The Canadian Reality Report for September 22: Some Dance, Some Chat, And Some Idols

So You Think You Can Dance Canada

As episodes of So You Think You Can Dance Canada air, we are slowly getting to meet more of the judges. In Calgary we were treated to the views of Jeff Thacker, the supervising producer of the U.S. version of So You Think You Can Dance, and Calgary’s own Sean Cheesman. There wasn’t a ton of face time for Sean, working with three higher profile judges, but he did fine in his smaller role.

I was impressed with the superb flexibility exhibited by many of the Montréal auditioners. I was also impressed with the wheelchair dancer in Calgary, Harmanie Shairp. Her statement, “If you have a heartbeat, you can dance!” is so true. Far less impressive was “Tiger” and his hostile attitude.

With the audition episodes over, the Toronto rounds now begin. I liked the way the audition episodes were presented, with less focus on the attention-getters, and more on the true talents. I think the judges have been mighty generous with the number of niche dancers sent directly to the “finals” in Toronto. Some are going to have a tough go of it there, and I think more ought to have been sent to the Choreography round to prove their versatility first.

Rob Mariano Chat

At the premiere of Reality Obsessed, I had the opportunity to spend some time with fan favourite “Boston” Rob Mariano. That’s Rob’s picture with me adorning this article. Although this was formally an interview, it quickly took on the tone of a conversation between Rob, my wife, and myself. Rob was very willing to patiently answer anything we wanted to ask. What follows is a recap of our conversation.

I started by asking Rob what’s new with Amber and him these days. Rob enthusiastically told me that he’s the host of a new reality show! It’s called The Split, and was filmed over six months this summer in Dallas. It combines aspects of reality TV and blackjack.

In The Split, players compete in a series of blackjack preliminaries to define six finalists. The winners get a taste of life as Boston Rob lives it. After a three-day crash course about life in the world of reality TV, there are reality-style competitions, with the last player standing winning a million dollars!

The Split will air in Dallas on ABC, but Rob tells me that, in other areas, it may appear on other stations. Rob says the WWCS website has more information. It’s accessible here. I checked it out and found the link easily, but to go deeper, you have to register at that site. I opted not to, so I’m afraid I can’t report any further.

Meanwhile, Amber is starting up a line of baby clothes she has designed. It’s called “Emu.” The name comes from one of her nieces, who when she was three, couldn’t pronounce “Amber” properly – it came out sounding like “Emu.”

I next asked Rob which of his various reality shows is his favourite. He quickly named Survivor, reasoning it’s because it was his first. He feels it provided the best chances for him to use his ingenuity, and that he thrived there. The wedding show, of course, is also a favourite. Rob also enjoyed, “Rob And Amber Against The Odds,” where he learned to play poker at the highest levels. Rob confesses to being a big poker fan.

I asked Rob if he and Amber still watch reality TV these days. Rob says they do, adding, “We’re still big Survivor fans. The Amazing Race, not so much.

I next inquired which Survivor series was harder, physically. Rob discloses that, physically, it was the second (All-Stars), by far. They expected rain, but none came for the first four days. Without fire, they had no drinking water, and everyone was dehydrated. The producers were ready to call in the doctors. Then, it rained every day after that!

We then segued to The Amazing Race. No, I’m not sure how! Rob explained that they saw it as thirteen separate races, and the key is to not finish last in any of them. Rob revealed that one thing most people don’t know is that when you open the envelopes with the route instructions in them, there’s a second page that has a lot of other rules on it. These are not usually shown being read on screen. You may be limited to only a few flights, connections through certain other countries may be forbidden… things like that.

Rob understands the objective of production is to try and have the teams running the legs together rather than as eleven separated pairs, because the resulting interplay makes for good TV. However, he feels that the advantage he had in finding clever solutions was sometimes limited by these additional rules.

In contrast, in Survivor, there’s just two rules: you can’t cause anyone bodily harm, and you’re not allowed to make deals about splitting your prize money with other players. Outside of that, anything you can think of is okay.

Although I was becoming less sure that he had any, I asked Rob, “What is your best memory of The Amazing Race?” From a strategic view, it was the decision not to eat all that meat. But, really, it was the drive from Chile to Argentina and the African safari. Both were scenic and wonderful. He adds, “We got everything we wanted, and more!”