So You Think You Can Dance (Australia)
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''So You Think You Can Dance Australia'' is an Australian version of the American reality dance competition '' So You Think You Can Dance''. The show is hosted by Carrie Bickmore, with judges
Paula Abdul Paula Julie Abdul (born June 19, 1962) is an American singer, dancer, choreographer, actress, and television personality. She began her career as a cheerleader for the Los Angeles Lakers at the age of 18 and later became the head choreograph ...
, Shannon Holtzapffel, Jason Gilkison and Aaron Cash. The first season began airing on Sunday, 3 February 2008 at 7.30 pm and continued on Sundays and Mondays until the final on 27 April 2008. The program's second season began airing on Sunday, 1 February 2009 and continued on Sundays and Mondays until the final on 26 April 2009. The third season began on 31 January 2010 and continued on Wednesdays and Thursdays until 21 April 2010. The show was previously hosted by former '' The X Factor'' judge
Natalie Bassingthwaighte Natalie Bassingthwaighte (; born 1 September 1975) is an Australian recording artist, actress, and Celebrity, television personality. Born and raised in Wollongong, New South Wales, she began her career in musical theatre. She later pursued an ...
, with Jason Coleman, Matt Lee and Bonnie Lythgoe acting as the judges. Through telephone and SMS text voting, viewers have chosen nineteen-year-old Broadway dancer Jack Chambers, eighteen-year-old Ballet dancer
Talia Fowler Talia Fowler is an Australian dancer who won the 2009 season of ''So You Think You Can Dance Australia''. Born in Brisbane, Queensland, Fowler started ballet and jazz dance at the age of three. After entering the Queensland Ballet, she stayed ...
and eighteen-year-old Contemporary dancer Robbie Kmetoni as ''Australia's Favourite Dancer''. The eligible age-range for contestants is currently 18–35 years old. In July 2010 it was announced Network Ten had cancelled ''So You Think You Can Dance Australia'' in favour of a new musical/dancing format for 2011. However, Network Ten says they are in continual discussions with production company
FremantleMedia Australia Fremantle Australia Pty Ltd. (formerly FremantleMedia Australia) is the Australian arm of global British production and entertainment company Fremantle. It was formed in 2006 by the merger of market leader Grundy Television and comedy speciali ...
and Conrad Sewell Productions regarding the format's future. In 2011, rumors began to appear in the Australian media industry press that the series would be returned to broadcast, likely on original home network Ten. The show returned with a fourth series broadcast on Network Ten starting on 9 February 2014.


Series overview


Overview of format and presentation by season


Grand finalists


Season 1 (2008)

Auditions for the first season were held during July and August 2008 in Perth, Brisbane, Melbourne, Adelaide and Sydney. After being selected, through either an impressive initial audition or after a choreography workshop, the top 100 contestants spent a week in Sydney for more auditions, ultimately forming a Top 20. Auditions began on 9 October 2007 in Brisbane, Queensland and ended in Sydney, New South Wales on 6 November 2007. A 600-seat arena was constructed in Sydney for the finals. Jack Chambers was announced as the winner on 26 April 2008. Chambers won $200,000 prize money and the title of ''Australia's Favourite Dancer'', with Rhys Bobridge, Kate Wormald, Demi Sorono finishing as runner-up, third place and fourth place respectively. Several finalists later performed during the
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''
Australian Idol ''Australian Idol'' is an Australian singing competition, which began its first season in July 2003 and ended its initial run in November 2009. As part of the ''Idol'' franchise, Australian Idol originated from the reality program ''Pop Idol' ...
'' grand final, as well as Ten's New Year's Eve broadcast.


