News broke today that Hannah Tamaki is rumoured to have been cast for the upcoming season of Dancing with the Stars. Emily Writes explains why the religious leader and aspirant politician has no place on the show. Update, 25 February, 4.30pm: Mediaworks has announced that Hannah Tamaki has been dropped from the new season of … Read more
The Real Pod assembles to dissect the week in reality television and real life, with special thanks to Nando’s. The team is back to give it a good old Kiwi try across the seas this week, perhaps one of the biggest reality TV weeks of the year. Dancing With the Stars NZ had one explosive finale, … Read more
The Real Pod assembles to dissect the week in reality television and real life, with special thanks to Nando’s. This week the pod has been cursed with an almighty stench, but that won’t stop us recording our first full-length international podcast. It was an explosive semi-final week on Dancing With the Stars NZ, containing everything from … Read more
“It’s the semi-final of Dancing with the Stars! And so soon!” said nobody. Sam Brooks power-ranks the penultimate episodes of Dancing with the Stars. Everybody danced twice tonight! The theme for the first dance was ‘a tribute to a musical icon’ and with the 2019 definition of ‘iconic’ that could be extended to include the … Read more
Alex Casey meets Julz Tocker, the Dancing With the Stars NZ judge who refuses to sit down. If you’ve ever seen Dancing With the Stars NZ, you’ll know that judge Julz Tocker doesn’t do anything by halves. If anything, he does things by doubles. He meditates twice a day for 20 minutes. He has two … Read more
The Real Pod assembles to dissect the week in reality television and real life, with special thanks to Nando’s. It’s Jane’s second to last podcast in New Zealand and we have pulled out all the stops: a fire hazard, a cheesy bread cake from Nando’s and some incredibly interesting analysis of everyone’s favourite dancing show. There’s … Read more
Three eliminations down, three women gone. But why is Dancing with the Stars so harsh to its female contestants? Miriam Moore writes. The fourth week and third elimination of Dancing with the Stars has come and gone. Once again, the talent was off the charts, and we got to see what Aotearoa’s group of B-to-H-list celebrities … Read more
It’s week four of celebrity deadlifting competition, Dancing with the Stars. Sam Brooks power-ranks the contestants. Both episodes opened with two different choreograph dancers to Timmy Trumpets’ ‘Freaks’ featuring Savage. Did they get it for cheap if they played it twice? That’s a very specific choice! I’ll tell you one thing for free! No paywall here, premium content right … Read more
The Real Pod assembles to dissect the week in reality television and real life, with special thanks to Nando’s. With Duncan in Thailand, Alex and Jane (and occasionally Tina) shoulder the burden of recapping the past week in reality TV and extremely real news. There’s a bloody big cat on the loose in the South Island, … Read more
The Real Pod assembles to dissect the week in reality television and real life, with special thanks to Nando’s. This week Duncan is cavorting around Melbourne so Jane and Alex meet at the dining room table to talk about another hot week on this dance floor we call life. Need all the celebrity goss from the … Read more
Sam Brooks power-ranks week two of New Zealand’s premiere celebrity charity shimmying show, Dancing with the Stars. Hello, humans! Happy Easter Monday, the day after the day Jesus came back and his friends were not super excited to see him. How was your Easter? Were you one of those people who, deciding they needed to drink everything on Sunday, … Read more
The Real Pod assembles to dissect the week in reality television and real life, with special thanks to Nando’s. In the hangover of Married at First Sight Australia, we are overjoyed to shimmy onto the shiny lino of Dancing With the Stars NZ. Well, two of us are. Duncan only watched Laura’s dance on Instagram. Which … Read more
It’s that time of year again when we push celebrities onstage and make them dance for charity and also our amusement. Armed only with a limited knowledge of sportspeople and breakfast radio, Sam Brooks power-ranks the celebs lining up to compete in Dancing with the Stars. It is with the heaviest, arterially-clogged heart that I … Read more
Alex Casey talks to national treasure Suzy Cato about her new kids album, life after Dancing With the Stars and remaining zen about the pending future hellscape. It’s been half an hour and I can’t get Suzy Cato to say a bad word about anyone or anything. Not The Wiggles (“full support to The Wiggles, … Read more
