Is Dance patronising the audience?
If TEN wants to know why So You Think You Can Dance is shedding viewers it should review all the content that isn't actually dancing.
- Published by David Knox
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- Filed under News
I happen to think the dancing on So You Think You Can Dance Australia is exhilarating stuff.
The young dancers are terrific with their energy and art, putting celebrity dancers on other shows to shame.
But it’s an endurance test to sit through the rest of the showjust to watch the dance content. It feels like advertorials and verbal padding outweight the actual dance.
If TEN wants to look at one of the reasons why the show is down this year maybe they should be asking if there is too much filler?
On Wednesday night the show pulled a disappointing 767,000. Even in the 18-49 demographic it was beaten by Spicks and Specks, Criminal Minds and Customs. That’s a disaster.
Last night on the results show judge Jason Coleman also layed a big, fat guilt trip on viewers for voting for the wrong 6 dancers.
“…Australia needs to watch these guys with open hearts and open minds and the problem Natalie, I believe is with OPEN. TELEPHONE. LINES,” he said.
“Do not get complacent Australia. These 6 dancers that are standing before us tonight are not the 6 weakest dancers in the competition and they are not the 6 weakest dancers from last night. So please Australia, you’ve done so well in the past. Vote for the dancers. Vote for the routines. We want this to be the best dancer left at the end of the day.
“Now you have given us these 6 dancers so we have to make a decision from these 6 dancers. Australia we are dealing with your decisions here.”
This is patronising stuff.
Shouldn’t we be grateful viewers have engaged enough with the show to pick up the phone, yeah?
These sorts of claims have been tossed around on Australian Idol for years while reality shows continue to profit from telephone voting lines. If TEN is serious about wanting more votes, how about offering it online via a registered email?
Maybe we should just stop voting period and let the judges decide.
If the whole point of the lecture was to ease the pain for the dancers, do me a favour: tell them during the commercial break then maybe the show would finish on time instead of 9:10. Anyway why do we have to come back from yet another commercial break just to watch dancers pulling cards out of a hat to see what routine they will dance next week?
Yes these are harsh claims, because Dance is a show that has brought real dance onto our television screens, been one of several reality shows that celebrates diversity, and epitomises youth when they are too frequently the subject of negative headlines.
But it’s being destroyed from within because it isn’t making enough hard decisions, and it’s being reflected in the figures.
71 Responses
@DND.. its just another way for Jason to make the show about him thereby saying “playback” would make him sound more unique… it doesn’t. Also a big lol at whatever jason was wearing…
I think that the ratings drop may be due also to the time the show is now on. It is a show that all the family can watch yet goes from 8 to 10pm on a school night. I also record so can fast forward through the boring bits and watch at a more reasonable time.
I too record and watch later in an effort to save time and eye rolling on my part. I don’t care to hear the choreographers explaining the story of the dance. If it’s good choreography it should engage the viewer without the need to hear about the tragic disappearance of the choreographer’s neighbour’s budgie. Bonnie please we just watched it no need for you to verbalise every step of the routine. It’s missing a bit of “wow” this year. I blame the judges for choosing “dancers” who are in reality acrobats and then expect them to point their toes and and extend their lines.
I don’t want to get pedantic, but I thought Australians called it (.) a full stop, not a period.
Have a look at Masterchef – one of the refreshing parts of that show to me was that the voting was taken out of “our” hands and it was left up to the judges to keep the star performers – why can’t that work for this show too
WTF is this crap when Jason starts saying “…ok playback” at the start of each solo performance?
I do agree with a lot of these things… However, as a loyal fan of the show, I don’t think that they’re the biggest problems. I just don’t feel the routines are as exciting this year as compared to previous years, and the contestants really lack personality and individuality. The pace of the show also makes me want to switch off. I actually enjoy Thursdays’ shows more than the Wednesday performances! I love watching the group dances and also the solos.
In my household, we never watch SYTYCD live. It’s always recorded so we can get straight to the dancing. I reckon that’s a saving of over half the run time of the show.
We do listen to most of the judges comments – at 1.3x speed so they sound like chipmonks. But we completely forward through whatever Bonnie has to say.
Excellent David and so true !
90-100 minutes is just too long drawn out for a show that’s on more than once a week.
Personally I think the judges should choose who stays and who goes. However I guess they need the Phone up revenue. I only vote in the Finals…….
TV Tonight patrons keep on telling Ch Ten that they are getting their programming wrong but obviously they are not listening ;-(
I actually think the remaining dancers pulling cards out of a hat to see their next dance routine is a good idea. In the previous two seasons, the draw was done backstage after the results show, and the viewers did not find out until the following week’s performance show. But I think the ad breaks are too long.
I can’t stand the male judges – they can’t speak at all, yeah?
Australian reality shows are just advertising for sponsors, anyone want a NaNa??
Also, how can a show run over 10mins late everytime it’s on?? It’s because of all the filler, I agree David.
David, I agree 100% with everything you said. Great dance, amazing stuff, yet unbearably painful to sit through. And can someone remind Jason what the tagline to the show is. Last I looked it was ‘Australia’s Favourite dancer’. Not Jason’s favourite, not even Australia’s best dancer. The views are always right. Yeah?
Well said David… I wish we could just watch the dancers that really are very talented… the verbal dribble from the judges is so bad sometimes I hit mute on the TV until they are done!
