Billy Crawford’s journey to the final, symptom of a season without a twist

End clap tonight for Dance with the stars. With audiences plummeting over the bonuses every Friday evening, the show putting ballroom dancing in the spotlight will have struggled to convince during its nine weeks of broadcasting on TF1. A perfect opportunity for Billy Crawford to do well. The 40-year-old singer, back in France after experiencing resounding success with Trackin’ in 2001, distinguished himself by an almost faultless run and could well win the competition.

The Filipino artist landed in Paris with a horde of his relatives who came to support him. “I took everyone from the United States and the Philippines where I am from: my wife, my son, my in-laws and my brother-in-law… […] TF1 looked for an apartment to accommodate everyone, “he confided to the Parisian before his baptism of fire on the most famous parquet floor in France. We have to believe that the chain was right to roll out the red carpet for him since his victory would be one of the only highlights of this season without much flavor.

With several songs ready to be released, Billy Crawford then claimed to be “there to win” and take advantage of DALS to relaunch his musical career in France. If he deserves to win, his coronation would be the perfect illustration of the season’s lack of panache.

Favorite from the first show

Today is Friday, September 9. Billy Crawford, sequined jacket over his shoulders, has just posed the steps finale to his cha-cha accompanied by Fauve Hautot, one of the star dancers of Dance with the stars. The only surprise of the cast and already a favorite in the eyes of the public, the production grants the singer an additional advantage by associating him with the most prominent dancer. With three victories to her credit, Fauve is closely following the record of Denitsa Ikonomova, who has lifted the trophy four times with her partners.

“The jury is up, the public is up”, rejoices Camille Combal when the singer – who is also a dancer – obtains the four buzz of the jury. This rule inaugurated at the same time as the program allows Chris Marques, François Alu, Marie-Agnès Gilot and Bilal Hassani to send directly to the next stage the candidate whose performance convinces them the most, without going through the notes box. . A rule that we would have done well without, which breaks more and more with the simplicity of the show in its infancy.

At the end of the first two evenings of Dancing with the Stars, the three candidates benefiting from this preferential treatment after their performance are Billy Crawford, Stéphane Legar and Carla Lazzari… The three faces of the poster for the final. To ruin the suspense, the production of the show could hardly have done better.

A straight line

While celebrities less comfortable in dancing are gradually ousted, Billy Crawford continues his race to the trophy without major hitch. David Douillet, Théo Fernandez, Clémence Castel and Eva Queen, four candidates whose progress we would have liked to see as they and they started from afar, are eliminated in turn during the first broadcasts.

No course has therefore been marked by real progress. We remember, however, having reveled in the impressive evolutions of Taïg Khris in season 3, Artus in season 7, Tatiana Silva in season 8 or even Michou in season 11.

Ratings up, audiences down

Billy Crawford got his best mark of the season on Friday, November 4, while injured in the back. With 39 points out of forty, the singer came within a hair’s breadth of the show’s final score. There is no doubt that he is aiming for a forty for the final after increasing progress over the shows.

Unlike the audiences which have not stopped falling over the episodes, despite the good work of Camille Combal on the animation side. Starting at three million viewers, the show dipped to 2.5 million watchers for the fourth episode on September 30. Since the end of September, the show has failed to turn around.

So many proofs that a candidate, a good dancer and full of nostalgia, is not enough to rekindle the interest of Dance with the stars. If the show is renewed, it will therefore be necessary again for the production to rethink its cocktail between mixed casting, an overabundance of sometimes incomprehensible rules and surprises on the screen.