“TO JUSTIFY WATCHING THE SHOW, THEY KEEP THE WORST PERSON ON, THEN CLAIM THEY’RE ONLY WATCHING BECAUSE ‘IT’S A TRAIN WRECK.’ “
IF you’re wondering just how Master P has lasted on “Dancing with the Stars” this long, you’re not alone.
The hip-hip mogul, who stepped into his “Dancing” shoes to replace his injured son, Li’l Romeo, hasn’t broken much of a sweat on the ABC reality show as he appears to sleepwalk through his dance routines with little enthusiasm or panache.
Yet week after week, despite being lambasted by the show’s judges, Master P continues to flourish – especially with the show’s fans.
He’s even inspired a Web site, keep-p-dancing.com.
So what’s behind all the love?
“I think it’s twofold. There are a lot of people watching ‘Dancing’ who loathe themselves and never thought they’d be caught up in such a sequined show,” says Kennedy, who hosts “Reality Remix” on the Fox Reality Channel.
“So, in order to justify watching the show, they keep the worst person on, then claim they’re only watching because ‘It’s a train wreck.’
“And one of the downfalls of having a democratically voted-upon show, where viewers decide [who stays] is that you’re always going to have a computer programmer out there who’s smart enough to create a Web site or rig the system so the worst person stays on the show.”
Reality-show expert Andy Dehnart, who runs reality-
blurred.com and writes a column for msnbc.com, thinks that the mystery of Master P’s longevity is an authority thing.
“I think there’s definitely a backlash against the judges,” Dehnart says. “When the ‘Idol’ judges, for example, go after someone, many fans get obsessed about keeping that contestant on the show.
“On the first season [of ‘Dancing’] the judges were more responsible for getting contestants booted off the show.
“Now, the public might just be telling the judges that, ‘It’s our turn. We don’t care what you think.’ ”
But he also brings something to the show, Dehnart says.
“There are other couples [on the show] who are less entertaining to watch, and he’s sort of survived because of their failure,” Dehnart says.
“And while reality-show success stories draw people into shows, viewers really like to watch people who fail. Fox wouldn’t be airing nine hours of ‘American Idol‘ auditions if that wasn’t true.”