It Takes Two

Grant Denyer
Terasa Livingstone (Season 1)
Kate Ritchie (Season 2)
Erika Heynatz (Season 3)

"It Takes Two" by Marvin Gaye and Kim Weston

Australia

English

3

30

approx 90 to 120 minutes per episode
(including commercials)

Seven Network

28 May 2006 (2006-05-28) –
22 April 2008 (2008-04-22)

Concept[edit]

The show paired celebrities with professional singers who each week competed against each other in a sing-off to impress a panel of judges and ultimately the viewing public in order to survive potential elimination.


Through both telephone and SMS voting, viewers voted for the duo they thought should remain in the competition. Judges' scores were also taken into account and were combined with the viewer votes when determining which duos stayed and went each week. In all cases, the home viewers always had the final say.


The show was originally referred to in the media as Singing with the Stars, partly because of the similarity in concept to Dancing with the Stars.


Grant Denyer hosted It Takes Two between 2006 and 2008 with a various of female co-hosts such as Terasa Livingstone, Kate Ritchie and the most recent host from the 2008 season Erika Heynatz.


Every season finale ended with all contestants, judges and hosts singing the show's theme song "It Takes Two", originally performed by Marvin Gaye and Kim Weston, and the studio audience and home viewers were encouraged to join in the singing too. By the end of 2008, Seven Network announced that they had no plans for a fourth season.

Marina Prior

James Valentine

Ross Wilson

Amanda Pelman

There was no episode broadcast on 11 June due to the Seven Network's coverage of a international between Australia and England, therefore there were no contestant eliminations for that week.

rugby union

On 23 July, was the fill-in host for Grant Denyer. This was due to Denyer's commitments in the second tier of the V8 Supercars series.

Larry Emdur

was a special guest in the grand finale on 6 August, who performed "What's Left of Me".

Nick Lachey

It was reported that celebrities and Candice Falzon also auditioned, but were turned down for a "lack of basic singing ability".[2]

Laura Csortan

a contestant in season one, also replaced Terasa Livingstone as co-host for this season.

Kate Ritchie

New singing partners included , David Campbell and Kate Ceberano, replacing Guy Sebastian, Glenn Shorrock and Karen Knowles.

Anthony Callea

On 15 May, was the fill-in host for Grant Denyer. In this episode, Kate Ritchie made a comment that when he was the host last time, she got voted out from last season.

Larry Emdur

On 12 June, the show featured a guest judge, .

Daryl Braithwaite

On 26 June, the show featured a special guest, Canadian singer who sang a few songs from his new album, Call Me Irresponsible.

Michael Bublé

Despite being turned down for a lack of basic singing ability in Season 2, ironwoman is one of the contestants in Season 3.

Candice Falzon

New singing partners in this season are , Ian Moss and Adam Harvey, replacing Paulini Curuenavuli, Dave Gleeson and Troy Cassar-Daley.

Ricki-Lee Coulter

declined to return for the third season of the show.[4]

Kate Ritchie

Mark Wilson, Julia Morris, John Mangos, and Russell Robertson appeared on the Deal or No Deal – It Takes Two special, which also aired on the Seven Network during the week of 3 February 2008.

Scott Draper

On 18 March 2008, a countdown special of It Takes Two aired for one hour highlighting each singing duos journey the final six have had throughout their stint in Season 3. Hence, no live performances were aired, therefore no contestant was eliminated that week.

performed her version of disco track Xanadu (Olivia Newton-John and Electric Light Orchestra song) on an episode of this season.

Dannii Minogue

Ratings[edit]

Season 1 was a hit for the Seven Network, providing them with solid numbers post 7:30 pm, where on a Sunday; Seven had little success up against the Nine Network's 60 Minutes, and Big Brother and Australian Idol on Network Ten.


Season 2 moved to a new night and time in 2007: 7:30 pm Tuesdays, airing in the slot usually occupied by the highly successful Dancing with the Stars. The premiere ranked third for the night, averaging 1.5 million viewers, behind Seven's news programming and ahead of a special extended edition of Nine's 20 to 1 episode "Great Movie One-Liners".[5] The show managed to stay in the top 3 of the rating, and proved to be very successful for the Seven Network.


In Season 3, with only one season of Dancing with the Stars to air later in 2008, It Takes Two was moved to February, however retained the highly successful timeslot of 7:30 pm on Tuesdays.

Official website (via Internet Archive)