Season 2 (2009)

Auditions for the second season were held during September and November 2008. Dancers auditioning were requested to bring pre-approved copyright music CDs because of music licensing issues. Judges hoped that season 2 would see more industry dancers auditioning after the favourable response to the first season of the show. Repeats of the performance and results show aired a week later on
MuchMusic Much (an abbreviation for its full name MuchMusic) is a Canadian English language specialty channel owned by BCE Inc. through its Bell Media subsidiary that airs programming aimed at teenagers and young adults. MuchMusic launched on August 31 ...
. Talia Fowler was announced the winner on 27 April 2009. Fowler received $200,000 prize money, the title of ''Australia's Favourite Dancer'' and the opportunity to perform at the finale of America's version of So You Think You Can Dance, while Ben Veitch came 4th place, then Amy Campbell came 3rd place, while lastly Charlie Bartley was named runner-up. Nigel Lythgoe and Mary Murphy made separate appearances in this season as guest judges.


Season 3 (2010)

The third season premiered on 31 January 2010. Robbie Kmetoni was announced the winner on 21 May 2010. Kmetoni received $200,000 prize money and the title of ''Australia's Favourite Dancer''. Furthermore, he will have the opportunity to choose from three exclusive dance contracts (including Australian Dance Theatre, Hairspray and Burn the Floor) to perform throughout Australia and overseas, While Robbie Kmetoni's friend Jessie Hesketh was named runner-up, then Ivy Heeney came 3rd place, while lastly Phillipe Witana came 4th place and the first season where each contestants were in the bottom three or four.


Cancellation and Revival

In July 2010, it was announced
Network Ten Network 10 (commonly known as Ten Network, Channel 10 or simply 10) is an Australian commercial television network owned by Ten Network Holdings, a division of the Paramount Networks UK & Australia subsidiary of Paramount Global. One of five ...
would not recommission ''So You Think You Can Dance Australia'' for a 2011 season. It follows media speculation the show had been cancelled, and talks Ten had a new " shiny floor" format to reveal. Ten advised
FremantleMedia Australia Fremantle Australia Pty Ltd. (formerly FremantleMedia Australia) is the Australian arm of global British production and entertainment company Fremantle. It was formed in 2006 by the merger of market leader Grundy Television and comedy speciali ...
that it would opt out of format, but didn't rule out a future return. Instead Ten was to develop a local version of British talent show
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, inspired by the success of
Glee Glee means delight, a form of happiness. Glee may also refer to: * Glee (music), a type of English choral music * ''Glee'' (TV series), an American musical comedy-drama TV series, and related media created by Ryan Murphy * ''Glee'' (Bran Van 30 ...
. ''Don't Stop Believing'' was instead to be produced by Shine Australia, which is headed by former FremantleMedia Australia executives. Plans were halted late 2010, with the show cancelled before starting. In October 2011, Ten began airing ads for So You Think You Can Dance Australia implying it would be returning soon, but Ten were yet to release details on when. In February 2012 rumors began to emerge in the Australian media press that former '' Australia's Next Top Model'' host Sarah Murdoch had been approached to take over hosting duties for a revival of the show as Natalie Bassingthwaighte has moved on to a judging position for Australia's iteration of music talent show The X-Factor who is replacing Natalie Imbruglia. The show was also rumored to be returning to its original network, Channel Ten. These rumors ultimately proved to be inaccurate when Ten revealed that it had engaged Murdoch to host a different dance-themed show entitled '' Everybody Dance Now''. Ultimately the show did return to broadcast on Network Ten, airing season 4 in the spring of 2014 after a four-year hiatus.


Season 4 (2014)

