Why I stopped…
I’m Sorry!!!
I have a confession to make to the possibly zero readers of this blog series…I don’t really care anymore about DWTS: The Next Pro. I think that this was a fail from ABC and seems like a cash grab more than anything. It got to the point where I stopped ordering Wingstop before each episode because I just didn’t think that it was worth all that.
Why it failed…
To justify my reasoning here are my top 5 points on why this show failed horribly for me:
It Was Rushed - I truly believe that this show was rushed out to production. Even the episodes themselves feel cut short, almost like an after school program or something from kids television that was designed solely to fill a slot in the daily TV programs. The only part that I truly cared about were the dances at the end, which only took up about 15 minutes of the total 45-minute runtime. The earlier segments usually contain some fabricated-for-tv drama between some of the dancers, some confessionals which offer nothing, and boring rehearsal B-roll. They sometimes do extras like the “dates” that the partners went on during the chemistry week, but something about it always felt off and shallow.
It Had No Identity - what is this show? I mean of course it is a dancing competition reality TV show. That would be the technical term. However, when I watch the episodes I just feel ungrounded. It includes footage of the home that the dancers live at during the competition and some parts are filmed like reality TV then cut back to the staged bits from the judges and rehearsals, then it cuts to a live-TV vibe during the dance performances, then there are random shots like the obviously sponsored bits where the dancers spray got2be products in their hair before running out on stage. It needed to find its own groove and do it well. It did not.
I Don’t Care - I think that what makes DWTS special for the viewers is that we see our favorite or least favorite celebrities go out and be vulnerable on live TV. It gives us a chance to see our favorite athletes in places that we would never see them otherwise. It gives us a chance to laugh at our favorite reality TV stars one more time. It’s like when you had those assemblies where your teachers would play stupid games to compete with each other for some sort of party for their classroom. It was great seeing your otherwise boring or rude teachers get pied in the face in front of the entire school. Same vibe. here, however, I don’t know any of these dancers. They also don’t do anything to make us care about them either. I’m forced to grab whatever personality I can from them during these rushed episodes to try and form an opinion on who I’m even rooting for to win this thing.
No Live Audience - again, one of the main draws of DWTS is that it is live. You don’t want to watch the highlights on YouTube afterwards, you want to see it live so that you can be among the millions at home to witness a fail on TV or a legendary performance. You also want to be able to vote. This is a cornerstone of what makes DWTS work. We had so much influence on who stayed and who left each week during the competition. Now on The Next Pro, why are these dancers being filmed in such a way if they are in an empty room with just the three judges and the camera crew? How will they be prepared to face the live audience while also being livestreamed to almost every TV in America? Why not use the live audience tickets as a way to help fund the show and bring awareness to it? Nothing makes sense…
Broken Formula - I hate to be harsh but maybe this just isn’t the right format to find “the next pro”. It doesn’t feel like much of a competition if I can truly only see three of the contestants actually making it to DWTS and dancing next to the likes of Val and Daniella. Even then, there would be such a high skill gap. I don’t really know why this group was chosen, as it wasn’t explained to the viewers and therefore I’m not lead to really trust the whole process. It feels random. Do they need to do this to add an extra pro to DWTS? Is there nobody good enough in troupe right now? So many questions. Also the judging is completely arbitrary to me since there is no official scoring on this show. Another huge part of DWTS is rating each dance from 1-10, so even if there is no audience to vote to add to the scoreboards I’m not sure why the judges don’t use a proper system to make it all seem fair and less subjective.
Conclusion
With all of that being said, I was excited to have another DWTS product to watch, but was left underwhelmed. It only brings to me a spark of what the original show does and it seems very sloppily put together. Nevertheless, I’m still going to finish the show and I’m excited to see who will really be joining DWTS this fall. I give them props for at least trying to expand and I hope that this doesn’t affect the climbing success of the OG show. If they bring this back next year I hope that it will be revamped and reformulated.
