Dancing with the Stars

### Executive Producers

Ashley Edens-Shaffer, Joe Sungkur, Rob Wade, Andrew Llinares, David Ruskey and Tyra Banks

### Original Release

June 1, 2005 - present

**Dancing with the Stars** is an American dance competition television series that premiered on June 1, 2005, on ABC. It is the U.S. version of the UK series Strictly Come dancing, and one of several iterations of the Dancing with the Stars franchise.

The format of the show consists of a celebrity paired with a professional dancer. Each couple performs predetermined dances and competes against each other for judges' points and audience votes. The couple receiving the lowest combined total is eliminated each week until only the champion dance pair remains.

## Cast

### Host

Tom Bergeron was the host for the show's first 28 seasons, beginning with its premiere in 2005. In Season 1, his co-host was Lisa Canning. She was replaced by Samantha Harris for seasons 2 through 9 (2006-2009), who was then replaced by Brooke Burke-Charvet from seasons 10 through 17 (2010-2013). Erin Andrews took over as co-host starting in Season 18 (2014). Drew Lachey served as a temporary replacement for Harris during Season 5 (2007) during her abscence for three weeks due to maternity leave. Leah Remini filled in for Andrew in week 6 of Season 19, due to commitments with the 2014 World Series and filled in for her again in weeks 6 and 7 of Season 21 for the 2015 World Series. Season 19 champion Alfonso Ribeiro filled in for Bergeron on week 4 of Season 21, when Bergeron was absent to be with his aging father.

On July 13, 2020, Bergeron announced in a tweet that he had been let go from the series. ABC and BBC Studios made an official announcement shortly afterwards saying Andrews would also be exiting the program. The following day, model and host Tyra Banks was announced to be joining the show as host in addition to serving as an executive producer for the upcoming twenty-ninth season.

### Judging Panel

The regular judges are Len Goodman, who serves as head judge, Carrie Ann Inaba, and Bruno Tonioli. Goodman was absent for much of Season 19, all of Season 21, and much of Season 23. Julianne Hough, who was a professional dancing partner for seasons 4-8, was added as a full-time judge on the panel for three seasons, 19-21, after having been a guest judge in the previous two seasons. She did not return for Season 22. Hough did return as a full-time judge for seasons 23 and 24 but did not return for seasons 25 and 26. Julianne's brother, Derek Hough, is to be replacing main judge Len Goodman for Season 29. Several former contestants appeared as judges in episode 200 (in Season 11), including Hélio Castroneves, Mel B, Drew Lachey, Gilles Marini, Kelly Osbourne, and Emmitt Smith. Other celebrities, most often those who are associated with the world of dancing, former professional dancers, and past contestants have appeared as the fourth judge or in abscence of one of the main judges, including Paula Abdul, Donnie Burns, Nick Carter, Cher, Maksim Chmerkovskiy, Michael Flatley, Kevin Hart, Jessie J, Rashad Jennings, Baz Luhrmann, Ricky Martin, Idina Menzel, Abby Lee Miller, Mandy Moore, Olivia Newton-John, Kenny Ortega, Donny Osmond, Pitbull, Redfoo, Alfonso Ribeiro, Robin Roberts, David Ross, Shania Twain, Leah Remini and Zendaya.

### Musicians

For 17 seasons, the Harold Wheeler orchestra and singers provided the live music for the show. On February 7, 2014, it was announced that Ray Chew would be brought in as band leader, bringing with him a new band of instrumentalists and singers.

### Cast Timeline

#### **Hosts**

* Tom Bergeron (Season 1-28)
* Tyra Banks (Season 29

#### **Co-hosts**

* Lisa Canning (Season 1)
* Samantha Harris (Season 2-9)
* Brooke Burke (Season 10-17)
* Erin Andrews (Season 18-28)

#### **Judges**

* Carrie Ann Inaba (Season 1-29)
* Bruno Tonioli (Season 1-29)
* Len Goodman (Season 1-20; 22-28)
* Julianne Hough (Season 19-21; 23-24)
* Derek Hough (Season 29)

### Couples

See Also: List of Dancing with the Stars Competitors

A total of 336 celebrities have appeared in the 29 seasons of the series. For each season, the celebrities are paired with a professional partner who instructs them in the various dances each week and competes alongside them in the televised competition. A total of 48 professional partners have appeared alongside celebrities, some for only one season (mostly in the earliest seasons).