Is it a real estate ad if you see more of the Dancing with the Stars judges than you see of the house? Our DWTSNZ power-ranker Sam Brooks investigates. I remember the old days, when people used to look at pictures of houses in the newspaper and then go along to open homes and hope the house … Read more
The Real Pod assembles to dissect the week in New Zealand pop culture and real life, with special thanks to Nando’s. This week on The Real Pod, the old gang is back together with your regular scheduled programming of reality madness. We look back at the whopper finale of Dancing With the Stars NZ, which crowned Sam Hayes … Read more
The season is over but there’s one more power ranking left to do. Who won the season – really? And who truly, truly lost the season? And who the hell is in between? Sam Brooks power ranks Dancing with the Stars one last time. 12. Robert Rakete Poor Robert Rakete. Coming into this competition, you’d think … Read more
You might not know that Dancing with the Stars NZ is actually filmed in front of a live studio audience. This week Miriam Moore was a member of that audience, and this is her story. Not since the days of Legends of the Hidden Temple have I longed to be a live audience member as much … Read more
It’s ’90s week on Dancing with the Stars – approximately the decade when this series started. We’re doing the power rankings again. And they have to dance not once, but twice! There is neither rhyme nor reason to these power rankings, so I will rank by dance, not by contestant. There’s just one more week to … Read more
The Real Pod assembles to dissect the week in New Zealand pop culture and real life, with special thanks to Nando’s. This week on The Real Pod, we’ve infiltrated the Radio Live studio to deliver you yet another week of reality TV recappery. Dancing With the Stars NZ is getting down to the wire with group … Read more
Week after week on Dancing with the Stars, the ACT leader has cheated eviction at the hands of the judges thanks to massive support from viewers, to the extent that he’s comfortably received more text votes than he did in the election last year. Anecdotally, much of his support is coming from young people. But why? … Read more
It’s a wintry theme this week on a Cato-less Dancing with the Stars. Who adjusts to the winter chill and who is left out in the cold? These puns and more in week eight’s power rankings. Note: Each contestant danced twice this week – once with their partner and once in a team – and I … Read more
In our video series Kiwis of Snapchat, comedian Tom Sainsbury sources exclusive Snapchat footage of Kiwi citizens and luminaries making the news. Today, Act leader David Seymour updates us on his Dancing With the Stars training. The Spinoff TV screens Fridays at 9.45pm from June 22nd on THREE. Thanks to NZ on Air. Click here … Read more
Seven weeks into Dancing with the Stars, The leader of the ACT Party has collected more votes to keep him on the show than he did in Epsom last September, The Spinoff has learned. The hard-twerking member of parliament for Epsom, David Seymour, has comfortably now received more votes for his efforts on Three’s Dancing with the … Read more
The Real Pod assembles to dissect the week in New Zealand pop culture and real life, with special thanks to Nando’s. This week on The Real Pod, Jane, Duncan and Alex are overwhelmed with reality TV realness. First Arun got booted from Survivor NZ. Then Suzy was sent home in a shocking Dancing With the Stars … Read more
It was a rough week for Dancing with the Stars, with a lot of low-lights (twerking, reggaeton) and only one shining highlight. Sam Brooks is here with the week’s power-rankings. ELIMINATED: Suzy Cato (and Matt) – Samba This is an absolute travesty. What is going on with this show. Suzy Cato is not just one of … Read more
The Real Pod assembles to dissect the week in New Zealand pop culture and real life, with special thanks to Nando’s. This week on The Real Pod, our trio is outshone by the amazing thruples on Dancing With the Stars NZ. Why are Jess Quinn’s angels shirtless? What do you call Chris Harris’ leg cape? And … Read more
Marama Fox is gone, god is dead, but Dancing with the Stars is still here – with TRIO dances? Sam Brooks power ranks whoever is left on this show. ELIMINATED: Robert Rakete (and Nicole AND Fabio) – Cha cha The big problem with these trio dances is the celebrity ends up being their very own … Read more
Marama Fox’s elimination from Dancing with the Stars NZ on Monday caused outrage across the nation. She talks with Leonie Hayden about leaving the show, ‘scrapping’ with producers, and why she wouldn’t back down on using her performances to showcase Māoritanga. Māori Party co-leader Marama Fox is often painted, fairly and unfairly, as firey, mouthy … Read more