After days of rumours, Mediaworks have removed Hannah Tamaki as a cast member for the 2020 season of Dancing with the Stars. Sam Brooks reflects on the controversy. On Sunday, the NZ Herald gossip column Spy broke the news that Hannah Tamaki – wife of Destiny Church founder Brian and head of newly-founded political party Vision … Read more
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
Laura Daniel has made a career out of committing to the bit. Sometimes it’s a joke. Sometimes it’s a zombie reality show. And sometimes it’s a ten-week celebrity dancing competition. In 2016, Laura Daniel was nominated for the Billy T Award for her show, Pressure Makes Diamonds. The show’s opening bit was also its best … Read more
Our three month celebrity charity journey is over! Sam Brooks power-ranks the finale of Dancing with The Stars. Can I just say what an honestly strange event the last episode of this kind of reality show is? It’s one hour and 59 minutes of edging, with as much padding and promotion for the network’s upcoming big … 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 pays tribute to one of the only good things left in this cold, hard world. There’s been a lot to love about this season of Dancing With the Stars NZ. If you like runaway ponytails, this is the show for you. If you like completely hectic judges being unpredictable and also changing their … Read more
It’s week eight of Dancing with the Stars, and (some of) our favourite celebs from past seasons return! Sam Brooks power-ranks the contestants. Credit where credit is due: This is a much better gambit than pairing people up with each other for devastatingly unbalanced triple dances. Who doesn’t want to see human lightbulb Barbara Kendall … Read more
They’re not tiny dancers, they’re Elton John sized! Thank the lord! Sam Brooks power-ranks week seven of Dancing with the Stars. I could have lived my whole life without seeing Dai Henwood play at being Elton John! But here we are in May 2019, readers. The world burns and drowns around us. Sincere question: Do … Read more
It’s week six of Dancing with the Stars, and the cream has risen from beneath the crop! Sam Brooks power-ranks the contestants. Week six! We’re at the stage of the competition where I can listen to a judge’s feedback and guess, with 100% accuracy, what their score is based on their comments. What a specific talent! … Read more
The Real Pod assembles to dissect the week in reality television and real life, with special thanks to Nando’s. This week on the pod we’re absolutely snowed under with exciting news from the reality TV world, the real world, and the Nando’s world. There’s a 24 year-old sheep knocking around, the old Milo formula is the … Read more
We’re halfway through the celebrity stepping competition that is Dancing with the Stars. Sam Brooks power-ranks week five! It was cool to see the judges acknowledge the harshness of their criticisms against the women in this competition, and, quite correctly, give the public a call to action to vote for the women! Does it matter? This is … Read more
The Real Pod assembles to dissect the week in reality television and real life, with special thanks to Nando’s. You asked for it: we’re all back in the same room, at the same time. Kind of. Alex is 20 minutes late and Jane got the time wrong, so Duncan starts an eight minute monopod. There’s much … 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
Only three weeks in and it feels like a thousand! Sam Brooks power-ranks the third week of celebrity sweep-the-floor-with-a-lady competition, Dancing with the Stars NZ. The theme of this week is guilty pleasure! Why is any music considered a guilty pleasure? Give me genuine, disturbing guilty pleasures please. I want to see someone do an interpretative … 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
Alex Casey talks to Courtney Act, host of Bravo’s The Bi Life, about her brand of political activism in the most unlikely of places – reality television. I don’t know if there is some kind of EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony) equivalent for reality television but, if there is, Courtney Act is already making her … Read more
New Zealand’s celebrity perambulator competition continues tonight! Sam Brooks power-ranks the second night of the first week of Dancing with the Stars NZ. The ranking for the first seven contestants can be found right here. Yeah, he didn’t take his shirt off this episode. See you next week, you thirsty Mike McRoberts chasers you! Anyway, If … Read more
New Zealand’s celebrity movement competition returns tonight! Sam Brooks power-ranks the first week of Dancing with the Stars NZ. Strap in, you guys. I’m ready to learn what the All Blacks were doing in 1995, I’m ready to learn the names of influencers and sportshumans, and most importantly, I’m ready to wildly disagree with judges … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Shareholders approve of sale of TradeMe to private equity firm, family ties between Shane Jones and logging boss, and Newsroom journalists detained in Fiji. TradeMe shareholders have given overwhelming backing to a takeover offer from a British private equity firm called Apax Partners, reports Business Desk. It’s the … Read more
Week after week on Dancing with the Stars, David Seymour 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? We asked … Read more
Mediaworks launched their 2019 slate today. Sam Brooks has the lowdown on what you should be watching (and voting) for. 2018 is almost over and what a ride it’s been. Now, as we look ahead to 2019, who’s going to be dancing with other stars? Who’s going to be getting married at first sight? And … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. It is now the second half of the year. In today’s edition: Families package comes into effect, but meanwhile, so does the regional fuel tax. Plus, the NZ Defence Force is waging war against political graffiti. From Sunday, the government’s Families Package took effect. Passed in the mini-Budget at the … Read more
It’s the final dance off, fully voted on by the public – and here are your final power rankings. Dancing with the Stars, it is over. ABSOLUTELY NOT: Dai Henwood – Contemporary Interpretative It’s not a super successful parody dance if that dance is better performed than one of your contestants performed just the previous … Read more
Amazingly, Dancing with the Stars NZ continues despite Naz’s untimely and controversial departure from the show. And as surely as the sun rises and sets, the power rankings come in. ELIMINATED: Zac Franich (and Kristie) – Paso Doble We bid adieu to the third Bachelor! The one thing I will give Zac Franich is that he seems … Read more
It’s week two on Dancing with the Stars and one star must combust. Sam Brooks and Alex Casey power rank the contestants with varying levels of expertise and insight. ELIMINATED: Gilda Kirkpatrick (and Shay) – Samba Look, if Gilda’s insta story from last Sunday night is anything to go by, her elimination is a tremendous loss to … Read more
With all 12 Dancing with the Stars NZ contestants now announced, Sam Brooks already knows who is going to win based on their promo videos alone. These are his absolutely correct predictions. They’re all out now. I’ve watched them all at least 20 times each, especially the first one, and my hard drive is stuffed … Read more
Look at him. Just look at him. This is amazing. Former New Zealand cricket player Chris Zinzan Harris is going to be on Dancing With the Stars. To me, an avowed fan of both the legendary all-rounder and the harmlessly stupid celebrity dancing show, this could just about be the greatest thing that has ever … Read more
Last night, the Dancing with the Stars NZ Facebook page dropped the first bizarre, post-apocalyptic and surprisingly dance-free promo for the new season. Sam Brooks watched it very closely. 00:01 – White paper blows across a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Is it a metaphor for broadcast TV? The state of affairs when the first people you announce … Read more
The Real Pod assembles in The Spinoff boardroom of dreams to dissect the week in New Zealand pop culture, thanks to Nando’s. This week on The Real Pod, we are all on a come-down after an amazing pre-record with Queen Matootles, which will be our Christmas gift to you all next week. With Nando’s firmly … Read more