So...who won???

[dmg]

I was unaware of everything you've written Andy. Thanks for enlightening me! I'd never heard of, or read anything, about Jason or the other judges, unlike Idol where most people know of the judges by their music or radio careers.

The only thing I picked up on was that Jason would highly praise most of the choreographers & I thought it was really rude when he would ignore one or two of them & fail to mention or praise them at all.

[msmrsmiss]

Originally Posted by andole

I felt sorry for Rhys, it was exactly like Zach on BB last year - the gay gay missed out again! I don't think it's a conspiracy or anything but I kind of felt bad that our society couldn't quite get him across the line. I don't think there was anything to split them as dancers. I do think that Jason Coleman was playing favourites right from the start and he was successful in eliminating quite a few challengers to Jack. However none of that is Jack's fault, he danced his heart out and is a worthy winner.

Natalie improved every week as a host and she really seemed to have a great rapport with the dancers. She also looked stunning every week which I quite enjoyed.

Time for a rant actually now that the series has ended:

I'm concerned about Jason's role as a judge though. He has already been confirmed for next season and he has a number of question marks over his head. At first I though he was great, but as time went on his agendas became exposed. First, he has an affiliation with several of the choreographers and he is currently starting a school in Melbourne with a couple of them. You could almost tell who they were by how much praise they got and how completely free of criticism they were. He also had taught a couple of the dancers in the competition and favoured them - Jack and Kate being the obvious ones.

He was quite nasty to a couple of the dancers - Henry and Vanessa in particular. He withheld a lot of praise for both of them and praised the choreography instead. But if they made a mistake, he was all over them. Jason also made some very inappropriate comments on radio about them. He said that Henry was fake and arrogant and cried fake tears on the show (when actually the routine he was teary about was quite relevant to the recent death of his greandmother). He also said that Vanessa needed a good .... *silence*, then said "loosen-up". Can you believe that? Horrible thing to say about a shy Chinese girl ballet dancer. He kept trying to turn her into a sex kitten which wasn't her nature.

Overall Jason became so sneaky that he lost credibility as a judge. Matt Lee is his lap dog and agreed with everything he said. I think that's a problem because judges should comment on routines, not personalities. I thought it affected the vibe of the whole show because you could see how nervous some dancers were whenever Jason spoke. It was a stark contrast with the brilliant judging on the US series. Constructive criticism at all times but not personal.

Rant over.

INTERESTING!! Thanks for this. I couldnt put my finger on what the issue was, but there was something about this Oz Dance that was holding the show back for me. It needed some healthy balancing, from the sounds of things.
It seemed clear that Jason was an authoritative judge and that he did not have anyone else on the panel who could match him. I didnt like Bonnie's style and Matt seemed a little ineffectual. If it was a Jason show that all makes more sense. I agree, some of the dancers seemed afraid of him.