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ACA targets the Kerri-Anne campaign

A Current Affair confronts former Nine star Kerri-Anne Kennerley, to explain why she is so favoured by Dancing with the Stars.

“Tonight we can reveal Kerri-Anne Kennerley will win Dancing with the Stars,” said A Current Affair‘s Ben McCormack.

Huh?

Dancing with the Stars is a con and Channel Seven is playing you for a fool.”

The flashy claims were made by ACA due to a magazine ad in New Idea published on Monday morning which included a pic of KAK and the words “see Kerri-Anne hit the dancefloor” at 6:30pm next Sunday.

The suggestion by Nine was that the Seven must have known KAK would survive the elimination on Sunday night because it wants her to win.

There were claims about her heading the show’s marketing campaign, and gushing scores that don’t reflect her actual dancing.

It’s absolutely true that Seven personalities have won the majority of the seasons. Manu Feildel, Rob Palmer, Luke Jacobz, Grant Denyer, Ada Nicodemou, Tom Williams, Bec Cartwright. It’s a bit of a running gag by now.

It’s also true that KAK is spear-heading the show’s campaign this year. She is the best-known of the competitors and it’s a good news story that the public has gotten behind: dumped by one network, embraced by another.

The ad in New Idea was certainly clumsy. Sometimes the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing. Seven would be wise to replace it. But it doesn’t make the show rigged.

It’s also heavily in Nine’s interests the beat up the story, and target Seven. Duh.

To bail up the performer in an airport to defend campaigns mapped out by others is pretty rough, but KAK knows the game and was more than capable of defending herself. A greener star would have been done like a dinner.

So to the the crux of the complaint: is Seven over-promoting Kerri-Anne? Yes.

Seven is a machine at this sort of thing. Better Homes and Gardens, Sunrise, The Morning Show. Dancing with the Deals. You can’t miss the fact that KAK is on Dancing.

I attended Sunday night’s DWTS performance and yes, KAK was strategically placed as the final act in order to keep viewers watching longer. Conspiracy or clever producing?

That said, I have spoken to other performers who are well-aware their chances of viewer votes are up against the might of her popularity and the network backing. It’s not a democracy. And on DWTS it never has been. But it never has been on any show.

Celebrity Apprentice has been all about The Hoff (can ACA please bail him up in the airport and ask why he quit?). Excess Baggage was all about Kevin Federline.

But hey, it helped ACA win over Today Tonight last night.

As KAK said, “It’s a dance show. It’s not brain surgery. It’s not current affairs.”

22 Responses

  1. Russell Crowe linked this story on twtter. At the same time as he has been asking his followers to vote for Danielle and posting links and phone numbers. So it seems hypocritical of him to be getting involved in what he called a rigging story.

    He concluded his tweet with ‘thoughts?’ And when someone made a sensibly worded remark that must be careful not to abuse his position and get involved….He Blocked her. So by thoughts I conclude only ones he agrees with.
    Pity he can’t butt out and let his wife do her dancing and get her votes on merit. But that is a perfect example of why this kind of show gets old. In the end its just a series of ‘stories’ like a bad soap opera…

  2. Aside from the fact that she was first shown the week before, and right in the middle during the first show (conveniently as soon as The Voice finished), that argument makes perfect sense.

  3. @alistair, fair enough. As long as they are all held to the same standard, there is no “conspiracy” or whatever ACA is insinuating.

  4. I do hope KAK wins Dancing. Nine treated her like sh!t. Mind you if she did then this idiotic story on ACA will mean it was all true. Nine really know how to put the boot in don’t they. Bitter morons. Get over it.

    TT isn’t much better either with a story on The Voice and how much of a farce it has become.

    IMO both these shows should be removed from our schedules and replaced by a 60 minute news bulletin. 30 minutes for local news and 30 minutes for national news.

  5. KAK makes a comeback to channel 9 but it has to be in yet another one of these silly stories attacking the competition. Her chances are of her winning are high and good luck to her but my days watching the show are long gone and I am watching shows on 9 and 10 on Sunday nights.

    ACA should stop having stories attacking the competition and I believe there will be one on X Factor later in the year. These stories made the so called current affair shows a turn off. I now hear TT did one about the Voice and yet they could have told their viewers about another dodgy builder or where to get the cheapest petrol. I am sure 7 are very jealous that another network has a very high rating show. If you want proper news/current affairs at 6:30pm watch SBS or the ABC. 7 and 9 need to learn that gutter journalism should not be tolerated. They are also making 10 look good.

  6. I agree but they are always pulling this crap, I remember a few years back when ACA did a story on boy racers and the new Top Gear AU (when it was on SBS), I’m sure they wouldn’t do such a negative story on TG any more.

  7. @ belinda she fell over at the end the performance the rest of the perfomance was very good. You also have to realise they are not professionals so they can not be judged like professionals there has to be a lot more lienency in the judging otherwise they would all get evicted.ACA is just gutter television. No journalistic value what so ever. When nine win in the ratings you notice how they become so arrogant its unbearable .

  8. The only con is the voice . It should be called the look. Because its all about the looks not the voice. The initial episodes were good when the judges did not see the performer now that they can see them its crap tv. Look at prinie and mahalia, the best voice lost but the sexy beyonce lookalike won only on her looks. Then you had deltas backup singer i mean who else was she going to vote for the other singer had no chance . And for pitting a male voice against a female voice is also a no brainer there is no way the man can reach the notes the female can. It was the only way the blind girl would be guarenteed to get thru. At least with DWTS the viewers get to vote as well as the judges so its a lot more fairer and DWTS is live the voice is pre recorded.

  9. Does she even count as a “7 star”. The graphic they used said “bec from H&A, Manu from MKR, Tom Williams from BH&G (which i dont think is right), and now Kerri-Anne…” what show is she from?

    I thought she definitely deserved three 9s her dance was definitely the most entertaining of the night she handled that fall very well and was scored accordingly.

  10. Well Today Tonight hit back tonight by doing a story on what a farce the Voice has become. Several people I have spoken to have now seen the Voice for what it is.

  11. “see Kerri-Anne hit the dancefloor”

    I thought that was a play on words referring to her stumble during her dance. I think she deserves to win because she’s the only one of the cast whom you could actually call a ‘star/celebrity’

  12. On today tonight they showed the Gordon wood interview from 60 mins last night and you could even see the channel 9 logo at the bottom but they put their ‘exclusive’ logo at the top. Have they no soul? Why do they lie to their viewers so blatantly? That’s one reason why I hate 7.

  13. What a sad state of affairs when this passes as ‘current affairs’ from ACA. I hope KAK wins and her future show on Seven is a success after how Nine treated her.

  14. lol David your article had every single thought running through my head last night when I watched the story. There’s always a channel and/or show to dump on for both these shows! And yes, hypocrites much when all I heard about Celeb Apprentice was Hoff this, Hoff that……”he’s not the messiah, he’s a very naughty boy!”

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