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It’s your fault, Australia

It was certainly disappointing to see Hilton Denis cut from So You Think You Can Dance Australia on Monday. At only 18, this a dancer with great spirit and a lot of talent -like all of the dancers in the show.

But if we’re going to start getting pleas from the show’s host, judges and eliminated dancers that we have to vote or talented kids will be cut, then somebody needs a wake up call.

‘We’ did vote. And furthermore, all the talented kids except one will be cut. That’s the premise of the show.

Like Idol before it, SYTYCD is showing early signs of laying guilt trips on the viewers of Australia by making out it’s our “fault” for choosing its bottom three.

“People have to start voting for the dancers they want to see,” Denis told the Daily Telegraph.

“It’s still very early in the competition. I don’t think they (viewers) know who the best dancers are,” he said.

In fairness to Denis he is only 18 and dealing with the burst of a reality bubble. The guy has to say something to the press. But host Natalie Bassingthwaighte also laid on the emotion in Monday night’s show (Nat, have you had lessons from Marcia?).

I’m loving SYTYCD but I won’t be voting until there’s a free online vote, which could be linked to either IP or email addresses.

Even the Logies don’t make me buy a copy anymore. Meanwhile if FremantleMedia and TEN are going to keep reaping the benefits of phone voting, then how about less blame aimed at viewers for supposedly breaking dancers’ dreams?

Source: Daily Telegraph

6 Responses

  1. I dare say sponsorships in Australia will cover the cost and then more. But perhaps Malaysia won’t be able to do the same. We have to pay for voting in all our reality shows too. Bummer.

  2. I also agree that the whole voting scheme is wrong and it should be free. They get enough sponsorship dollars to cover the costs and get a healthy profit (I would hope they did the math before starting the show). Nat is becoming very annoying and I’m not sad that Hilton is gone. You need to sell yourself as the whole package. Only talent might not be enough

  3. The whole “guilt trip” thing is a standard Ten strategy for one thing and one thing only: making money.

    They always do the exact same thing with Idol and Big Brother.

    It’s worth reminding everyone that in the US, voting for American Idol and So You Think You Can Dance is FREE and always has been:

    http://www.fox.com/dance/showinfo/faq.htm

    Note that this is FREE as in NO charges at all, not even a local call.

    Idol even offers free SMS voting.

    I’ve never voted in these shows, as I don’t see why I should have to pay to help a profit-making enterprise run.

  4. My husband and I have been watching since the start despite our general loathing for reality tv, simply because we love to watch good dancing. At first we thought the guilt tripping was an indication that few people were voting, but now it’s starting to seem more like a scam. I haven’t watched Idol or Big Brother so I wasn’t aware that this is an old tactic.

    They’ve really begun to lay it on thick and I agree that it makes no sense since the whole point of the show is to gradually boot people out. They can’t keep all of them in right until the end no matter how great a dancer they are.

    I’m all for online voting as well. There’s absolutely nothing stopping friends and family from voting over and over again now, so online voting wouldn’t upset the balance at all. The only thing they get from sms voting is free cash and most shows manage to get by just fine on sponsorship and the like.

    I hope they ditch the guilt trips before they lose a lot of disgruntled viewers and potential cash cows, oops I mean voters.

  5. I totally agree. They told us to vote, we voted, and someone left. In fact in this format they take even more responsibility off us because the judges choose who goes, so they should blame themselves too. We just narrowed it down. Are they saying we chose the wrong THREE couples? Who did the judges want us to vote for then??

    If they want certain dancers to go from the competition and not others, maybe Natalie should say “To vote for X, BUT DON’T, call this number…”

    The guilt trip makes the show pathetic. Natalie telling viewers they had stuffed up started to sound like Gretel Killeen has the last few years on BB. Even my father who barely watches either show said Nat Bass was acting like Gretel this week.

    Hosts: If you want an interactive show, deal with the outcome in your own time. If you don’t like our decisions, don’t ask us to spend our money on votes. If you want everyone in the competition to win, give them all contracts now.

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