Bruno vs. Carrie Ann

With all highly successful shows, you always find a few spinoffs’ that appear to try and steal some of the thunder.  With Dancing with the Stars, the spinoff was designed to be between two of the judges and several contestants that the judges choose.  The actual storyline was that Carrie Ann Inaba and Bruno Tonioli would each bet assigned to a group of talented individuals.  Through the coaching of Carrie Ann and Bruno, the contestants would battle and vie to see which was truly the best at the end.

The show was hosted by Drew Lachey the season two winner of Dancing with the Stars and first hit the airwaves on January 7, 2008.  The season finale was concluded on February 18, 2008 and by most was considered to be an enormous flop.  The contestants were pulled from several different locations around the country with auditions held in Nashville, Santa Monica and also New York City.  A total of 14 contestants started off during the show, however two were cut from the show immediately.

The final twelve contestants were divided up into teams and were assigned to work with either Bruno or Carrie Ann.  Despite the success and popularity of Dancing with the Stars which both Bruno and Carrie Ann are involved with this show never managed to take off, in fact it pulled more viewers for the very first show than it managed to do for the season finale.

The other spinoff’s of Dancing with the Stars that have appeared have been a bit more successful, however they all follow the exact same format as Dancing with the Stars and also are actually classified as spinoffs of Strictly Come Dancing the British version of Dancing with the Stars.  While popularity had been hoped to tap into in order to make the Bruno vs. Carrie Ann a success it ended in complete failure.

Luckily, for the judges the success of Dancing with the Stars and also the tour has managed to win over the hearts of enough people to keep them a job.  While the pair works well together on television shows including Dancing with the Stars, overall they are not a highly desirable couple without the added concepts that Dancing with the Stars really brings.

The actual format for the show was initially taken from the British television show Dance X.  While the show has been popular in the United Kingdom, it has pulled substantially less attention.  However, the show was not marketed as heavily as it could have, only having auditions in a total of three locations certainly worked to ultimately harm the show.  In order to actually see a substantial show that provides the viewers desired it should have been pushed heavier in the initial stages and also in the follow up marketing.

With this spinoff of Dancing with the Stars successfully squashed, it will be interesting to see the new formats that are tried and the new approaches that are demonstrated.  The ultimate concept of finding a successful spinoff is not impossible.  After all, Dancing with the Stars offers a huge amount of freedom and flexibility as well as great freedom of viewers to become personally invested in the show.  Tapping into this potential is huge for allowing an additional show to be created that will actually start to win over the hearts of viewers as well.