moment. [That's just rude.]
BC: Please, darling. [More sarcasm, although this one made Miss Prozac chuckle]
CRH: It had all three fantastic elements – performance, technique and a great partnership. [Very certain he’s right, as always]
BC: Once again Craig shows his lack of technical understanding. [Sulking now]
The resulting scores for the performance were Brendan 5, Alison 8, Craig 9, Paul 9 so Brendan was clearly the dissenting vote on this occasion. He was also somewhat sarcastic with his “Please, darling” mimicking Craig’s appalling habit of saying darling, and the once again…
Looking at the other Jives of the evening, Brendan gave a score of 7 to
Monty Betham, 8 to
Temepara George, and 5 to
Cory Hutchings. The latter was the only performance on which the pair agreed with Brendan saying, “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but Craig was right, it was a bit rough.”
There is simply no way that Tina’s Jive should be awarded the same low score as Cory's. Surfing Dude Cory looked cute, and he appeared to be enjoying his routine more than Tina. He deserves points for that, as he made an emotional connection with the audience and a lust connection with Miss Prozac, but his timing was out and the technique was mediocre.
Verdict:In
Round 1 it was a narrow victory to Craig. We were hoping Brendan would come back strongly in Round 2 but it didn’t happen. Craig provoked him by saying he was speaking "a load of rubbish" and Brendan rose to the bait. Why can't Craig disagree nicely, like Paul Mercurio does? Craig won by default, despite his rudeness.
We agree with Brendan that Tina needed to loosen up in her Jive. Brendan’s a Latin American specialist and we usually agree with his comments, but you can’t go talking over the top of your other judges. We’re also concerned he’s so harsh on Tina.
Another victory to Craig bringing the score to 2-Nil
Photos: TVNZ
Dancing with the Stars and Strictly Come Dancing judge Craig Revel-Horwood reveals in his forthcoming autobiography All Balls and Glitter that he worked as a prostitute and drag queen in his teens.
Miss Prozac was just listening to 
The judges for 
In last week's 
