Ten’s So You Think You Can Dance Australia sinks to 365,000
Channel Ten has seen a disappointing return to the reality dance show format with ratings for So You Think You Can Dance Australia sinking to 365,000 last night, reminiscent to the averages for Everybody Dance Now just before it was cancelled.
The second outing of the show starring Paula Abdul as a judge launched to 466,000 on Sunday and failed to stack up against Seven’s My Kitchen Rules and Nine’s The Block last night as they averaged 1.948m and 1.068m viewers respectively in the 7.30pm timeslot, preliminary overnight metro ratings from OzTam show.
Ten has revived the dance competition format following a four year break, while its experiment with Everybody Dance Now ended after just a fortnight in 2012 as it was cancelled after poor ratings.
The show fronted by Sarah Murdoch and made by Fremantle Media, rated as low as 304,000 and averaged 385,000 just before it was cancelled.
The lesson here is that they probably shouldn’t have messed with the format. The show has already chosen the top 100 dancers for us. Cutting out the auditions of the program’s previous incarnation in Australia as well as the US version has got it off to an awkward start. Viewers don’t get to connect with an amazing dancer discovered through the auditions and follow them through the finals. And this new format is not good for getting the audience to connect with the judges, we’ve missed any fireworks and heated discussions between the during the audition process and their role in this new format of tightly organized groups of dancers is just bland. Basic TV 101 of drawing your audience in seems to be continuingly forgotten at 10. I used to enjoy this show, but this format has failed to draw me in.
Who does the programming at Ch 10? To put SYTYCD up agains the behemoth of MKR is programming suicide. You need to give the new SYTYCD a chance. Any idiot can tell you that MKR would trounce it.
The ‘dance’ drama construct is dead cold not just on reality TV, but in TV drama and also at the movies. It had a good run but that was 5-7 years ago.
why anyone thought this would connect is baffling. Plus it has to go against the two strongest TV formats in Australia which basically sealed its fate.
Spot on, Daniel.
You wonder about the brainstrust there at Ten.
They made a huge mistake by skipping the audition process. That’s how you connect & fall in love with the contestants, as a viewer. Starting with choreography just makes them all the same. How are we supposed to differentiate them by their dancing? Instead they are caricatured into “the Greek guy”, “the lesbians”, “the sisters”, “the farm boy”, “the emotional boy trying to make his single mother proud”, etc. I know they always have a personal story but in order for the show to work, it should be about the dancing. Otherwise we may as well be watching Masterchef (or The Block or My Kitchen Rules).
Channel Nine tried twice and failed twice on Schapelle.Maybe Seven is rethinking its large payment to get her story. SYTYCD- please realise no one is watching. MKR No 1, The Block No 7. that says it all.
S H O C K I N G scheduling!
So Ten has a great idea. Let’s make our huge loss making dance show again. Yes great idea let’s do it. Then they have another idea. Let’s renew our poorly received drama, Wonderland. Yes let’s do it. The first flops, the second is pending. Not to mention the huge failure of its morning shows. How Ten’s board and management has any credibility with its advertisers is beyond me. It is worse than the Titanic, at least it sank quickly.
This network if it was raining film stars, it would get washed down the drain with Lassie
Someone in TEN programming must have wanted to kill this and stuck it in a death slot.
Given the already low numbers, dropping 100,000 viewers during the show is all advertisers will care about, with time-shift everyone fast forwards the ads so the stats for that aren’t relevant.
TV is ONLY about advertising bucks, what we watch is the filler designed to keep us tuned in between the ads. Decisions about what’s produced and when it’s watched are made by corporates who anticipate what they think the advertisers will think the viewers want to see. If a show can’t even hold viewers during the first episode advertisers will just pull their money and let it die.
I love America’s SYTYCD. The format is great. The auditions make up a really special part of the whole show (and the great part is that they don’t show the thousands of terrible dancers that audition – only the “special’ few – they concentrate on the real talent but you do get to see them try out which is very special). Not going on that journey has made me feel disconnected from the show from the outset.
Last night’s episode was such a sad and disappointing attempt at such a hugely successful franchise. The set design was an appalling, low budget attempt that gave off a really tacky red faces style 80’s feel. There was absolutely no class to the staging, the judging panel or the lighting.
The camera work was not good at all.
Carrie is definitely not the right host for the show. I know that we are only a country of 24 million people but surely there is someone more charismatic, fun and natural to host the show!
I loved that Christopher Scott was out here to choreograph but was bitterly dissapointed that his class and talent as a choreographer was not showcased because of the terrible set, lighting and camera work.
The most disappointing aspect of the whole thing is that there are some absolutely amazing, talented dancers in this year’s show and they are not being given the appropriate platform for their talent to be recognised and celebrated.
Come on Chanel 10 – you have gold sitting in the palm of your hand, don’t let it slip through your fingers yet again!