Ox Notes: November 26, 2007

An article at People.com elaborated on how the winner of Dancing with the Stars 5 will be determined. The final three couples will dance two routines -- freestyle and judges' choice -- at tonight's Performance Show, and fans will vote. At the Results Show Tuesday night, one couple will be eliminated, and the top two couples will perform a routine of their choice. That routine will be scored by the judges, and the judges' scores will be combined with the fans' votes to determine the winner.

In the same article, Cheryl Burke says she thinks Melanie Brown should win: "When she and Maks dance they have such incredible chemistry. It’s hot and steamy and that’s what ballroom is all about."

Another dancer who agrees with Cheryl is Maksim Chmerkovskiy, naturally. He discussed his competitors in an interview with Extra, and said that he doesn't think Marie Osmond deserves to be in the finale: "I think Jennie was better than Marie. Frankly, I think there are a lot of other people better than Marie."

Maks elaborated: "I know first hand that there are a lot of other celebrities on the show who went through somewhat similar situations this season and they decided not to make it public… we decided not to burden people with our personal issues."

One of Melanie Brown's issues has been juggling rehearsals for the Spice Girls tour with rehearsals for DwtS, and some of the other Spice Girls are reportedly worried that Mel will be low on energy when the tour starts. The Girls might get more done during rehearsals without interruptions by Tom Cruise & Katie Holmes.

Marie Osmond's blog has photos from last weeks' shows. Jonathan Roberts had to practice their Mambo wearing Cameron Mathison's Superman shirt because his own shirt with tear-away sleeves wasn't ready until just before showtime.

Dancing with the Stars is the most-watched English-language program in Hispanic households, although its numbers pale against those of the top ten Spanish-language programs. My personal most-watched Spanish-language program is Sabado Gigante, of course.

And the end of one season of DwtS means the beginning of speculation on the next season's participants. One of the first names being thrown out for DwtS 6? Ice Skater Kristi Yamaguchi.