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This week's Dance War began with Team Carrie Ann performing for a couple of minutes to the Spice Girls "Spice Up Your Life". The dancing was fairly good but the lip-syncing was atrocious. Somebody really needs to teach these kids how to do this properly.

After their performance, we (the viewing audience) were treated to 23+ minutes of recaps over what happened last week. I could have read my recap of last week's episode many many many times over if I was really that interested. First, they recapped the guys and then the girls. They showed us how the teams were picked. All of this with several commercial interruptions. I could hear the remotes, from what few people had been tuned in, tuning out at 30 minutes after the hour. Can you say boring? Can you say dull? Can you say sucky?

I understand the networks have to pad their programming because of the writers strike but this was just ridiculous. If they're having to work this hard with so many people to fill out a show that's going to be lasting an hour-and-a-half, I'm afraid of what they'll be doing each week from here on out as people are kicked off.

Besides the stretching of time, the actual singing is almost non-existent on this show. I'd noticed the lip-syncing in the prior two episodes but the first team performance that I was able to watch before the recapping redux was nothing short of embarrassing. This was supposed to be a singing AND dancing competition. If it's going to be a lip-syncing while dancing competition then just say so up front and stop trying to lead the viewers on. I don't care if they can sing standing still or while swaying back and forth on the stage. That's not what the show's supposed to be about.

Scrubbing my bathtub with a toothbrush amidst deadly fumes from ammonia and bleach would have been more fun than wasting precious seconds of my life on this awfully bloated show.

Hooking the car battery up to my nipples and having my worst enemy turn the key would have had to have felt better than the way I felt watching the first first half hour of Dance War this week.

I don't care who wins. I'm over. I'm done. Enough of this stupid show!

This week's episode of Dance War: Bruno vs. Carrie Ann was better than last week's but not by much. The show opened with the 16 finalists performing a routine to a medley of music that included Michael Jackson's "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" and Peaches & Herb's "Shake Your Groove Thing". The dancing was good I'll give them that but there was too much background vocals!

After Carrie Ann and Bruno took their seats in the cushy chairs at the side of the stage, Drew Lachey informed us that one girl and one guy would be leaving this evening. The guys and girls both would perform as groups first and then in numbers that would emphasize solos next.

The guys' group performance was good but I had no idea who was who because they wouldn't put captions up on the screen. Carrie Ann and Bruno both thought they did a good job. Carrie Ann said she thought Bradley and Zack stood out while Bruno liked Chris and Tony. After this, then they spotlighted the guys and told us a little bit more about them. I thought that was stupid but whatever.

The first spotlight on the guys included Maxx (works on his family's farm), Qis (had wanted to be a professional football player), Chris (his mother has multiple sclerosis), and Bradley (his older brother dances on Broadway). After watching their interviews, they sang and danced to the Backstreet Boys hit "Larger Than Life". The dancing was good and the vocals were just OK. There's something hinky going on though because I could swear their lips weren't matching up with the music all the time. I thought this was a singing contest too?

The final spotlight on the guys was with Zack (he's studying to be a dentist and his brother has Down Syndrome), Tony (been in Los Angeles over a year trying to make it big), and Phillip (doesn't have much dance training and loves sports). They performed "Hard To Handle" by The Black Crowes. This group was definitely better than the first group and Carrie and Bruno thought so as well. Carrie Ann thought the strongest voice this time around was Phillip.

Bruno and Carrie then chose two guys each for their teams schoolyard style. Carrie Ann's envelope said she got first pick and she chose Bradley. Bruno chose Zack and Carrie Ann then chose Chris. Bruno chose Tony as his second guy and that left Maxx, Phillip, and Qis to wait around until the end of the show to see which one of them would be going home. I must say that during Carrie Ann and Bruno's picking, their "acting" was so over-the-top it was hilarious -- and not in a good way.