“If TEN is serious about wanting more votes, how about offering it online via a registered email?”
Exactly!! They can get the same sorts of sponsorship – sponsors in reply emails to confirm that the vote has been received (although I’m sure it’ll be from the Navy – “yvan eht nioj”)
Last night’s show was just so…painful. I love the show, i’ve been really disappointed with the ratings – but I completely understand why. It becomes really frustrating seeing that the teeny bopper vote holds such power – because it’s true, the best dancers aren’t getting through – that’s why the sms system fails.
It also becomes ridiculously frustrating at the waste of time on useless crap – why the hell do we need Jason to introduce each dancer before they “dance for their lives” – it’s a wasted 60 seconds before each one, and last night showed his blatant favourtism “Doug, come on down my special mate”… We also didn’t need the five minutes of Jason crapping on about how wonderful the new Hairspray musical will be which will be choreographed by, shock, Jason himself!! That annoyed me more than anything I’ve seen for a while – guess what Jason, the show isn’t actually about you!!!
its all far too worthy…They are just dancers…its the same old story of the producers being too close to the action and they beilieve they are trying to find a cure for cancer…cut the tedious granstanding by the self impprtant judges and a put a bit more production into the actual dance…the direction on the dance numbers is laboured and boring.. the show neeeds a good dose of Berocca to put the zing back into it…it has become exceedingly pedestrian..!!
Excellent critique of the show, I agree with everything you say. There is wayyyy too much filler on SYTYCD, it often runs over time and it is slowly destroying itself. A crying shame as it is one of the better reality shows by a country mile. The laying of guilt trips on on viewers over show voting trends is nothing new – Idol and Dancing With The Stars do this constantly. It’s just that when Jason does it, he sounds like a badgering school teacher, very condescending. Phone-in voting should not be the only way to vote. People should also be able to register votes online, but hey, that would be robbing the network of the fat profits they make off the phone votes. Don’t hold your breath waiting for online voting.
Wow. I haven’t watched this year because there are more interesting things on, but even if I had I wouldn’t have voted because I think its a waste of money and that little speech from the judge wouldn’t have changed my mind that is for sure.
I think he needs to remember that most of Australia aren’t experienced dancers and so we all probably look at the contestants a little bit differently from him. He says “Vote for the dancers. Vote for the routines.” But I honestly can’t think of anything else we’d be voting on. Unless people are voting for the hottest couple or something?
Great article David – completely agree with everything you said. When Dance first started I was hooked, but last year and this year I’ve started tuning in less and less, primarily because of the arrogance and patronising tone of the show, particularly from the judges. Jason especially seems to always give technical information to people “who aren’t part of the dancing world”, explaining “how difficult it is” to do a particular style of dance. While I think he has valid points, it can be quite patronising at the same time. Let Natalie do more talking, and less time for the judges to talk themselves up.
These shows shove the sob stories down our throats – then complain when viewers vote along those lines. If they want viewers to judge on talent alone, don’t offer them any info on the contestants other than their capabilities and ambitions in the genre they’re competing in.
That said, all reality shows pretty much follow the same pattern and whilst there are surprises along the way when clearly those who should be voted out remain over those who should have been kept in, ultimately the winner is the right winner (and the finalist too in fact). And if shows didn’t have upsets along the way – well, people wouldn’t bother watching and wouldn’t bother voting.
Some of these wannabe judges should take a look at Mr Simon Cowell – he never criticises how the public vote in his shows and after controversial outcomes on The X Factor especially he has always defended how the public vote and basically put te blame on the artist (or themselves as mentors) for not doing enough to get the public to vote for them, regardless of how talented they are.
Well said. I am a massive sytycd fan but if it comes back next year they need to get rid of two things-Jason and Bonnie. One is so patronising and plays favourites and the second adds no value to the whole process. It’s still a great show and I’m sure they could get Jason gilkinson and Kelley abbey in as new judges or perhaps David atkins. I’m just sick to death of Jason Coleman trying to educate the viewers at home… It’s too much.
David…you’ve hit the ‘nail on the head’ …. i could have written this article myself – everything you say is completely true and definately the way i (probably most people) feel…. “Shut up Jason”….!!!!!!!
Well here I go blowing this same old trumpet.
I am not paying my hard earned money to place votes on these types of shows.
This format basically subsidises the production costs
It also gives the result of last night and what we have seen on Idol before
If you run with this format – then expect this result, because this is what you will get.
If the Judges disagree – then let them vote, as David has already said.
No One is a winner here – The voters do their money and the judges don’t get the correct pool to keep their favourites.
I think one of the key things here is that they’ve always said they’re looking for Australia’s “favourite” dancer. They never say best. Half of it is ability sure but the other half is likeability. Someone like that Matt guy in my opinion probably won’t last long because I find he comes across as arrogant no matter how well he can dance. (He actually reminds me a lot of Spencer from The Hills both in physical appearance and personality.)
the judging takes too long, the packages are not edited tightly enough, and i hate the banana commercials dressed up as rehearsal footage.
i agree with some of what you have said daivd, the show is def stretched and it should be more like 30 mins long with 3 ad breaks!
I did agree with jason though, australia got it totally wrong last night and the worst couples were saved and the best up for elimination, don should have gone last night.