Editorial: Dancing With The Stars, who cares?

David Seymour has earned a reputation as a contestant with a sharp wit who gets blunt feedback from the judges.

Reality television is a guilty pleasure that many won't admit to.
It gets tarred with the trashy, shallow brush. But we watch it.

And every now and then, it forces us to think.

Take Dancing With The Stars. The premise is simple - a group of celebs are paired with a professional dancer.

The less the celeb can dance, the better, as it raises the cringe factor.

Each week, a dancer is scored according to their ability and then the public chip in and vote someone off.

Or into a "dance off" where the judges choose who goes.

The worst dancer is consistently not voted off. Which begs the question, if DWTS is not a dance competition, what is it?

Bizarrely, the highest judges' score handed out this past week was to former Black Cap Chris Harris and his partner Vanessa Cole.

They received 27/30. Yet the public vote placed them in the bottom two.

Does this reflect public profile, social media status? Two weeks ago, Roger Farrelly fell over dancing the quickstep.

Did hosting a radio show help him stay in the competition?

Roger Farrelly takes a tumble with his partner Carol-Ann during their quickstep performance on DWTS.

None of this explains ACT NZ leader David Seymour's popularity.

Seymour isn't much of a dancer, but has a wit to rival DWTS host Dai Henwood.

David Seymour is guided around the dance floor during DWTS.

Sadly the show is not Laughing With The Stars. But Seymour's survival is perplexing.

So what is DWTS? Escapism, voyeurism, exploitation?

Perhaps the next time someone over-analyses your favourite reality TV show, the other question to ask is if the only people getting hurt are MPs and radio jocks crashing to the floor, "who cares?".