Dance Monsters is the new Netflix competition taking over the streaming platform, but viewers are slightly confused about exactly what the show’s judges can see of the performance compared to the audience.
Diversity choreographer Ashley Banjo, singer Ne-Yo, and YouTuber Lele Pons are the three judges on Dance Monsters, while host and Pussycat Dolls member Ashley Roberts fronts as the dance competition’s host.
Viewers will only be able to see the contestants’ CGI monsters dancing on stage. However, many are wondering whether judges can see the real humans boogying backstage, or if they can see the same as the audience.
Netflix fans ask about Dance Monsters judges
Viewers of Dance Monsters are utterly confused about what the judges can see, compared to the viewers only being able to see the CGI holograms on the stage. They wondered if the three judges can view the real dancers backstage.
One fan wrote on Twitter: “The dance performances are often interrupted by camera angles switching to judges faces..so what exactly are we watching? Judges or the full performances?”
Another penned: “I just need to know how the judges and live audience see the #DanceMonsters on stage.”
“Someone needs to explain this because my brain can’t comprehend. Also it’s criminal that the show doesn’t explain!” reacted a Dance Monsters viewer on a Reddit thread, where several fans share their confusion.
Dance Monsters: What do the judges see?
Similarly to the show Alter Ego, both the audience and the judges watch the Dance Monsters are believed to watch performances in real-time, but don’t see each hologram performing on stage which was empty at the time of filming.
Netflix states:
The three judges (Ne-Yo, Ashley Banjo and Lele Pons) sit in front of a live studio audience and a real stage. As the dancers perform their choreography on a separate, custom-built performance capture stage, video representations of the monsters appear on the live stage flanked by in-person backup dancers. All of this is possible thanks to a cutting-edge, virtual production setup.
Rather than being on stage for the performance, the dancers are backstage. Ashley said that “there are humans there but they are hooked up to CGI” during an interview on BBC’s The One Show.
The audience, however, get to see the holograms play out on the screen. Each performance would only be shown on the large screen and not actually on the stage, but it is thought the audience and judges are able to watch it live.
Netflix has been contacted by GRV Media and Reality Titbit for comment.
Audiences can see real-time dances, fans think
In some scenes on Dance Monsters, viewers can see some of the screens that the audience and judges watched the performances on. One Reddit user shared their thoughts:
The audience and the judges are seeing the dancers hooked up in that costume and the cameras (which we’re seeing) is seeing the AI. When the performer starts they show a quick side by side of them in a sound stage in the costume hooked up and make it seem like the dance was pre recorded.
Another theory from a fan is:
The backup dancers are real, so with a full crowd and the judges there, the backup dancers perform and people pretend react to the main dancer. I have noticed that the crowd seems less than hyped (even when reality show crowds are told to cheer. I’ve been in things like this before and they have hype men to pump you up). THEN the show finishes all the graphics and inserts the characters in the performance plate. On a later date they show it to the judges on a screen in front of them with a minimal audience behind them, and mash the whole thing together.
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