McKenney dubs blind dance “appalling”
Todd McKenney did what he was hired to do on Dancing with the Stars, create controversy, calling Gerrard Gosens' dancing "appalling."
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Todd McKenney did what he was hired to do on Dancing with the Stars last night -create controversy.
His comments on the performance of blind contestant Gerrard Gosens have been blasted by viewers of the show.
While remarking that Gosens had achieved much to participate in the contest, he described his routine last night as “appalling.” McKenney awarded him 2 points, just behind the 3 point scores awarded by his fellow judges.
But the audience rallied for Gosens who performed with Jessica Raffa. As part of this week’s rules, Gosens even had to dance for 15 seconds solo.
Some viewers took to Seven’s own website to vent their anger:
- I thought Dancing With The Stars was all about having a go @ something different. Todds & Helens comments were completely out of order. How dare they treat some one in such a dispicable manner. Gerrard is on the show giving his best, I am disgusted in the judges comments, I felt humiliated for and with Gerrard. I actually enjoyed his performance, I was captivated through out the routine.
- I think what Todd said tonight in regard to the blind dancer was totally and morally wrong. Surely Channel 7 must have thought seriously about having a blind person on the program, therefore the judges would have had to make allowances. To score low is bad enough but to degrade him personally is not human. Shame on you Todd!
- Todd ia APPAULING.I am a mother of a 12yr old boys thats legally blind and an 11 yr old that is vision impaired.Cofidence is the biggest challenge for a blind person.I thought this show was for families.How wrong I was.The biggest challenge for me as a parent and carer for my 2 boys is encourageing them to believe that they can achieve anything.Then in one spilt second Nasty Todd Destroys that.
- get rid of todd how very degrading was that for gerard. This poor guy might not have sight but he certainly has a heart and a huge one at that. You have lost my love for this show.
- After watching the season of DWTS in the USA, i am appalled by the negativity of the judges. None of the stars are dancers….that is the point. There is no need to be so nasty – it should be a fun entertaining show, the judges should be there to motivate and encourage the stars – the judges should be voted off, bring in Paul Mercurio
But Gosens had always said he wanted to be judged as a dancer, not ‘blind dancer.’
Despite getting the lowest score, just 1 point behind Adam Brand, Gosens survived for another week after model Emily Scott was voted off the show.
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30 Responses
That’s why i hate DWTS, They put a blind person on there to Dance.. Who are they (ch7) kidding!
The most appalling thing is that people actualy watch this crap. I find the whole idea of Seven using a blind man to try and grab ratings as appalling. What levels will they stoop to next year? midgets?
makes u wonder why they got rid of Mercurio
How the hell does “Your dancing was apalling” translate into “I hate blind people. Go die. kthx.”? It’s just stupid.
Gosens wants to be treated like a a dancer, not a blind dancer. That says it all – he should be judged on dancing, and dancing alone. If he doesn’t want to be treated any differently, then fans aren’t really ‘rallying’ behind him, they’re just stating their own biased opinions. Todd had every right to give him a 2 if his dancing was bad, and the other judges obviously agreed because they gave him 3’s.
Dancing with the …what.. stars what stars are dancing?
none, a blind guy and who?
No stars here that i can see.
it is a totally stupid show,
who here thinks that this blind guy thing wasn’t for the ratings, pathetic and totally see through, get your act together 7 pathetic.
Growing up my cousin had eye cancer, resulting in both eyes having to be removed before he was 5. We are now both 40 and he leads such a ‘normal’ life that I sometimes forget that he’s blind. His biggest grievance is ‘do gooders’ speaking on his behalf. I actually spoke to him this morning and mentioned the show last night and commented that the judges would get grief for their comments. He only had one question “was he crap?”, I said ‘yes, basically he was”. So my question is would it be more patronising for the judges to tell Gerrard how wonderful it is for him to be ‘having a go’, or to critique him as they would any other dancer?
He entered the show knowing he had a disadvantage to all the other contestants, he asked to be judged the same as everyone else and not be treated differently. The judges were simply doing their job.
My cousing came out with a group of us a few years ago, we ended up in a nightclub. On the way to the dancefloor he had one request, “if I am making a total d**k of myself, please tell me!” He was, so I did. We still laugh about it 🙂
The only thing I’m more surprised about is some wag hasn’t come on here and said “what’s this guy’s big deal, I dance blind every Friday and Saturday night” – or is it just me who was waiting for that comment???! 🙂
Didn’t see the show, wouldn’t watch it if you paid me $10m…… watched Chuck, Chuck and more Chuck last night. Quality.
Publicity stunt!
What was appalling was not the scores, but the comments. Very telling was Gossens’s ‘Thank you for the *constructive* comments to Mark …the other two were more like de-structive comments. Mark at least tried to give the guy something to work on, the other two were negative in the extreme.
Once again – this is ‘exploitainment’ rather than ‘entertainment.’ All along they’ve insisted this Gerrard Gosens be treated like any other dancer yet the producers have milked his disability for all it’s worth.
Why, if you’re going to treat this contestant like all the others did we have to have that insufferable host Macpherson introduce Gosens when he first appreared a couple of weeks back in a blacked out stage with all the lights going out gradually and then have commercials showing the same drama repeated every 5 minutes on Network Seven – isn’t that exploiting his blindness and instilling sympathy from the viewing public…And isn’t it just possible that nasty comments from judge McKenney will automatically provoke outrage and therefore more votes for Gosens.