### Dance Troupe

In Season 12, the show introduced the troupe consisting of professional dancers who perform on the show but are not paired with celebrity partners. The first troupe in Season 12 included Oksana Dmytrenko, Tristan MacManus, Peta Murgatroyd, Kiki Nyemchek, Nicole Volynets, and Ted Volynets. Other past troupe members include Artur Adamski, Brandon Armstrong, Lindsay Arnold, Alan Bersten, Sharna Burgess, Henry Byalikov, Witney Carson, Brittany Cherry, Dasha Chesnokova, Artem Chigvintsev, Hayley Erbert, Sasha Farber, Shannon Holtzapffel, Dennis Jauch, Jenna Johnson, Kiril Kulish, Vladislav Kvartin, Morgan Larson, Keo Motsepe, Sonny Fredie Pedersen, Gleb Savchenko, Emma Slater, Britt Stewart and Julz Tocker.

## Scoring and Voting Procedure

In seasons 1 and 2, only the overall ranking between competitors by the judges and the public was relevant. In Season 3 and all subsquent seasons, the scoring system has made the exact scores relevant as well.

The scoring begins with the judges' marks. Each judge gives a numeric score from 1 to 10, for a total score of 3 to 30. The scoring was altered for the "all-star" Season 15, during which judges could give scores at 1/2 point intervals from 0.5 to 10, for a total score of 1.5 to 30. When multiple performances are scored, only the cumulative total counts. The contestants' judges shares are calculated as the percentage of the total number of points awarded to all contestants that evening. (For example, if a team earned 20 points on a night when the judges awarded 200 points, their judges' share would be 20/20 = 10%.) This percentage is then added to the percentage of North American votes received by each contestant. The lowest-scoring two couples are identified at the end of the show, and the couple with the lowest combined total gets eliminated. Season 8 added an occasional 'dance-off', in which contestants could re-perform one of their dances, in an effort to improve their judges' score. This was later discontinued.

Public voting is conducted via a toll-free number, the ABC website, and, most recently, text messages and Facebook; contestants can vote during and immediately after each performance show. The maximum number of votes per voter per medium is equal to the number of couples performing that night, or five votes, whichever is larger. In April 2010, it was revealed that former contestant Kate Gosselin had e-mailed friends and family asking them to vote as many as 10 times each. In November 2010, The Washington Post reported that online voting appeared not to require a valid email address, and accordingly that numerous votes apparently could be cast by one person.

In several cases where ESPN coverage of Monday Night Football airs instead on an ABC affiliate in an NFL team's home market, the program is delayed to air immediately after that station's local news, Jimmy Kimmel Live, and Nightline, and a voting window confined only to the area codes of the pre-empted market is opened up to allow affected viewers to still put their votes in for the competition, though this is on a market-by-market basis (in some markets, an alternate sister station of digital subchannel carries the program live as scheduled).

Seasons 1 and 3 featured only two couples in the final week instead of three. Starting with Season 16, four couples made it into the final weel, although the top three finalists proceeded to dance one more time for the judges after the fourth place couple was announced. In seasons 20, 22, 24, and 26 there were three couples in the final week, but in seasons 21, 23, 25, 27, and 28 there were four.

## General Information

### Payment

On the April 18, 2006, episode of the Howard Stern Radio Show, Stern's wife Beth said that she was guaranteed to earn $125,000 for just appearing on DWTS (in Season 3) and could earn up to more than double the original sum, depending on how long she lasted on the program.

In Season 21, Bindi Irwin had her payments withheld by a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge because she was a minor, which therefore required her parents to sign-off on the contract. But although her mother signed, the contract lacked her father's signature, so the judge refused to validate the contract, despite Irwin's father being the world-famous naturalist Steve Irwin, whose death in 2006 had been widely covered in the news/media. The judge later validated the contract once Steve Irwin's death certificate was presented to the court, resulting in Bindi receiving a $350,000 paycheck from the show.

