Dancing with the stars

Shannon Noll – dancing with Elena Samodanova

Shannon has become one of the most successful singers in Australia, and is the only man to have ten consecutive top 10 ARIA singles chart. After hitting the scene in 2004 with his emotional cover of the Moving Pictures classic What About Mehis debut album went on to sell more than 350,000 copies and went five times platinum.

Vogue Williams – dancing with Christopher Page

Vogue Williams has been a DJ in her homeland of Ireland for five years and most recently held a residency at the hip inner city club Andrews Lane Theatre in Dublin. Vogue, who has also modeled, is engaged to fellow Irish superstar and Australia‟s Got Talent judge Brian McFadden.

Zoe Cramond – dancing with Aric Yegudkin

Zoe Cramond burst onto the Australian television scene with her role on the hit  Channel Seven show Packed To The Rafters. Zoe plays Emma, and has quickly settled into life with her Rafter family. Zoe tained at the Bachelor of Performing Arts in New Zealand.

Jessica Watson – dancing with Damien Samuel

Just three days shy of her 17th birthday, Jessica Watson shot to fame when she completed her dream of sailing solo, nonstop and unassisted around the world. Jessica later wrote a book about her epic voyage which went to number one in Australia and has been published in 11 countries. She was named Young Australian of the Year in 2011, and this year was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia.

Erin McNaught – dancing with Gleb Savchenko

Glamorous beauty Erin first hit the scene in 2006 when she represented Australia in the Miss Universe competition. Now an MTV VJ, Erin co-hosts the MTV Hits Weekly Hot 30 Countdown and is a widely sought after ambassador.

Danielle Spencer – dancing with Damian Whitewood

Danielle Spencer‟s musical career was undeniably destined from an early age. The daughter of Don Spencer  – a respected musician and renowned TV presenter in Britain and Australia – Danielle first started to sing and learn the piano from her father at the age of four. Last year Danielle and her band joined Chris Isaak on his Australian tour in March, followed by the „Rock & Rebuild‟ charity concert alongside Sir Bob Geldof in May.

Johnny Ruffo – dancing with Luda Kroitor

Johnny was thrust into the spotlight last year when he entered the hit show X Factor. Only a few months on after being a top 3 finalist, Johnny has ditched his job as a concreter and recently signed a recording contract with Sony Music Australia.

Brendan Fevola – dancing with Jessica Raffa

Brendan is regarded as one of the greatest full-forwards in the history of the AFL, finishing with 623 goals from 204 matches. „Fev‟ twice won the Coleman Media for the AFL‟s leading goal kicker in 2006 and 2009, and played for both Carlton and Brisbane. 

Kerri-Anne Kennerley – dancing with Carmelo Pizzino

Kerri-Anne has interviewed world leaders, sporting icons, leaders of business and superstars, and is a highly respected national television presenter, gracing our television screens for almost thirty years. Kerri-Anne has also written two books ”People I’ve Met, Places I’ve Been” and “Kerri-Anne’s Life Energy”. 

True to Nine’s usual form, we are currently being absolutely bombarded with ads for all their new shows that will start after Easter with on screen promos, extended length ads during ad breaks, mentions by sports commentary teams and more of the same on GO! and GEM. In fact, GO! now seem to spend more time promoting Nine than they do promoting themselves – especially in social media.

The likelihood of The Block and Celebrity Apprentice airing together is all but confirmed now based on the volume of promos for the two reality series. The Block is using 7 O’Block again – meaning it will be stripped across 7pm weeknights – while Celebrity Apprentice is being presented with its usual side-show like ads with contestants on sitting ducks as an example being used to promote the show. It will most likely air after The Block with 7.30 or 8pm starting times.

The Voice is also set to start after Easter with promos for the singing show hitting equally as hard as its reality counterparts The Block and Celebrity Apprentice.

And, sorry to say, the ads for Tricky Business are so frequent, they are at risk of turning people off the show before it even starts.

One thing is for sure, Nine’s programming will be awash of new content post Easter, and the network will use the Logies on April 15 to catapult Nine right back into the post-Easter ratings race in an attempt hopefully to claw back some of the massive head start that Seven have achieve in the first two months of the 2012 ratings year.

But with Seven set to return Dancing with the Stars, Downton Abbey, Australia’s Got Talent, Amazing Race Australia as well as premiere the much anticipated Titanic mini-series after Easter, Nine will have a hard-felt battle to topple the current number one network.

Where does that leave Ten? Unless Masterchef performs significantly better than last year, Ten will be left behind, well and truly caught in the cross-fire.

Easter non-ratings runs from April 1-14 this year, then it is ratings game-on after Easter, from April 15.

Will Nine be able to beat Seven in any ratings week this year? Will The Voice be a hit – or a big miss like Excess Baggage – now rating so poorly, it doesn’t even make top 100 digital? Will The Block perform as well this year as it did last year? What about Celebrity Apprentice – worked last year, but will it this year? Or will we all be sick of these shows before they start thanks to over promotion by Nine.

Tell us your thoughts. What will you be watching after Easter?