Is "Dancing with the Stars" Really a Dancing Competition or Just Another Popularity Contest?

This year's "Dancing With The Stars" has been full of surprises, drama, upsets, and intrigue. There is little doubt that this fall group of celebrity dancers has been strong and it certainly looks like there is every possibility that the women will finally break the men's long running winning streak. But is DWTS actually a dancing competition or is it just another popularity contest?

That question has certainly been asked many times over the show's history. Most of us are still stinging from the first year's repeat "dance off" which Kelly Monaco agreed to in order to stop the hate mail she was receiving from John O'Hurley fans. The show was nothing more than a publicity stunt for the show (and O'Hurley) and Monaco showed a tremendous amount of grace and humility in the end.

Monaco got to keep her hard earned trophy while O'Hurley got "dance off" bragging rights and a much needed boost for his career. Hopefully, everyone in both camps ended up happy.

Round two offered some pretty good contestants but also had its share of duds. Master P, a last minute replacement, should have been eliminated earlier than he was. Neither he nor Kenny Mayne put much effort into their dancing, making it hard on their professional partners to put on any kind of show.

While Tatum O'Neal was by no means my favorite dancer (or celebrity), her early ouster made it clear that popularity had much more to do with fan votes than dancing capability. Tia Carrere was a far better dancer than George Hamilton, yet she too suffered from few fan votes because she had been absent from television and film for quite some time.

While I seriously loved everything about Jerry Rice, in truth, the final two should have been Drew Lachey and Lisa Rinna. They were the two best dancers by far. However, Lisa's fan base simply wasn't strong enough to propel her into the finals.

Of course everything worked out well in the end. Lachey was the show's best dancer and everyone seemed happy to let him take home the mirror ball trophy.