### Withdrawals

The first person to withdraw from competition was Romeo in Season 2. His father, Master P, took his place in the competition before the beginning of broadcasts, being partnered with Ashly DelGrosso. However, Romeo later competed in Season 12 and finished in 5th place. He was partnered with Chelsie Hightower.

On week six in Season 3, Sara evans cited her divorce as the reason for leaving the competition. No one was eliminated that week.

Another withdrawal occurred during the run-up to Season 4 on February 28, when Vincent Pastore withdrew from the competition after only one week of training. Pastore said he did not realise how much work was needed during a ten-week period, and that he was not up to the physical demands of the show. He was replaced on March 2 by Pixar voice actor John Ratzenberger who was partnered with Edyta Sliwinska.

In Season 7, Misty May-Treanor withdrew from the competition in week three, after rupturing her Achilles tendon when rehearsing her jive with her partner, Maksim Chmerkovskiy. She did not perform the routine at all nor was she scored for it; no one was eliminated that week.

In Season 8, Jewel and Nancy O'Dell were injured before the season even began and could not compete. Jewel was diagnosed with fractured tibias in both legs; she came back later in the season to perform "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" on a results show. O'Dell suffered from a torn knee cartilage. They were replaced by Holly Madison and Melissa Rycroft who would be dancing with their partners for the rest of the season (Dmitry Chaplin and Tony Dovolani).

Tom DeLay, in Season 9, withdrew in week three of competition due to a full stress fracture that had developed in both feet from an earlier pre-stress fracture in one foot. DeLay was declared safe before he announced his withdrawal during the October 6, 2009 results show. Debi Mazar was still eliminated that night despite DeLay's departure.

In Season 16, Olympic figure skating champion Dorothy Hamill had to withdraw from the competition due to doctor's orders for a spinal injury. A cyst had developed near her lower spine, and was pinching off the nerve in that area. Either boxing champion Victor Ortiz or reality TV star Lisa Vanderpump would have been eliminated, but Hamill withdrew before the results could be announced, meaning that no one was eliminated that week.

In Season 18, week three, actor Billy Dee Williams withdrew, by advice from a doctor, due to a chronic back problem (which resulted in no elimination that week).

In Season 21, week three, reality TV star Kim Zolciak-Biermann was forced to withdraw from the competition after suffering a blood clot which resulted in a mini stroke (which resulted in no elimination that week). Tamar Braxton also withdrew from the season due to blood clots in her lungs making it the first season to have two withdrawals in it.

In Season 28, Christie Brinkley withdrew the competition a week before the season premiere, due to injuring her arm during rehearsal and needing sudden surgery. She was replaced by her daughter, Sailor with only a few days to practice prior to the season premiere. Later that season, Ray Lewis withdrew the competition in the third week due to a toe injury he sustained during rehearsal that needed surgery. This is the second season to have two withdrawals.

### Macy's Stars of Dance: Design a Dance

Beginning in Season 7, viewers had the opportunity to vote for their favourite professional dancers (or in some cases former contestants) to perform a particular style of dance to a song, also of their choice. An online contest is also usually held so that viewers can submit drawings of outfits for the performance.

## Special Episodes

### 100th Episode

The show celebrated its 100th episode on May 6, 2008, during week 8 of Season 6. More than 30 former cast members and pros returned, with interviews with Stacy Keibler, Lisa Rinna, Jerry Springer, Vivica A. Fox, Joey Fatone, Kenny Mayne, Sabrina Bryan, and former winners Kelly Monaco, Drew Lachey, and Apolo Anton Ohno. Other appearances, besides the Season 6 cast, included Paula Abdul (in a video introduction), Jane Seymour, Ian Ziering, Mark Cuban, Wayne Newton, Leeza Gibbons, Harry Hamlin, Shandi Finnessey, and Hélio Castroneves. New routines were performed by Apolo Anton Ohno and Julianne Hough, Mel B and Maksim Chmerkovskiy, and by Mario Lopez with the cast of A Chorus Line, in which he was starring on Broadway. The musical guest was country group Rascal Flatts.

