ABC's Dancing with the Stars Rematch Suggests Viewers Can Make a Difference

The Summer of 2005 will be remembered in television circles for one program only: ABC's unexpected smash hit Dancing with the Stars. Americans of all ages flocked to this competition show built around ballroom dancing and made it the biggest summer broadcast series since the first edition of Survivor on CBS back in 2000.

Dancing lasted only six weeks and ended its run on July 6 but it hasn't stopped making news since. First came the outrage by viewers and critics following the unexpected victory of General Hospital actress Kelly Monaco and her dance partner Alec Mazo over popular favorites John O'Hurley and his partner, Charlotte Jorgensen. As if to pour salt in the wounds of the offended, the three judges on the program — Carrie Ann Inaba, Bruno Tonioli and Len Goodman — awarded Monaco and Mazo three 10s for their final dance, the first and only time any dancers received a perfect 30 points during the series.

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The excitement continued throughout the summer, as the Dancing controversy became the hottest topic at the July 2005 Television Critics Association tour. Before that three-week gathering was over ABC announced that Dancing would return in January as a mighty midseason replacement series. ABC also said that a results show would be added to the franchise, giving greater importance and immediacy to viewer voting.

Then came last week's announcement from ABC revealing that, in a nod to the lingering controversy surrounding Monaco's win, the network will telecast a live 90-minute rematch between Monaco/Mazo and O'Hurley/Jorgensen and a results show next month during the broadcast networks' all-important premiere week. The dance-off will air 8:30-10 p.m. on Tuesday, September 20. The live results show is scheduled for 9-9:30 p.m. on Thursday, September 22 (opposite the season premieres of CBS' CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and NBC's The Apprentice). In a departure from the franchise's usual approach, only the viewers' votes will determine who wins the rematch.

The ongoing story of this show is noteworthy because its continuing evolution has likely been directly influenced by the passion of its viewers as communicated by television critics from some of the country's leading newspapers. Viewers had two big gripes: They weren't happy about the outcome of the first season and they wanted a more immediate follow-up to their voting. They complained to their local critics. The critics heard them and made certain the network heard them as well.

Outcry in Orlando

Indeed, fueled by the responses of their readers, a handful of critics wasted no time in grilling ABC Entertainment president Steve McPherson about the show during his TCA press conference last month. One of them — Hal Boedeker of the Orlando Sentinel — really stayed on message, speaking out repeatedly about concerns expressed by his readers. First there was the matter of the show's strange voting process. When Boedeker asked if ABC was going to "change that at all," especially the part about the final dance "not figuring into the count," McPherson replied, "We haven't made that decision yet, but your feedback is really appreciated."

Boedeker was particularly passionate about Dancing because it had done extremely well in his city — in fact, among all of the Nielsen metered markets Dancing scored the highest in Orlando. But Boedeker's readers had expressed formidable outrage over the show's outcome and had also responded with special praise to a column he wrote complaining about Monaco's victory. "I heard more about that column than anything I had written about during the last year," Boedeker tells MediaVillage. "There was a feeling that it was like a conspiracy. How could three judges come up with perfect scores for the last dance?" Boedeker received hundreds of e-mails and phone calls from viewers on the matter, many pointing out what they thought were obvious mistakes in Monaco's final performance. The "conspiracy" so many viewers thought they detected had to do with Monaco being involved with another ABC show.

The intense interest in the program by Boedeker's readers was due in part to the fact that they reside in Orlando, a city with significant ties to ABC's parent company, the Walt Disney Co. "A lot of people here work for Disney [at Disney World]," Boedeker explains. "Right off the bat it means something to them [if a program is a Disney property]. It's sort of a hometown aspect. They want Disney to do well. They pay special attention to Disney projects and programming. The success of Desperate Housewives and Lost meant a lot to these people. If Disney does better it means a lot locally."

Some critics, including Boedeker, believe that the idea for a results show was either hatched or strengthened during the TCA session with McPherson when Boedeker asked, "What would you say to the viewers who were just so disappointed in Dancing that they say they'll never come back to it?"

"I hope that's not true," McPherson replied. "I don't know. Should there be a rematch between [Monaco and O'Hurley]? Would that satisfy people?"

Boedeker knew a good idea when he heard it. "A dance-off?" he asked.

"A dance-off," McPherson repeated. "Maybe that's what we'll do."

During the Dancing press conference later the same day with the producers of the show, the judges and Monaco, Boedeker told them, "Steve McPherson raised the idea of a dance-off." Then he asked, "Is there a possibility of that? Would you be up to that, Kelly?"

"That's funny," Monaco replied. "That's really funny. Bring it on. Bring it on."

"You would do it?" Boedeker continued.

"You want a dance-off?" Monaco asked. "Come on up here. I'll give you a dance-off!"

As the room burst into laughter and applause, Boedeker turned his questions to Paul Teledgy of the BBC (Dancing originated in the United Kingdom) and producer Izzie Pick. "The whole idea of the dance-off, would you consider it?" he asked.

"It sounds like a good idea," Telegdy replied.

"It does sound like a good idea," Pick added. "Who knows?"

Boedeker says if he did indeed have an impact on the development of a results show that the credit should go to his readers. "Newspaper readers really should let TV critics and network executives know what they're thinking," he asserts. "They can produce a response. If you don't like something on TV don't sit and brood about it. Speak up! Do something!"

Boedeker also sees the experience as another example of the value of the twice-yearly Television Critics Association tours. "It's our opportunity to talk to [network executives] about decisions that they make that impact so many lives," he says. "It's incredibly important."