Long-running reality show is a vehicle for reputation rehab, but the success of beloved 21-year-old Australian wildlife conservationist satisfies our craving for wholesome narratives

The long-running reality TV competition Dancing With the Stars has developed a rep as a reputation-rehabilitation show, which is somewhat removed from its original pitch of “imagine if we made celebrities dance for our amusement like little performing monkeys”.

Performing on Dancing With the Stars can generate massive amounts of goodwill for even the most benighted celebrity. In the US, controversial casting includes celebrity chef Paula Deen, who appeared on the show two years after making headlines for using racial slurs; pro boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr, who was trying to dance past his domestic violence convictions; and Olivia Jade Giannulli of college-admissions-scandal infamy. Even controversial political figures have attempted to pirouette away from their unpopular public personas, including former Trump staffer Sean Spicer in 2018, and Pauline Hanson on the Australian version in 2004. Not everyone comes out squeaky clean, but at least it’s a good distraction.

The reason Dancing With the Stars is so effective as reputation rehab is down to our inherent fear about being seen dancing in public. The risk celebrities take in doing the show at all – let alone doing it WELL – is rewarded by a potent mix of public adulation and relief.

And if Dancing With the Stars can do that for disgraced celebrities, it’s no surprise that audiences are going wild after the success of the universally beloved Robert Irwin. The 21-year-old conservationist and scion of Australia’s wildlife-wrangling Irwin family made his DWTS debut on the 34th season of the US series on 16 September, with a performance that judge Derek Hough called “the best first dance I have ever seen on the show” – and which scored 15/20, tying for top of the leaderboard.

Channelling more than a little Hugh-Jackman-in-Boy-from-Oz aesthetic, wearing a camp sparkly jungle outfit, Irwin – with dance partner, Witney Carson – performed a very energetic jive to Steppenwolf’s Born to Be Wild. Not only did he showcase the same energy and enthusiasm he uses to wrestle crocodiles and wrangle snakes, but he danced extremely well, despite having, in his words, “never moved to music in my life” before joining the show.

It’s almost a shame that Irwin doesn’t have a scandal he’s trying to make everyone forget – although to be fair, the Dancing With the Stars salary is really incentive enough.

After his performance, he ran to the side of the stage and hugged sister Bindi in a seemingly very authentic show of emotion. Bindi is not only another beloved and unproblematic Australian celebrity, but also won Dancing With the Stars herself in 2015. Once you also factor in the general goodwill that Australia and the world have for the Irwin family as a whole, including the tragically deceased Steve Irwin, you have literally a publicist’s dream scenario. You could even say Robert is just the latest person to benefit from the American obsession with Australia that began back in the 80s with Crocodile Dundee; as long as he continues to conform to the Australian-larrikin-who-wrestles-animals image, the world will be his oyster. I don’t want to cynically imply it’s fake or staged – only that after lapping up some of the more desperate narratives from various B-list crooks and weirdos, DWTS audiences are loving such an unproblematic and wholesome reality TV narrative.

“That was not planned,” a visibly tearing-up Robert Irwin told a reporter from Entertainment Tonigh, about his hug with Bindi at the end of his performance. “Bindi said ‘this will feel like flying’ – and now I know that feeling … it meant a lot. It was super cool.”

If that wasn’t enough, in the lead-up to the DWTS premiere, Irwin posted footage of him practising his routine with his four-year-old niece, Grace Warrior, that probably blew up ovaries all around the world like a string of super volcanoes.

Irwin has also captured the other key audience of a dancing-reality show: his recent steamy Bonds underwear campaign has endeared him forever to the gays and other horny parties. Maintaining a wholesome public image while posing in your underwear with a big snake is a delicate and fraught balancing act, too.

Reality shows are built on narratives – the redemption arc is only one of the most popular. Following in the footsteps of his already famous family, Robert Irwin is opting into a much rarer narrative: being genuinely likable and surprisingly talented. He’s Australia’s good boy.