Dancing With the Stars got a different treatment last night. John McCain fidgeted like a caged cat. Barack Obama moved languidly. Not even the overheated décor of the ABC talent show could match the jarring scarlet-and-blue color scheme of the claustrophobic presidential debate studio at Nashville's Belmont University.

Judging from the frozen faces of the regular folks in the audience, it wasn't very entertaining, as the supposed town-hall format stiffened into an uncomfortable brittleness with virtually no give-and-take.

McCain kept saying, "My friends," but the natives didn't look very friendly, and that woman in the back row with the perpetual smirk appeared downright dangerous.

The only true personal connection came when Navy veteran McCain reminisced for a second and patted retired Navy Chief Petty Officer Terry Shirey on the back after his question.

Not until the final query, relayed by moderator Tom Brokaw from the granite crags of New Hampshire, was there a break in the somber situation: "What don't you know, and how will you learn it?"

The audience laughed; the candidates danced around it.

The anticipation of fireworks, stoked by increasingly personal campaign attacks the last few days, quickly gave way to boredom, at best, in the debaters' grim minuet. Both stayed on point and generally repeated things conscientious campaign-watchers have heard many times.

More intrusive than his two PBS predecessors this debate cycle, Jim Lehrer and Gwen Ifill, moderator Brokaw still managed not to enforce the rules. When Obama went for a follow-up, McCain, rightfully and confidently, said he wanted one, too.

You don't always want to pay too much attention to what the candidates say.

McCain: "I have advocated and taken on the special-interest groups."

Obama: "You're not interested in hearing politicians point fingers."

As the face-offs wear on - one more is set for next Wednesday - it can be hard to predict ratings or ascertain exactly who, partisan loyalists or undecided voters, is watching.

Last night's performance was unlikely to land in the same ballpark as last week's vice presidential debate, which drew 69.9 million viewers, nearly 13 million more than the first McCain-Obama set-to. It tied the 1992 Clinton-Bush-Perot spectacle as the second most-watched campaign debate of all time.

Speaking of face-offs, Nielsen Media Research did unearth one nugget. It determined that among 25-to-54-year-old women living in homes with children, those who watched at least six minutes of last spring's Stanley Cup Finals on NBC were nearly 40 percent more likely to have watched last week's vice presidential debate. They were 30 percent more likely to have watched the first presidential debate.

So Sarah Palin's shout-outs to hockey moms seem to have been well-directed, though Nielsen had no info on whom those politically involved women might support.

Contact television critic Jonathan Storm privately at 215-854-5618 or jstorm@phillynews.com.

Read his recent work at http:// go.philly.com/jonathanstorm.