It was time for the girls to perform as a group now and they chose "Bad Girls" by Donna Summer. The dancing was a bit rough and the lip-syncing issue came up with them as well. Bruno loved them and thought Lacey, Mariel, and Kelsey were the best. Carrie Ann thought that Elizabeth had improved a great deal in her dancing and called Corina out for being off balance.

The first spotlight on the girls included Kelsey (in dance training since an early age), Corina (same as Kelsey), Allysa (took a friend to the DW auditions and decided to try out at the last minute), and Charity (she teaches ballet to little girls and her father is a Contemporary Christian singer). They performed Sonny & Cher's "The Beat Goes On". Their outfits (especially the boots) were the best part of the routine as I thought their singing and dancing to be boring and lame. Carrie Ann thought Allysa and Kelsey stood out while Bruno also loved Kelsey.

The last girls spotlight was with Mariel (grandmother sick with cancer), Lacey (uses this as her stage name and is a choir director at her church), and Elizabeth (was adopted). They performed "Lady Marmalade" by Patti LaBelle. Like the guys, this second group was way better than the first group. Bruno and Carrie Ann loved them and Bruno thought Mariel especially did a great job.

Bruno was able to pick first from the girls and chose Lacey to be his diva. Carrie Ann picked Mariel and then Bruno picked Kelsey. Carrie Ann picked Elizabeth as her second lady leaving Corina, Charity, and Allysa wondering which among them would be packing their bags.

Then, both of the leftover three groups performed one last time to try to win the judges over and get the remaining spots on their teams. The girls performed "Survivor" by Destiny's Child and the guys performed Boyz II Men's "End Of The Road". I thought the guys did much better than the girls on this one!

Bruno was first to pick again and chose Phillip and Charity to complete his team. Carrie Ann chose Qis and Allysa to round out her team. Of course, that means that Maxx and Corina would be going home. Both said they were disappointed but had a great experience. Like they would say anything else!

Next week, the voting begins and the dance war is on! I'll probably watch next week's just to see how the show is going to go with each team performing as a cohesive unit. Depending on how good it is, I'll watch the week after that.

What did you think of the show this week? Will you be voting next week?

I'm not really quite sure what I'd like to say about this week's premiere episode of Dance War. Was it great? Certainly not. Was it good? No. Was it awful? Not quite. Was it bad? Yes. I will cut the show some slack though because it was an audition show. I absolutely can't stand audition shows so it's very likely that I wasn't watching it with an open mind. But let's go through what happened anyway.

The show started off live in Hollywood with Drew Lachey telling us that the intent of the show is to create the ultimate super group made up of performers who can sing and dance. (98 Degrees plus Pussycat Dolls anybody?) Anyway, he then introduced Carrie Ann Inaba and Bruno Tonioli as the team captains and went over who they've worked with in the past. At that, I just have to stop and say something . Nowhere in Carrie Ann and Bruno's illustrious past did Drew mention them having a vocal background -- it was all related to dancing. Remember that because it's important. Drew then told us that 30 performers would be chosen in the auditions to go to Hollywood (how American Idol) and from the Hollywood callbacks only 14 would make it as finalists on to the show at the end of tonight.

The first set of auditions was held in Central Park in New York City. While the video footage tried to make it appear as though thousands of people showed up to shine, it was mentioned at one point later that "hundreds" showed up. I have no idea how many people actually showed up but I thought that was quite interesting in a city as big as NYC. After Carrie Ann and Bruno were introduced to the crowd, the young hopefuls had to only dance freestyle in groups of 15 to help narrow down the field. The best dancers would be called back for the singing and dancing round later in the afternoon.

And this is where the show fell flat on its face. Boring auditions with decent dancers and hardly mediocre singers. Blech! And to make it worse, there was Carrie Ann and Bruno critiquing these people's singing abilities. Why wasn't there also a "vocal" person with these two to help them determine who could actually sing well? Some of the people they loved wouldn't have been looked at twice during the beginning rounds of American Idol much less have made it before Paula, Randy, and Simon.

