The Sydney Morning Herald analyzes the appeal of So You Think You Can Dance Australia, even quoting our friend Reality Raver:
Reality TV blogger Emma Ashton says that until recently, Australian audiences haven't been exposed to dance. "I think a lot of people in Australia haven't been able to see dancing as much as they would have liked ... and I think the cost of seeing proper dancing or the knowledge of where to go and see it is limited for a lot of people."
Ashton says the program has a higher feelgood factor than other reality shows.
"The elimination night starts with a group [dance] number and it makes you feel 'up' straight away. [Idol doesn't do it] at the beginning of the show. They have a recap, then they go into a group number, but it's always some sort of ritual humiliation that they put the singers through each week."
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The SMH piece also quotes Jason Coleman saying:
"[I think] after nine years of reality television, people are latching onto the honesty of it and the integrity of it," says Jason Coleman, one of the show's three judges. "There's not a lot of manipulation going on, there's not a lot of squeezing of them and getting them to cry, we don't need to do that.
What then to make of this piece in the the Daily Telegraph quoting dancer Rhiannon Villareal:
``You can say it's down to the public (voting), but we know that it's a little bit rigged,'' she said.
``They've got to make good TV.''
Rigged? Does she mean rigged like the results are pre-determined?
Asked to explain her criticism, Villareal, 19, said: ``When I say rigged, I mean it's like popularity.
``It makes it harder for the versatile dancers to do something different. It's definitely not the best dancers. It's popularity, who's nicest on camera.''
Ok, she lost me. What am I missing?
