What-the-heck is Going on on "Dancing with the Stars" This Season?

"Dancing with the Stars" is down to the final three contestants, and what a complete miscarriage of justice THIS season has been. Based on the contestants who started the season, the finalists (with 3 remaining) should be Brandy, Jennifer Grey and either Rick Fox or Kurt Warner.

It was fair to kick Michael Bolton off early. The doghouse-dancing bit he did was bad.

But the thing I cannot understand, after watching each and every episode, is why Judge Carrie Anne Inouba glows on and on about how great Kyle Massey is. He's not. Yes, he comes out and enthusiastically tries -- (although trying often means planting his feet while his partner Lacey Schwimmer does a lot of fancy footwork around him.) But Kyle is a chubby munchkin who should go back to "Who's So Raven?" I wonder if the Disney organization is keeping him up there in the competition? Failing that, what does Carrie Ann find so appealing about Kyle's pedestrian plodding?

The worst dancer has to be Bristol "the Pistol" Palin, but the Tea Party fanatics seem to be voting en masse for this step-challenged contestant. My favorite night was the night she wore a gorilla suit with a pink tutu and completely forgot her steps, wandering around out there blank as a fart. She also appears to be about twice as big as her partner, which is off-putting. She's a substantial lass. And the choice of a partner could have been someone equally large. They've paired a St. Bernard with a Chihuahua.

I watched the first three seasons of "Dancing with the Stars" faithfully -- until Mario Lopez was voted off and Emmit Smith was declared the winner. I call that being "Lopez-ed." Not good. There are many contestants this year who have been "Lopez-ed," including the gorgeous Audrina Patridge and singing star Brandy. It's true that Audrina often presented as an Ice Princess unattached emotionally to her moves, but she was one hundred times better than either Bristol Palin or Kyle Massey on their best day.

After the Mario Lopez year (and he went on to dance on Broadway), I became only a sporadic watcher, as I felt a huge miscarriage of justice had been done. It wasn't fair. The voting was "rigged." Only this year, while waiting for "American Idol" to surface again, did I venture back to "DWTS."

And now I'm sorry I did.

I said, to my best friend after the first show (who has watched each and every season faithfully), "Why don't they just give the prize to Jennifer Grey and let the rest of the scrubs divide up whatever else is left after they give her that cheesy silver ball?"

Friend Pam said, "Oh, no. You never know if her body will hold up throughout the competition, and some of the lesser dancers can improve (and blah, blah, blah)." Yes, that's true. And monkeys may fly out of my butt if anyone on this show surpasses her skill -- even the excellent Brandy, who is now gone (with Jennifer possibly to follow.) Some force(s) beyond the control of the show have taken over the entire process (Disney? The Tea Party?) and have ruined it for the really good dancers. I am appalled -- for the second time. I can only imagine how athletes like Rick Fox and Kurt Warner would feel if, during their respective careers, such injustices were administered on the playing field(s) or basketball court(s), week after week. There probably would have been a government investigation.

At this point, given the unfairness of who has been let go, whom Judge Carrie Ann (in particular) has been crowing over, week after week, and what other unfair things have surfaced, I wouldn't expect Jennifer Grey to win, but she should.

When Chris Daughtry was eliminated well before his shelf date on "American Idol" the show, in response to what was obviously a miscarriage of justice, began the practice of using the one-time "Judges' save." Maybe that is an idea whose time has come for "DWTS." It could have been used to "save" Brandy, who deserved it.

I would say that the votes of the judges, who are supposed to be the experts, should count for more than votes from the audience, but I'm not sure that Judge Carrie Ann is not, somehow, in the pocket of the Kyle Massey camp. Maybe she's currying favor with Disney. Who knows? It's certainly not Kyle's great dancing ability. And I'm really sick and tired of all the "I'm dedicating this to AIDS" stuff. Please. Just let them dance already.

But the extremely unfair part is, at this point, having either Kyle or Bristol involved at all. Many of those who left were better (Brandy, Audrina Patridge, Kurt Warner, Rick Fox). I quit watching the show after the Mario Lopez miscarriage of justice, which, I believe, was Season 3. I came back, and now I'm sorry.

I'm sick of the "Disease of the Week," bit and all the backstage drama the show's producers attempt to inject. For crying out loud, just let the dancers dance, and, for the love of God and fairness, figure out a way that the best dancers end up in the finals. I did decide to see if I could even call through to vote, just as an experiment (my very first time ever) and the answer, for Jennifer Grey, was that AT&T said the call could not go through as dialed. There was a similar brouhaha when Adam Lambert lost to the young man from Conway, Arkansas, and it was discovered that a large phone bank had been set up to aid Chris in beating Adam. I'm wondering where these phone banks are for Kyle and Bristol, because there is no way that they are winning on superior talent. Any idiot can see that for himself or herself. Sure, Bristol has improved. When you start so far down that you can't find up, it isn't that hard.

All in all, if they don't do some "revising" of the show's judging criteria, I think that the show will lose many viewers, as it will me (for the second time).