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Dancing with apologies

Offensive or not, why has it taken Seven two weeks to apologise for comments by Sonia Kruger?

A half-hearted apology from Channel Seven is reported today in a newspaper article, following comments by Sonia Kruger during Dancing with the Stars.

Half-hearted because it has taken a full two weeks to appear. There were complaints on Seven’s own website within 24 hours of the incident.

Why has it taken Seven two weeks to respond, including waiting for the show to end its current run?

Kruger’s comments about a “sweatshop of illegal immigrants” slaving away on her wardrobe for the Melbourne Cup Carnival were followed with a gag to musical director Chong Lim.

“How’s the family, Chong? All right?” she asked.

An embarrassed Seven Network has insisted the presenter’s remarks were not intended to be racist, especially as the pair enjoyed a long-standing friendship.

Fair enough. So why the delay?

A Seven spokeswoman said last week: “In this instance, it’s worth remembering that Sonia and Chong have been working together over eight series of Dancing With The Stars.

“They’re very good friends and enjoy each other’s company very much.

“However, to any viewer who took offence, without any reservation, we apologise.”

A curiously worded quote notes, “In this case, the team who manage these issues have examined the comments and, in the honest and genuine tone of the conversation between Sonia and Chong, decided no offence was intended.”

Meanwhile no apology for not eliminating a dancer after taking SMS votes….

Source: Daily Telegraph

17 Responses

  1. I’d have to disagree that we live in a largely racist country, there’s the same amount of racism as anywhere else, only we’re more away of our immigrative (if that’s a thing) heritages and it’s more accepted to make light of it, thought he mistake the kruger woman made was to say it with cameras around, fair enough to joke around with ya mates, but on live tv?

  2. You could be right steve but then ACA did nothing so..
    We live in a largely racist country and i would think a lot of DWTS older viewers thought it quite funny.
    What we can learn from this is Seven didn’t need to ask Sonia to dumb it down on Yum Cha!

  3. Two of the people I work with are religious devotees of DWTS and they weren’t even aware that there was an uproar over the “no elimination” week. They thought it was a great twist and were happy with the way it was dealt with. Is it the viewing audience who is upset about it or people who don’t actually watch the show?

  4. Surely it can’t be coincidence that DWTS suddenly decided to suspend the eliminations for a week, effectively extending the show by a week, thereby conveniently making it possible to have the execrable Andre Rieu as a guest?

    Then again, the whole show is an exercise in the cheap and tacky, from the ludicrous glitter-encrusted microphone on down…

  5. I love Sonia’s little “foot in mouth” comments – I was laughing my head off when she said that!
    Its very off the cuff, people need to take it easy & not read much into it – the show would be boring without Sonia!!

  6. well i kind of understand that its just that me and a lot of people i know voted and were very happy that no one was eliminated. we loved them all, and having 3 in the final made it much more interesting

    and its not like they decided last minute just because the favourite was leaving, they were telling us about “a twist” long before

    ps. agreed no sympathy for the betters, the show should’t have to revolve around them.

  7. It’s misrepresentation. If they wanted to do it that way they should have said so from the start. ie. “This week you have two weeks to vote.” No problem, and not that difficult to do.

    What about people who voted in that week, tuned in to see the result and then were told “sorry no elimination?” They’ve just been hoodwinked for 2 hours. If every voting show did this practice there would be a lot of angry people accumulating.

    It also threw out the entertainment betting circles, but I have little sympathy for them, they are piggybacking anyway….

  8. Next up: “We apologize unreservedly for turning Australia into the highest per-capita television pirates, along with our co-conspirators – channels 9 and 10”

  9. i don’t understand why the:
    “no apology for not eliminating a dancer after taking SMS votes” is an issue.

    the votes were carried onto the next week, its not like their text and money was wasted.

  10. Bloody hell Seven. How hard to say “we are sorry for Sonia putting foot in mouth again”.
    We apologise for being insensitive souls. Easy peasy…

    Less than 4 minutes, less than 300 keystrokes and stuff all brain cells needed. P.S. Wonder would have happened if Chong said something along lines of Sonia being typical blonde bimbo with airhead

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