Jodie Sweetin and Keo Motsepe were eliminated from Dancing With the Stars Season 22 on Monday night, finishing the competition in sixth place. Jodie became the fifth female nostalgic figure to finish in this spot in the last six seasons, as Elizabeth Berkley Lauren, Danica McKellar, Lea Thompson, and Alexa PenaVega all finished in that spot as well in recent seasons. You know what else these five women have in common? They were all eliminated before their time, at least in my eyes. But in this post I'm just going to focus on Jodie (and Keo).
At the end of last summer I'd noticed Jodie and Val followed each other on twitter and immediately thought "Jodie is doing DWTS this season and Val is her partner." (This was the season when Val's partner remained a mystery right up until the offical cast reveal on Good Morning America) It turned out she wasn't part of the cast that season (the twitter stuff turned out to be because of Val's Fuller House guest appearance with Maks) but in a hidden-camera video "interview" of sorts from a DWTS fan, Jodie revealed she very much wanted to be on the show, but couldn't at the time. And in that moment, I knew we would be seeing Jodie Sweetin on Season 22 of DWTS. It was perfect timing because of Fuller House's release shortly before the season's premiere, and I knew the show's producers would want to take advantage of that after how popular her co-star Candace Cameron Bure had proven to be.
In the months leading up to the cast announcement, I tried to figure out who Jodie's pro partner would be. She said she'd want Val in the aforementioned video, but I'd also heard her mention a couple other names in the past, and a lot of fans really seemed to be gunning for her to be with Artem. My personal guess was Val because they seemed to like each other and because of the whole Fuller House tie-in. I didn't see anyone guess that Keo would be her partner (though I did see a couple of hints in the days leading up to the reveal) but that is what happened. I was surprised at first and had no clue how this was going to go, but Jodie's GMA reveal made this partnership seem promising.
Before the season started, I said Jodie was basically the ideal DWTS contestant and that any problems this couple would have would be Keo's fault. Looking back, I don't think that ended up being the case. Jodie was actually quite insecure for about half the season and while I think Keo did a good job keeping her relaxed, I think it showed in some of her performances, particularly her facial expressions during some of the more "intense" dances like the Tango and Paso Doble.
Keo got a lot of negative feedback this season and I'm glad it was addressed on the show, because I think a lot of it was unwarranted and downright rude. I do think this season highlighted which of the common criticisms directed at Keo were legitimate and which weren't really warranted, The biggest claims I've seen that didn't seem to ring true were "Keo doesn't know how to teach" and "Keo only focuses on himself and not his partner". I think Keo was a good instructor for Jodie, being kind, patient, and fun while still making sure she knew her steps and the technique to execute them correctly. I also think he did a good job teaching with Kim Fields in the Switch-Up, as I did see some improvement from her that week, And I don't think the people who made the second claim were watching the same show that I was, because Keo seemed to focus the dance on making his partner look good and his focus in the packages was on Jodie (or Kim) doing well. The only time I saw him put his own needs before his partner's was when he sort of abandoned Kim at the end of Switch-Up Week. That wasn't cool, but other pros have done the same thing and haven't been called out for it. I'm guessing the criticism about Keo being too self-centred was a sentiment that carried over from past seasons because I've been hearing that one ever since he joined the show back in Season 19. Maybe it was true then, but I didn't see it happen this time.
Another frequent comment I've been seeing about Keo is that he needs to work on his choreography skills or get outside help. I actually agree with this one, at least when it comes to the Standard Ballroom-style dances. He didn't put a lot of content into those and blatantly broke the rules for the Quickstep. So I would like to see him churn out better routines in those styles, or enlist the help of an outside choreographer like some other pros do (and some other pros should). Again, this is a criticism that applies to several DWTS pros, so I don't see why Keo should be getting more heat for this than anyone else, but I do think he is one of the ones that warrants it. I really liked most of his Latin routines though, especially the Jive! In fact, it was my favorite dance Jodie and Keo did all season!
Even though their packages weren't always a barrel of fun, I did appreciate that they didn't harp on about Jodie's recovery from her drug addiction every week. Last season it seemed like they were airing the contestants' sob stories every single week and after a little while it felt way too over-the-top. With Jodie, her troubled past was the focus for one week and then they moved on from it, which I greatly appreciated (though I do get the feeling we would have heard about it again if she had advanced to this week's semi-finals since they tend to do a package with interviews from the family and friends of the top four or five contestants). Despite what some of the packages showed, I do think Jodie and Keo enjoyed working together and had a lot of fun with the experience.
I think Jodie and Keo deserved to go a little further in the competition. I didn't quite see them as Final 3 material (in most seasons they would be, but this season is unusually competitive) but I think they should've stuck around for one more week. A lot of people were saying Jodie would have placed higher with another pro partner, but based on how the rest of the contestants this season have been doing and how seasons' past have played out I think sixth place (or close to it) was likely for her regardless of partner, with the likely exception of the person most of us expected her to be with (though not for the reasons you might think). But I'll get more into that when I do my "Thoughts On" post for said pro and his partner. Hopefully that'll be this coming week but I have a bad feeling they might make the finals, especially if the show decides to combine the Week 8 scores and votes with the Week 9 scores. I don't want the producers to do that, but I wouldn't put it past them seeing as how it would allow them to manipulate the results of the double elimination. Either way, it's out of our hands now.
And finally, there's the hot debate about whether or not Keo should be brought back as a pro for Season 23. This is basically a pointless discussion to have because that package last week all but confirmed he will be one again, but I'll touch on it anyway. If he takes the time to better himself over the hiatus since there is no tour until the winter (this will actually be Keo's first DWTS hiatus not spent on tour, and most of the show's best pros use their breaks from performing as a time to improve upon their skills and/or learn new ones) and gets outside help with the Standard Ballroom choreography, then I'm fine with Keo being a pro on Season 23. (But if I see his name on the roster and Sasha's is'nt there, I'm going to riot.)
In the end, I was happy with Jodie and Keo's DWTS journey. I was happy that Jodie finally got to be on the show and had a positive experience with it, and that Keo finally has a "family" in America! From what I gather he's been kind of following other pros around trying to figure things out since joining the show, but I hope this season has given him the confidence to be himself and not try to be another version of someone else!
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