Just when we thought the reality craze was dying down, a new, high-profile dancing competition series is heading to the US. Although a bidding war hasn’t happened between the major networks to nab the dancing show, yet, Dance, Dance, Dance comes from the same company that produced The Voice, so there’s at least a good chance we’ll see it on network TV this time next year. But would it be able to stand out from the pack of other dance-oriented reality competition programs?
The general premise of Dance, Dance, Dance is pretty simple. The show has already aired in the Netherlands, and follows teams of two who compete for charity money. There are two new bits to the format. First, celebrities are competing on the show, but not with professional dancers. Instead, they choose a partner—a relative or friend—to compete with each week. The second twist is that the celebrities will be tasked with recreating famous dances, presumably stuff from movies like Grease or Dirty Dancing, etc. The goal is to get as close to the original choreography as possible. If it moves forward, the show would also use 3D to put the celebrity dancers and their partners into the backdrop of the original dances. That part sounds fancy, at least.
People in the Netherlands love it. Deadline is reporting Dance, Dance, Dance premiered earlier this month to good ratings and has already been renewed for a second season in that area.
Obviously, the premise is a little bit different than the other dancing shows we’ve seen on TV, including Dancing with the Stars, So You Think You Can Dance and America’s Best Dance Crew, but I foresee two problems with the new format. First, the celebrity and team of two element makes it seem a bit like Dancing with the Stars, although since there’s no professional dancer involved, the dances are actually less likely to offer a “wow” factor than ABC’s hit show. In addition, over the years, Dancing with the Stars has had more and more trouble getting famous people to appear on the show. They’ve started adding the children of famous people, combat soldiers (although Noah Galloway rocked out) and even YouTube stars to the lineup. This hasn’t affected the dancing any, obviously, but it could be hard for Dance, Dance, Dance to entice a celebrity pool without dipping into the same pool Dancing with the Stars has already tried.
A lot of people are less excited about reality TV than they once were, and while I personally still watch the heck out of The Amazing Race and Shark Tank each week, I’m a little more hesitant to get excited about yet another dancing competition heading to the air. The last time a genre got saturated like this was with singing competition shows, when The Voice, The X Factor, American Idol and The Sing-Off were all competing for eyeballs, and we all know what happened to The X Factor in the States.
The project is currently in development for a US audience, meaning no network has picked up Dance, Dance, Dance, yet. Perhaps it will stay that way. We’ll keep you updated regardless of what ends up happening.
