The Dancing With The Stars finale was held on the Sunday evening and larrikin country and western singer Adam Brand won.

Throughout the 2009 series of Dancing With The Stars, Adam Brand was lucky not to be cast out on numerous occasions – regularly scoring the lowest scores on the night. To everyone’s surprise, he continued to make it through the eliminations and wasn’t really showing a lot of improvement compared to other dancers in the competition.

I was shocked to see that Adam Brand made it through to the Dancing With The Stars final, he just wasn’t dancing well enough compared to other dancers – nor was he the most improved. He was being held up throughout the elimination process by the popularity of the singer and not his dancing skills.

On the night of the finals, Kylie Gillies was voted out first and came third after receiving the highest level of praise from the judges. Next up of course was Matt White and received nearly perfect scores across each of the dances and was still eliminated. Throughout the dances on the night, the comments that the judges were providing to Adam Brand were phrased in a way that equated to “you’ve done a good job but you don’t deserve to win” and some how he came out the other side the winner. According to the Dancing With The Stars Wikipedia article, Adam Brand has now scored the lowest of any finalist in nine seasons to win and by a considerable margin.

I understand that there is a viewer vote, however the viewers got it wrong – horribly wrong. This is without question the major flaw within reality television – crowd sourcing votes doesn’t mean it is right – it just means a lot of people are easily influenced.  Consider what happened with Casey Donovan in Australia Idol – she was proclaimed to be the next big thing according to the public; which I personally felt was a joke and hasn’t managed to sell any significant number of records – which proves the point that viewer voting isn’t a solution.

Compare the viewer voting model from virtually every reality TV show around the world to the phenomenon of Master Chef. In the Master Chef model, there are a panel of industry recognised judges and experts who solely decide the fate of the amateur chefs. I find this to be a great example of how reality TV shows that can facilitate ‘experts’ to work – the contestants are being judged and marked by their peers and recognised experts – not a 15 year old with a mobile phone that is never going to buy a CD.

In my opinion Kylie Gillies and Matt White were robbed of a title for the 2009 season of Dancing With The Stars.

Sunday night saw the final 12 contestants for Australian Idol 2008 perform and it was a pretty strong showing across the board from the idol contestants. Never the less, there is always certain people within the group that have the edge over their competitors and below is my take on it and listed in no particular order.

My Picks

Madam Parker

Wow, is the right place to start with Madam. Another New Zealander that has made it through to the finals of Australian Idol and unless something goes horribly wrong for her will be in the final few.

Chrislyn Hamilton

One of the younger Australian Idol competitors in 2008, however delivered an outstanding performance and is definitely a contender.

Wes Carr

Excellent voice and we’ve seen quite a bit of diversity from him already in his voice. He is also an avid writer, plays the piano and also the guitar.

Mark Spano

Looks like an unlikely kind of a bloke to be on stage, however has so far delivered two great songs and has an excellent voice. I’d definitely be keeping an eye on him to progress through the early rounds of Australian Idol 2008.

Roshani Priddis

Outstanding voice for such a physically small person and after performing for so long, controls the stage and audience very well.

Luke Dickens

The token occa Australian in the competition, a sheep shearer by trade and a music lover by night. An excellent untamed voice that through its rawness delivers some great music.

In With A Chance

Thanh Bui

A solid voice but has delivered some mixed performances. While I think there is a lot of room for improvement, I don’t think he has what it takes to win when compared against Roshani or Madam.

Jonny Taylor

Looks very rock and roll but so far has delivered a bit of a mixed bag. The first performance was a random song choice and then backed it up with a Pearl Jam classic that was performed quite well but didn’t quite deliver. I’d like to see him say in the contest for at least another couple of weeks to see what he has to offer but he is at risk at the moment I think.

Brooke Addamo

Nice voice, looks great on stage but the performance she delivered last night didn’t live up to the original. I suspect that she’ll go through a round but will be one of the contestants that’ll leave early on unless her next performance is outstanding.

Teale Jakubenko

Another solid voice, however not good enough to make it through and I’d expect him to leave the competition in the first few weeks.

Out Of The Running

Sophie Paterson

An okay voice, however slides through key changes a little and has what I’d consider terrible enunciation for a singer which was also commented on by the judges in her latest performance. I’d be surprised to see Sophie go through more than the first two or three rounds.

Tom Williams

Nice enough young man, however as far as I can see so far – his voice isn’t strong enough to win, in my opinion his age and maturity are going to be a problem as well. Unfortunately, all of the young teeny boppers will vote for him as they think he is cute, all the while allowing someone with a much better chance of winning fall by the side of the road. The sooner he is knocked out of the competition the better, welcome back next year I say.