What about that song "Baby Love"? If I hear it one more time, I'm going to projectile vomit! Why did so many people sing that song and "Amazing Grace" and "My Girl"? Talk about amateur hour! Along with the auditioners' limited lyrical skills, another thing that irked me was how at the end of the auditions they didn't give us the names of the people that actually made it to Hollywood. They spent so much time telling us about these folks during this process and didn't tell us who made it? How stupid!

This same ordeal happened again in Los Angeles and Nashville. Group freestyle dance and then solo auditions where the person sang and then danced. There wasn't much singing while dancing which I thought was the whole point of a "super group" but then what do I know? I just write about this stuff.

Finally it was time for the 30 chosen to take it to Hollywood where they would have two days to learn a group performance. After their performance, they would be whittled down to the 14 finalists. It was only at this point that vocal coaches were brought in to help them with their singing (as well as dance coaches). They would be taught to sing "Dance To The Music" and a simple and basic dance routine to go along with it.

After they performed their group routine, Carrie Ann and Bruno went over who they liked and didn't like. Each person was then called in and told if they made the final 14 cut or not. Again, they didn't tell us everybody who was and wasn't cut. A little advice to anybody out there considering trying out for this show if a second season comes around: don't count on anybody recognizing your two minutes of fame.

Drew brought us back to the live show where we actually found out the names of the 14 finalists: Charity, Zack, Phillip, Mariel, Allysa, Maxx, Corina, Lacey, Kelsey, Tony, Marquis, Chris, Bradley, and Elizabeth. After that it was time for them to perform live for the first time every. To me, it seemed like they were lip-synching at the beginning. It was only towards the end of the bland routine did I actually hear them singing. I don't know if that was because they were singing over their own tracks and the sound guys didn't have things set up right or if some of them just suck so bad they can't sing on their own yet. I guess we'll find out.

The next show will air on Monday, January 14 at at 8:00 PM (ET/PT). Carrie Ann and Bruno will pick their teams of six which means that two people will be leaving.

Thankfully, the auditions are over and the remaining five episodes will focus on performances. I'll watch it again (since it's not an audition show) but depending on how good it is, I don't know if I'll watch much more than that.

What were your thoughts on this show?

Hey all of you Dancing With The Stars fans! Surely you've heard the news and know that Carrie Ann Inaba and Brunio Tonioli will be gracing us with their presence on the small screen once again very soon. This Monday, January 7, Dance War: Bruno vs. Carrie Ann premieres on ABC at 8:00 PM (ET/PT).

Dance War will be a six-episode series pitting two troupes of amateur dancers/singers against each other with us, the viewing audience, voting for the best team each week. Will Team Carrie Ann beat down Team Bruno or will they run crying from the stage? Hosted by Drew Lachey (yay!), the premiere two-hour episode on January 7 will consist of the now standard audition show that will whittle the field into two teams of six performers. Then on Monday, January 14, the show goes live and voting will begin.

Besides the audition premiere, the remaining five 90-minute-long episodes will have both Team Carrie Ann and Team Bruno performing a variety of numbers for us from which we'll pick our favorite team. (I have no idea if there will be just one performance or multiple performances from each team on each show but I'd imagine just one.) Each week, the team captain of the "losing" team (Carrie Ann or Bruno) will have to pick one of its own members to kick out. The finale will present us with one super troupe of performers who will be given the given opportunity to go on tour with a major performing artist as their opening act.

I think this show has the possibility of becoming a sleeper hit because of the huge numbers of Dancing With The Stars fans out there (including myself). It will definitely be nice to actually see Carrie Ann and Bruno doing some dancing instead of just yapping their jaws as judges. I mean, I've been told they're choreographers but I've never seen them really do anything!

I also like that we'll be voting for our favorite team and not our favorite performer. Leaving the tough decision up to Carrie Ann or Bruno will be interesting to watch!

Go check out the official Dance War site for some short clips about the show and, if you're a MySpace user, go check out the show's MySpace page.

I do wonder one thing about the show though, will there be any lift controversies?