Nancy Grace: Who's voting for her on DWTS?
Is it time for Nancy Grace's exit on Dancing with the stars? After her disastrous jive last night, judge Len Goodman seemed to think so. "For me, you've had kind of a Cinderella story here," he told Ms. Grace. "But it's midnight and it's time to go home."
Grace's scores for her jive (20 point) and earlier tango (24) earned her a lowly 44 out of 60: by far the lowest score of the evening, and a full 16 points behind leader J.R. Martinez and his partner, Karina Smirnoff, who earned a perfect 60 out of 60 on the night.
Grace's on-screen persona wouldn't seem to be doing her any favors, either: her treatment of partner Tristan McManus in last night's rehearsal footage was so volatile that host Tom Bergeron quipped "[Mr. McManus] doesn't have a full-time job, but he should get hazard pay."
Are you actually acting tired?" Grace snapped at McManus. "You don't have twins that get up at 5, and you don't have a full-time job and I do!"
"I'm tired of you," MacManus retorted.
"Well I'm tired of you too, so there!" she shouted back.
Still, like Chaz Bono did before her, Grace is apparently skating by on viewer votes alone. It’s possible that she is dipping into the votership of some of the eliminated contestants like Bono and Carson Kressley. More likely, though, her higher votes over better contestants, like David Arquette, who was eliminated last week, has to do with the fact that she has more day-to-day visibility than almost any other contestant on Dancing With the Stars.
Grace’s eponymous current affairs TV program airs every weekday on HLN, and her regular ratings are among the network’s highest (In the wake of the verdict in the Casey Anthony murder trial in July, Grace’s show pulled in 2.9 million viewers – her best showing ever). So, she has a daily platform to campaign for DWTS votes, and she’s been doing it (Grace’s partner McManus and eliminated contestant Carson Kressley have both been guests on “Nancy Grace”). Since she has continual opportunities to remind her viewers to vote for her, they are more likely to do so.
Mr. Arquette, by contrast, isn’t appearing on TV regularly in any capacity other than on “Dancing with the Stars,” so his campaigning opportunities were relatively few.
How far Grace’s viewership can take her in the competition remains to be seen. After Monday's low scores, her fans will have to really rally to keep her in it.
