Dancing towards travesty

I will freely admit that I am not a regular viewer or a fan of Dancing With the Stars or any of the current crop of reality shows. Dancing finishes its current cycle on Tuesday, but if the results leading up to this point have been any indication, we're in for the worst finish in the series' history.

The problem centers on Alaska teenager Bristol Palin, daughter of the former governor, Sarah Palin. The younger Palin has repeatedly had the lowest scores, but has been saved by audience vote week after week. One poster on Toon Zone's message board noted that there are people using false e-mail addresses in order to enter multiple votes for Bristol, doing everything possible to extend the family's 15 minutes of fame.

It doesn't help that TLC just launched Sarah Palin's Alaska, as if the former Vice Presidential candidate and Tea Party darling needs any more face time. The Tea Party, clearly, is stuffing the phone lines in support of Bristol, at the expense of more talented performers such as singer-actress Brandy Norwood (ex-Moesha) and former NFL QB Kurt Warner, late of the Arizona Cardinals. Actor Kyle Massey (ex-That's So Raven) is also in the finals, and I believe the other spot went to Jennifer Grey ("Dirty Dancing"). The producers are doing nothing to stop the "ballot stuffing", which only increases the chances of Bristol winning on Tuesday. If she wins, it will be the biggest travesty to hit Dancing since singer Drew Lachey upset NFL Hall of Famer Jerry Rice and former WWE diva Stacy Keibler in 2006.

Usually, one of the supermarket tabloids will headline that a show like Dancing is fixed in favor of a certain contestant. I haven't seen that yet this season, when it looks more obvious that there is a fix in the voting. Maybe they're waiting until it's over this time, so they don't look like the collective boy who cried wolf. If they're lucky, common sense and justice will prevail on Tuesday, unless Bristol finds a glass slipper and proves her detractors wrong on Monday.