Executive Producer Rob Wade Interviewed On The New Cast Of Dancing With The Stars And More
Give it up to Dancing With The Stars Executive Producer Rob Wade! I can’t commend him enough for the cast he’s put together and all the changes and surprises we saw last night!!! It really feels as if he is listening to us (ie: choosing Allison Holker to dance, bringing Sharna Burgess and Gleb Savchenko back, and more). Below is a new interview with The Wrap for where he talks all about it. More at the link for why he chose Julianne Hough as a 4th judge, how there will be more guest judges, and more!
The Wrap: Have you met your expectations on the cast?
Rob Wade: What’s great is we have a real diverse cast. Nineteen seasons in, we’re still able to find people from different backgrounds and different types of celebrity. We have Bethany Mota, a YouTube star. We’ve never had that before. Also, NASCAR driver Michael Waltrip, we’ve never had that before and it really opens the show up to others. We have young. We have old. We have some really good dancers, as well. I’m excited by it.
How much does the craziness of the show’s casting rumors affect your decisions? Do you take a temperature on it?
I wouldn’t say we take a temperature on it, no. We definitely listen to people’s ideas and hear what people have to say. Casting the show goes beyond βIs that a good name?β You have to think of the cast as a family and you need different aspects for the cast. It can’t be one note.We’re the only show out there at the moment that’s genuinely a family show. You can watch this with your grandchildren, your aunt, your grandfather, your father. There’s something in this show for everyone. So, obviously, not everyone is going to please everyone. If they did, we did something wrong. Everybody in the family has to have someone to cheer on.
Fans seem to miss having a results show. How do you handle the loss of that?
No individual one thing is bigger than the show as a whole. It’s just a great format. It gives us great ability to do different things. We have got two results shows for the first two weeks this season, which is great. There’s a lot of entertaining and interesting stuff in there.But then again when we do get to one day a week, the great thing about that is that you make it an event once a week. Both things are good. You have to adapt and use change for your advantage.
Hi Rob Wade!
Love what you’ve done so far. (Except for the 4th judge)
π
You’ve done a splendid job so far, Rob. One thing concerns me, however. Including a Youtube star involves someone with *millions* of followers in what is basically a popularity contest. This could throw the voting numbers seriously askew. The followers of the person selected would mostly consist of very young people. The general public, on the other hand, is becoming increasingly mature in age. There is a risk of alienating a large portion of the show’s demographic by choosing someone who almost cannot lose the home vote, no matter what they do on the dance floor. I’m not sure what the outcome will be, but I think this situation deserves study. My own favorite saying about business is “know your demographic”. Nothing is more important than that. In an interactive show where the public votes, they want to feel that their vote matters. Anything that persuades them otherwise, may irritate them considerably.
@Lina- I think it’s been proved in the past that despite having millions of followers, it won’t necessarily bring in the votes. Just look at Cody last season who was the 4th person out and had tons of followers. Other than maybe Amber, I don’t think any of the winners have had over a million followers and have beat people that have had millions of followers. Zendaya and James are also examples of people that danced well and got to the finale but couldn’t win. You may have the twitter followers, but you need the average viewer to win.
Personally, I think it was a smart idea on their part. They’re trying harder to bring up the ratings in the demo and she’s got some good competition. And I don’t think the producers really care too much about he amount of votes that come in. I’m sure they’re just going for anything that will bring up viewership. Kudos to them for trying something different.
The biggest advantage Bethany might have is being paired with the best dancer and choreographer on the show in Derek Hough!!
My favorites after night one were Sadie, Bethany, Chong, and Alfonso in no particular order.
My picks to go home first are either Lolo or Betsey Johnson. Both were flat out awful!
As Kaitlyn points out, there is nothing “new” in the Bethany situation that hasn’t been happening for several seasons now.
I just saw the ratings for last night and they are actually doing okay in the key demo for a change….so it seems to me that Rob isn’t likely to listen to the suggestion that he make changes.
I certainly hope I’m wrong about the millions of followers advantage. Thanks for your informative reply, Kaitlyn.
From last nite show October 6. My comment is no matter how many Leah thompsons you have there is no replacement for maksim and metyl doing their incredible latch on segment of last season. Everything. Looks like a copycat of their style and elegance and none of your guests can come close to what meryl and maks created. It will live forever and shame on you for allowing such flagrant imitations. Goodbye. Dwts for me.
LOL, Melitta. You should try spelling Meryl right, if you’re going to play the role of super fangirl shipper.