#### **Judges Top 10 Dances**

The judges also presented a countdown of their choices for the top 10 perfect-scoring dances of the first 5 seasons. Their choices were:

### 200th Episode

In Season 11, viewers were allowed two votes per day on the DWTS website to vote for their favourite out of 30 given choices. On October 25, 2010, a countdown of the Top 10 voted for dances on the show was reported to celebrate the following week when the 200th show would be.

On the actual 200th show, several dances were performed again on the show and six of the past fan favourites came back to judge; Hélio Castroneves, Emmitt Smith, Drew Lachey, Kelly Osbourne, Gilles Marini, Mel B, and more. The couples re-created their most memorable routines on the 200th episode; Kristi Yamaguchi and Apolo Ohno served as team captains for the team dances. Yamaguchi's team consisted of Rick and Cheryl, Kyle and Lacey, and Bristol and Mark, while Brandy and Maksim, Jennifer and Derek, and Kurt and Anna were on Ohno's team. On the results show of November 2, some awards were given out to past celebrity contestants and professionals.

 Worst Dance
 Biggest Dancer Transformation

### 300th Episode

The 300th episode took place on the week 9 results show of Season 16. Twenty-two professional dancers who had appeared on the show, both past and present, performed an opening number choreographed by Jason Gilkinson. Past pros who performed were Chelsie Hightower, Dmitry Chaplin, Louis Van Amstel, and Anna Trebunskaya. Kellie Pickler and Derek Hough danced their "Argentine Tango" as the week's encore. However, the top 10 dances were not revealed, nor were the achievements.

### 400th Episode

The 400th episode was the season premiere of the twenty-fourth season. Tom Bergeron did mention the milestone, however, no special dances took place.

### 10th Anniversary Special

On April 28, 2015, during Season 20, a special pre-recorded episode aired as a 10th anniversary special with many former stars and professional dancers returning to the ballroom. Many past stars performed and reflected on their time on the show. Patti LaBelle, Amber Riley, and Lil' Kim performed LaBelle's "Lady Marmalade". The show closed with the largest number of people dancing in the show's history as stars, pros, hosts, and judges were all out on the dance floor.

### Tributes

In seasons 9 and 10, three tribute performances were done to honour the memory of artists and others. The first was a tribute to recently deceased actor Patrick Swayze, on September 23, 2009. "She's Like the Wind" from the Dirty Dancing soundtrack (originally written by Swayze for Dirty Dancing), "Unchained Melody" from his film Ghost, and "(I've Had) The Time of my Life" from Dirty Dancing were performed by select professional dancers of the show.

On October 20, 2009, a tribute was done for singer and dancer, Michael Jackson. "I Want You Back", "Man in the Mirror", and "Thriller" were performed, the first two songs by select professional dancers of the show, with all coming together for "Thriller".

In Season 10, professional Haitian dancers performed as a tribute to victims of the 2010 Haiti earthquake on March 30, 2010. One of the male dancers, Emmanuel Pierre-Antoine, had lost his son in the rubble. They were dancing to "Dance Like This" by Wyclef Jean.

In Season 24, to honour the passing of Season 11 contestant Florence Henderson on November 24, 2016, a special tribute to Henderson was displayed on the dance floor. The Season 24 premiere aired on March 20, 2017.

In Season 28, at the end of the premiere episode, a tribute was placed on the dance floor to honour the passing of actress and Season 17 contestant Valerie Harper who died on August 30, 2019. Her star was placed right next to Florence Henderson's.

## Merchandise, Tours and Spin-offs

### Cardio Dance DVDs

A DVD titled Dancing With The Stars: Cardio Dance was released on April 3, 2007, featuring Kym Johnson, Maksim Chmerkovskiy and Ashly DelGrosso. The program contains cardiovascular workouts adapted from Cha-cha-cha, Paso doble, Samba, and Jive dance routines.

A second DVD Dancing with the Stars: Latin Cardio Dance was released on September 13, 2008, featuring Maksim Chmerkovskiy and Cheryl Burke. The program contains cardiovascular adapted from Cha-cha-cha, Merengue, Samba dn Mambo dance routines.

### Companion Book

A companion book written by Guy Phillips was released in the early fall of 2007. Titled Dancing with the Stars: Jive, Samba and Tango Your Way Into The Best Shape Of Your Life, the book includes fitness routines modelled by Alec Mazo and Edyta Sliwinska, as well as original costume designs, lists of performed songs during a dance, and a complete list of song-and-dance routine performed since the first season of the show.