The show resumed airing on 9 February 2014 featuring a shortened format with one show broadcast a week, similar to the U.S. seasons 9 and 10. The new format also eliminated the open audition process, with the season opening at the Top 100 stage, these dancers having been selected via audition tapes and processes not portrayed in any episode, a format atypical of So You Think You Can Dance shows, which generally show the contestant selection process from earlier auditions on. The show also featured an entire change in judging cast, with
Paula Abdul Paula Julie Abdul (born June 19, 1962) is an American singer, dancer, choreographer, actress, and television personality. She began her career as a cheerleader for the Los Angeles Lakers at the age of 18 and later became the head choreograph ...
, Aaron Cashacting,
Jason Gilkison Jason Gilkison is an Australian professional ballroom dance champion and choreographer. Early life Gilkison was born in Perth, Australia. He was raised by his single mum, Kay. At age 4, he began dancing at the Perth ballroom dance studio, fo ...
, and Shannon Holtzapffel filling the seats of the panel, as well as a change in host, with Carrie Bickmore presenting. The fourth season concluded on Thursday, 1 May with contemporary dancers Michael Dameski and Lauren Seymour taking 1st and 2nd places respectively. To date, neither Network Ten nor the show's producers have made a statement as to whether the show will be returning for a fifth season.


Ratings

3 February 2008 premiere of ''So You Think You Can Dance Australia'' attracted a peak audience of 2.15 million viewers. The show was the night's top-rating program, averaging 1.83 million viewers over its timeslot. The following two audition episodes also put up respectable figures, peaking at 2.04 million and 1.94 million viewers respectively. The Sunday night Top 100 show averaged 1.6 million viewers to become the most watched program of the night. After its debut, the weekly performance show averaged around 1.5 million viewers. The series one finale averaged 1.8 million viewers, peaking at 2.2 million viewers nationwide. Over 50 per cent of Ten's key 18–49 age demographic had tuned into the show. In season 3, ratings further slumped to a below million average, after which the show was cancelled. Season 4's revival of the series had smaller viewership still, with most episodes pulling less than a million viewers, and several seeing viewership as low as 300,000.


Controversy

Jason Coleman has been questioned over his position as judge on the show, with members of the dance community accusing him of being under qualified, and using incorrect jargon on the show, calling a pivot a promenade. Eliminated contestant Marko Panzic also accused Coleman of playing favourites. Critics also cite a possible conflict of interest due to Coleman's external business relationship with choreographer Kelly Aykers. Coleman has responded to these criticisms, saying: "Mate, this is just nit-picking. With this show a pivot is the same thing as a promenade. In my world it's called a promenade, in the ballroom dancing world it's called a pivot. I'm aware of the differences but I don't have time in my minute-and-a-half speech to explain that." In response to the Aykers issue, he said: "Kelly Aykers has delivered three great routines. I would never put myself in a position where I would compliment a person's work because they are my friend. If the work deserves a compliment it will receive it, if it does not, it will not." The show has also received criticism from the Australian dance community and mainstream media over the representation of the art of dance on the show. In one example, commentator Valerie Lawson observes that "''So You Think You Can Dance Australia'' goes further. Its very success ... is compromising dance as a performance art. The audience is led to believe that the most obvious effort, the most athletic of tricks, and the most vulgar of moves, represent dance at its best. As hips swivel, the studio audience cheers. When a guy lifts a girl with as much finesse as a forklift truck the audience roars its approval." On two occasions the show has accidentally broadcast profanities during the PG-rated live show. On the first occasion, Ten issued an apology for a "indistinct and muffled" profanity uttered during the first elimination show, and promised that "efforts
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redoubled to prevent such an incident happening again." Nonetheless, when Sermsah Bin Saad was making his speech after being eliminated, he accidentally swore on national television, saying, "You guys are so fucking awesome!". At that time, Sermsah didn't realise that it was on live and apologised after finding out his mistake. In this case the profane word was censored during broadcast.On a high, dancer drops the F word


See also

* Dance on television


References


External links


So You Think You Can Dance Australia Top 20 Finalist biographies

So You Think You Can Dance, Sydney Dance Company Studio teachers and dancers
{{DEFAULTSORT:So You Think You Can Dance Australia Network 10 original programming 2008 Australian television series debuts 2010 Australian television series endings 2014 Australian television series debuts 2014 Australian television series endings Television series by Fremantle (company) Television shows set in Sydney English-language television shows Australian television series revived after cancellation Dance in Australia Australian television series based on American television series