William Waiirua has won over the judges with his sense of fun in his first performance on this season's Dancing with the Stars NZ. The beloved Kiwi Instagram comedian's jive was full of enthusiastic tricks and animated kicks - the latter not stopping until long after the music finished. Waiirua's dance earned him and partner Amelia a decent first-up score of 6, 7 and 6 for a total of 19. "You boosted that jive right out of this ballroom, baby!" judge Julz told him. "Your kicks and your flicks were on point," judge Camilla added. "You're like this ray of sunshine on the floor. It was pure joy to watch." While Waiirua was full of praise for his dance partner Amelia, he was also very fond of the outfit picked out for him by the costume department. "When does a man get to wear lavender and hot pink shorts? And I can taste that denim, that's for sure," he said. "I'm not gonna lie, I have no feeling in my legs," he continued. "The circulation cut off about halfway through, so bear with me if things weren't right." The next episode of DWTS NZ will air on Monday at 7:30pm on Three. Watch the full episode on ThreeNow. Newshub.<doc-sep>New Zealand’s celebrity perambulator competition continues tonight! Sam Brooks power-ranks the second night of the first week of Dancing with the Stars NZ. The ranking for the first seven contestants can be found right here. Yeah, he didn’t take his shirt off this episode. See you next week, you thirsty Mike McRoberts chasers you! Anyway, If you didn’t watch Game of Thrones tonight, you were probably watching this! That’s a choice! If I had one general observation on these first two shows is that there seems to be a much larger focus on stunts than there have been in previous seasons. By which I mean there’s a lot more women ending routines upside down, and more props than your local community theatre show. Has it helped anybody? Not visibly! Is it more exciting to watch? A little! Who isn’t a little problematically thrilled by the idea of someone more famous than them falling on their head and having a mild concussion? A better person than me, for sure. But you’re not here for a critical discussion on a show upping the stakes visually, you’re here for my subjective, arbitrary rankings! 5. Manu Vatuvei (and Loryn Reynolds) – Rumba Vatuvei is probably famous to most of you as playing for the Boost Mobile Warriors! This is literally the first time I’m encountering him, which made two of the lads in our office express disbelief, like I’m not the guy who has a floral for every day of the fortnight. I digress. Manu Vatuvei! He’s nice to watch! I appreciate his open jacket. He has a natural performer’s charisma that makes me kind of forget any time that he might mess up or look awkward because I feel grateful watching him. That will take him a long way on this show, trust me. But mostly, I appreciate Loryn Reynolds. What a bloody star. I will spend a not inconsiderable amount of my time in the next few months watching this show, and I’m genuinely excited to see her perform next week too. Judge’s score: 20. 4. K’Lee (and Scott Cole) – Quick step I love K’Lee! This was really lovely and great! She moved quickly, she was really present and lively throughout the whole thing. Often contestants can feel like they’re subsuming their personality or their natural charm in order to dance, but K’Lee totally shows off the kind of goofy charm that I assume makes her a great radio personality when she dances. It, hopefully, bodes well for her. Also, I dig a sketchy concept for a dance. I’m a little bit basic sometimes! Remember, this is how I spent my Monday night. I don’t even know what a Stark is! (I do, I watched two seasons of that show and stopped right around the point where Tori Amos gave birth to a black fart.) Anyway, I hope she stays around until she can dance to her own song, and if that doesn’t happen soon, it will be a crime against everything. Judge’s score: 18, and now is as good a time as any to say that I think the judges are way harsher on women than they are on dudes! I have no more commentary on this at this stage, but watch this space because god knows I’ll run out of things to talk about around week three or four. 3. Clinton Randell (and Brittany Coleman) – Quick step I haven’t listened to the radio in about ten years, so a breakfast radio host is pretty unknown to me, so forgive me when I say this: Randell is super charming! No wonder someone hired him to talk to hundreds of thousands of people first thing in the morning! I am charmed. Also, this was a super strong debut. He seemed incredibly confident, which is especially notable because I can’t imagine many men walking out on that stage in leopard print and looking confident. Well done, Randell! No shade here. Judge’s score: 23. 2. Mike McRoberts (and Kirstie McWilliams) – Foxtrot Look, you don’t care what I think about Mike McRoberts dancing. You just want to look at him. He was quite good. Judge’s score: 19. 1. Anna Wilcox (and Brad Coleman) – Tango It takes about forty seconds for Anna Wilcox to bring up that well loved and much abused New Zealand word: Banter. It’s one of the few words in the English language that seems designed for our wheels-on-a-gravel-road-accent to say. That does not make it good. Anyway, I think we’ve got a winner here! She’s a sports star, she’s also a media personality, she’s super charming and she came out strong in the first week, even the judges loved her. Even Dai commented on how good it was, which he literally never does. I would know! I watch this show more than the medically recommended amount! Barring a big screw-up later in the competition, or the public inexplicably not liking her, Anna’s here to stay. Judge’s score: 23.<doc-sep>It's back, it's bright and it's as big as ever. Dancing With The Stars has returned to Three and last night's opening show was every bit as glitzy, glam and aglow with spray tan as we could have hoped for. All the stars came out in support and among the Three faces were many from DWTS' 2018 cast. Reigning Dancing Queen Sam Hayes, who took home the coveted glitter ball last year with veteran dancer Aaron Gilmore, took a front row vantage point and added some cool glamour to the event. Roger Farrelly took his place in the crowd, enjoying a great catch-up with his 2018 partner, Carol-Ann Hanna. We noted that in between live segments Suzy slipped out of her seat to share a few tips and tricks with Jude Dobson, who is this season dancing with Suzy's partner from last season, Matt Tatton-Brown. Whatever she said clearly hit the spot because Jude oozed confidence as she took the floor in a daring black leotard (which she kept well hidden under a pink fluffy dressing gown before the show started).<doc-sep>
Despite showing off his rock-hard abs in the TV promos for the new season of Dancing with the Stars NZ, Mike McRoberts is reluctant to embrace his new sex symbol status. The Newshub anchor spoke to host Sharyn Casey during Sunday's premiere episode ahead of his first dance routine on Monday. He credits his fellow newsreader and last season's champion Samantha Hayes with giving him "very helpful" advice about being on the show. "It's been great having [Hayes], seeing what she's been through to get to where she got to," he said. "She told me to keep my clothes on - but that hasn't worked, has it?" Casey pointed out that McRoberts staying fully clothed won't be popular with the New Zealand public, who have left hundreds of enthusiastic social media comments appreciating his physique. "Is that weird that you've become a bit of a sex symbol?" she asked, to which McRoberts said "totally". "It's just crazy. I think I'll just carry on doing the news and the abs can go off and do their own thing. Maybe their own show?" On a more serious note, McRoberts highlighted the "great vibe" among the cast in the month since the Christchurch terror attack, the deadliest in New Zealand history. "We were all impacted by what happened on March 15, and the fact that the money raised from this week is going towards those families and those Muslim communities - I just want to say on behalf of all the cast, we're so privileged and honoured to do that. As-salaam alaikum." The next episode of DWTS NZ will air at 7:30pm, Monday on Three. Watch the full episode again on ThreeNow. Newshub.