### Spin-offs

The first Dancing spin-off, Dance War: Bruno vs. Carrie Ann, premiered on January 7, 2008, on ABC. The show's format was similar to the BBC Television series, DanceX. The show was cancelled after one season.

A figure skating spin-off similar to ITV's Dancing on Ice called Skating with the Stars aired on ABC on November 22, 2010. The series was cancelled after one season.

On May 16, 2017, a Dancing with the Stars: Juniors spin-off was announced. The dance competition spin-off was originally set to premiere in the spring of 2018 on ABC, and the format of the show will feature celebrity children and the children of celebrities paired with professional junior ballroom dancers. In January 2018, ABC stated that Dancing with the Stars: Juniors is still in the works, but didn't develop as quickly as they hoped it would. Athletes aired in its place, with Juniors originally slated to air that summer. However, in May 2018, it was announced that the series would begin airing on October 7, 2018, with filming taking place during August 2018. Professional skateboarder Sky Brown, junior pro JT Church and pro mentor Alan Bersten were announced as the winners on December 9, 2018. The show was cancelled after one season.

### Dancing with the Stars: The Game

Back in 2016 ABC, together with BBC Worldwide, commissioned a game to come out alongside the beloved show. Published by Donut Publishing, developed by Exient Entertainment, the match-3 mobile game has gathered a considerable fanbase. The game uses a mix of hand animation and motion-captured data for all the dances in the game, using pro dancers from the UK version of the show, Strictly Come Dancing. The game features over 150 dresses in the game and 9 dances: Quickstep, Jive, Tango, Salsa, Charleston, Viennese Waltz, Rumba, Cha-cha-cha, and Paso doble.

During development, Dave Hawkins, CEO, said, "We're extremely excited and honoured to become a part of the massive success story that is Dancing With The Stars and our partnership with the BBC has resulted in a game that will break new boundaries in Match 3. By taking DWTS into the mobile space, we aim to showcase the talent, spectacle, fashion, drama and pure joy that is a night of glam and glitz in the palm of your hands."

Harriet Frost, Brand Manager for Dancing with the Stars, added "We're thrilled to have an exciting and entertaining Dancing with the Stars mobile game to introduce to all our passionate fans around the world. As one of the world's biggest entertainment brands, Dancing with the Stars is inventive, creative, glamorous and exciting and these values are all represented in our new mobile game. We're delighted by how the game is developing and hope it will provide our fans with a new fun way to interact with the Dancing with the Stars brand and engage, excite and entertain our fantastic community across the globe."

### Tours

An unofficial live tour show called Dancing Pros: Live! toured with several Dancing pros since 2010. A Dancing with the Stars: Live! official tour was announced on November 3, 2014, for the 2014-2015 season starting on December 27, 2014, in Niagara Falls, New York, and ended February 15, 2015, hitting 33 cities. A second tour, "Dancing with the Stars Live!: Dance All Night" was announced. A third tour, Dancing with the Stars: Live! - We Came to Dance, was announced on October 3, 2016, for 43 cities from December 16, 2016, to February 14, 2017. A fourth tour, Dancing with the Stars: Light Up the Night, was announced in October 2017 and began on December 30, 2017, in Charlotte, North Carolina, performing 71 shows and ending in Los Angeles. A fifth tour, Dancing with the Stars: A Night to Remember, was announced on October 1, 2018. The tour began on December 15, 2018, in Columbia, South Carolina, and ended on March 9, 2019, in Thousand Oaks, California. The 2020 tour, Dancing with the Stars Live! - 2020 Tour, began on January 9, 2020, in Richmond, Virginia and was originally supposed to run until April 7, 2020. However, beginning with the show scheduled for March 13, 2020, in Rockford, Illinois, the remaining tour dates were postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic before eventually being cancelled altogether.

## Reception

In 2016, a The New York Times study of the 50 TV shows with the most Facebook Likes found that "unlike So You Think You Can Dance, which is generally more of a city show, Dancing with the Stars is most popular in the countryside. It also has a higher share of 'likes' from viewers aged 65 and up than any other show.