Provisional amounts have shown that $210,398.30 was raised for charity this year in TV ONE’s hit show Dancing With The Stars.
Dancing With The Stars winner Temepara George’s chosen charity, Autism New Zealand, will receive $90,516.51. The Royal New Zealand Plunket Society, the charity represented by 2008 series runner-up Monty Betham, will receive $66,404.72 and semi-finalist Miriama Smith’s charity, KidsCan, will receive $22,575.80.
Cory Hutchings’ charity, Surf Life Saving, will receive $15,396.18; Tina Cross’ Hospice New Zealand $7866.45; Martin Devlin’s Decision Reach Out Trust $4139.20; Peter Urlich’s 0800 What’s Up (The Kids Help Foundation Trust) $2989.47; and Geeling Ng’s Breast Cancer Research Trust $509.97.
The money was collected through the public-vote mechanism in Dancing With The Stars. *
Jane Wilson, TVNZ General Manager of Programming, says four years of spectacular ratings shows Dancing With The Stars is a national favourite – this year’s final was the highest rating final in three years, with 928,000 viewers (AP 5+).
“We’d like to thank everyone involved in the show for their incredible commitment and enthusiasm, everyone who watched the series, and all those who voted – together these people have made Dancing With The Stars an overwhelming success for four years in a row.”
Dancing With The Stars has now raised more than $1.3 million for New Zealand charities.
Dancing with the Stars is a BBC Worldwide format.
* After telecommunications and service provider charges are taken out of the cost of voting, all remaining money goes to the contestants’ nominated charities. TVNZ does not retain any money from the viewers’ votes. The text and phone votes are tallied up by an independent service aggregator company, not TVNZ or the series producers. The voting system is based on the international format for Dancing With The Stars, and combines 50 per cent of the judges’ vote and 50 per cent of the viewers’ vote to give the final result.