I note that all the contestants on Seven contracts are still on the show….funny that…expect to see Matt White to promote the show on Today Tonight and Kylie Gillies do the same on The Morning Show…once again another rort that the show’s producers seem to shrewdly exploit!
I’ve switched to Merlin – far more entertaining!
john says:
July 27, 2009 at 7:57 am
what’s appalling is the voting, Emily was probably in the top 3 dancers but got voted out
John – thats is the thing that annoys me about this show – the votes are on 2 completely different dances. The final score for who’s out comes from the viewer votes from the week before and the judges votes from that night – how can that be a fair when you could stuff up one week and be great the next and still be out. Needs a rethink, I think 🙂
i have got no doubt 7 told the judges to be harsh on him, so they can get the audience to get behind and keep him in the show. so they would look good keeping him in the show, with the blind community. this is what 7 would do. he isnt a good dancer
Aren’t the judges instructed they are to assess the performances based on technical merit? I remember this being an issue when the show first started. People were upset with the scores being given because they confused entertainment value with technical accuracy. The judges seemed to have blurred the boundaries at times and made allowance for entertainment value. Perhaps that is where they are open to attack in that they haven’t been consistent. Initially, it seemed as though they were being lenient on Gosens even though he wanted to be judged on equal terms. They have finally taken off the kid gloves and calling at it is.
When it comes down to it, isn’t the ‘entertainment’ value component is acknowledged through the viewer vote? In voting for the people they like to see, they will hang around be default. Personally, I’ve find the Gosesn journey amazing to watch. Yes, he’s a so-so dancer, but he has has huge entertainment value. He’s taken on a huge challenge in competing a competition judged on visual evaluation – something he has no ability to assess for himself. People seem to want to get upset on Gosens behalf, but isn’t this what he wanted – to be judged on equal terms with his peers. All the dancers have handicaps of one sort or another – age, weight, having two left feet. Gosens situation is simply an extreme case.
I hope his journey continues. He seems to thrive on challenge and if nothing else, the judges comments should inspire him to try even harder. The impression I guess is that it’s not so much talent that he is lacking, but the time he needs to work out his moves. It would be great to see what level he could reach if given enough time.
Craig, you’re probably right. Seven’s publicity girls are probably cackling with glee reading this page even as I type.
I cannot stand this show, and don’t watch it. However, I had the misfortune of seeing episode 1 of this season by force (family loves it, and I was there) and they did make a big, big deal at the time about him being subject to being “treated like a normal person” (paraphrasing).
I thought right then and there that the inevitable controversy when he was treated like a “normal person” was surely only weeks away. Kick in the pants for the ratings, via free promo in other news media.
I was right.
Todd was really uncomforatble making those comments last night, his voice was trembling and he sounded like he was about to cry..its a dancing competition, the blind guy cant dance…he should be judged the same as everybody else othewise it becomes unfair on the others…meanwhile, does anyone else think that we’re doing exactly what channel 7 wants by discussing this on forums like this the morning after the show has aired??
Is this a competition for the best dancer? Isn’t the judge meant to judge the performance? Putting road kill on a silver platter doesn’t make it appetising!
to be fair his dance was shocking.
you dont see people running to adam’s defense. i really dont this gerrard would want this-he said from the start he wants to be judged the same as everyone else and if it was anyone else they (the judges) would have given the same scores, nasty comments-they just wouldnt have praised the person for what they had achieved thus far…
yes what he is doin is amazing and i’m sure if it was ‘dancing with the blind’ he would be doin alot better but its not so he’s not…
Seriously, can we just declare him the winner now and not bother airing the rest of this farcical show?
It’s pretty damn obvious he’s already won, regardless of performance.
But hey, a bit of “controversy” is always good for boosting the ratings (and the voting-fee coffers), right?
DWTS, here we go again with the usual controversy to grab ratings !!! Sigh.
As far as *real* dancing is judged Gerrard Gosens certainly isn’t good, however for a blind person he is doing brilliantly and I quite enjoyed what I watched last night.
I have a feeling that the judges were told to be more agressive with their comments as the other judges agreed with Todd who didn’t seem to be too pleased that he was the first judge to comment……
There is no doubt the most of the viewer votes will be going to Gerrard Gosens this week…….I’m starting to feel sorry for all the other contestants with all this rot going on.
As much as I find Todd a bit arrogant type I had to agree with him. It was appalling to watch. For me it is u turn off to watch people doing something they normally wouldn’t or can’t and people feeling sorry for them. This is a TV at its lowest point. Thank heavens for So You Think You Can Dance.
Isn’t this what Ch 7 is trying to do? Trash this fellow in the belief that people will then storm the phones to save him. A nice little earner don’t you think?
what’s appalling is the voting, Emily was probably in the top 3 dancers but got voted out.
He wanted to be teated as an equal and not a blind dancer, the minute they do that a judge is crucified!
The audience rallied behind him because he is blind, and he probably will win the show because he is blind. I’m sure he really appreciates being treated like a sympathy ticket by overweight wowsers.