Rematch gave ‘Dancing’ its rhythm back

O'Hurley won in the end, but everyone got to enjoy the spotlight

	Actor John O'Hurley and his professional dancing partner Charlotte Jorgensen competed earlier this week ABC's "Dancing with the Stars Dance Off." After the competition resulted in a tie, it came down to viewers' choices.
Adam Larkey / ABC via Reuters

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COMMENTARY

By Craig Berman

msnbc.com contributor

updated 11:28 p.m. ET Sept. 22, 2005

It's hard to win a rematch, especially when the winner is decided by the fans. The original also-ran always comes out with something to prove, and works a little bit harder to get that edge. And America loves an underdog.

That proved to be the case in ABC's “Dancing with the Stars” dance-off, a program that went according to script, from the first cha-cha-cha Tuesday night to the final minutes of the stretched-out results show Thursday. The stars shone, the audience burned up the phone lines, and John O'Hurley (J. Peterman of “Seinfeld” fame) and professional dance partner Charlotte Jorgensen eked out a close victory over soap-opera star Kelly Monaco and professional dancer Alec Mazo. According to the show's hosts, less than one percent of the vote separated the two pairs.

Monaco and Mazo were the original winners when the show ended its summer run in July, but the controversial finish — and more importantly, the resulting buzz that left the ABC brass convinced that bringing the couples together again would draw a large-enough audience to make the effort worthwhile — made a rematch inevitable. The roles were reversed this time: Monaco the champion, annoyed at the need to defend herself for the title she earned; O'Hurley the hungry challenger, who acted like he watched the tape of his defeat every morning for motivation.

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The dance-off didn't make anyone forget about the Super Bowl, or even the “American Idol” winner. It might not even prompt “Monaco-O'Hurley III — The Dance War to Settle the Score” (though if any of ABC's new shows go into the tank quickly, that would be a natural way to fill a couple of hours).

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Nor were the stakes particularly high. The grand prize wound up being a $126,000 donation to O'Hurley's designated charity, Golfers against Cancer, while Monaco got $124,000 for the Bush-Clinton Hurricane Katrina fund. In other words, O'Hurley got a whopping $2,000 more for his victory than he would have for coming in second.

But this really wasn't about the charity. Instead, this summer battle of B-list celebrities really became something of a competition, summed up nicely in the shows final moments when Monaco stood sullenly, her hands clasped, unable to bring herself to clap for O'Hurley's win.

CONTINUED : Everyone wins, sort of

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