Dancing with the Stars (U.S. TV Series) Wiki

For the current season see season 23. . 

Dancing with the Stars is an American dance competition show airing since 2005 on ABC in the United States, and CTV/CTV Two in Canada. The show is the American version of the British television series Strictly Come Dancing. Tom Bergeron is the Emmy-winning host, alongside Erin Andrews, who is the new co-host for season eighteen. Lisa Canning was co-host in season one, Samantha Harris co-hosted seasons two through nine and Brooke Burke-Charvet in seasons ten through seventeen.

The contestant pairs consist of a celebrity paired with a professional dancer. Past celebrity contestants include professional and Olympic athletes, supermodels, actors, singers, astronauts, and teen-heartthrobs. Each couple performs predetermined dances and competes against the others for judges' points and audience votes. The couple receiving the lowest combined total of judges' points and audience votes is eliminated each week until only the champion dance pair remains.

In 2012, GSN picked up rerun rights to seasons four to thirteen, but due to low ratings the network stopped airing the show after airing for three months from January 2012 to April 2012 in two different seasons aired mostly on weekends.

Hosts
Tom Bergeron has been the host for all seventeen seasons. In season one, his co-host was Lisa Canning. She was replaced by Samantha Harris for seasons two through nine, and Brooke Burke-Charvet was the co-host from season ten through seventeen. Erin Andrews will take over hosting duties from seasons eighteen onwards. Drew Lachey served as a temporary replacement for Harris during season five during her absence for three weeks due to maternity leave. Leah Remini replaced Erin Andrews in season 19 for one week while Andrews covers the 2014 World Series. In season 21, Remini again filled in for Andrews during weeks 6 and 7 while Andrews covers the 2015 World Series. Alfonso Riberio replaced Tom Bergeron during Week 4 of season 21, due to Bergeron's father's ailing health.

Judging panel
The main judges are Len Goodman, Carrie Ann Inaba and Bruno Tonioli, and have been for the entire series, with the exception of Goodman who was absent for season 21. Julianne Hough joined the panel in season 19 after serving as a guest judge for the previous two seasons. She left after season 21. Several former contestants have also appeared as a judge in the show's 200th episode in season 11, including Drew Lachey, Emmitt Smith, Hélio Castroneves, Mel B, Gilles Marini and Kelly Osbourne. Other celebrities, most often those who are associated with the world of dancing, and former professional dancers, have appeared as a fourth judge or in absence of one of the main judges, including Michael Flatley, Baz Luhrmann, Donnie Burns, Paula Abdul, Julianne Hough, Cher, Maksim Chmerkovskiy, Robin Roberts, Donny Osmond, Redfoo, Ricky Martin, Abby Lee Miller, Kenny Ortega, Kevin Hart, Jessie J, Pitbull, and Alfonso Riberio.

Cast Timeline
Color key:

Couples
A total of 223 celebrities have appeared in the 20 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 42 professional partners have appeared alongside celebrities, some for only one season. The longest-tenured professional partner is Tony Dovolani, who has been on the show for 20 seasons. For season 12, the ABC Dancing with the Stars website asked viewers to submit the names of celebrities they would like to see appear on the show in a future season.

Dance troupe and musicians
A dance troupe has appeared during the Tuesday results shows since season 12. Members of the season 18 troupe include Lindsay Arnold, Sasha Farber, Artem Chigvintsev and Jenna Johnson. In season 12, professional partners Tony Dovolani and Lacey Schwimmer appeared with the troupe in week four due to their early elimination. In season 13, Val Chmerkovskiy and Peta Murgatroyd (both new partners) appeared with the troupe due to their early elimination in week three. Other past members included: Tristan MacManus, Peta Murgatroyd, Kiki Nyemchek, Nicole Volynets, Ted Volynets, Dasha Chesnokova, Sharna Burgess, Sonny Fredie Pedersen, Emma Slater, Oksana Dmytrenko, Julz Tocker, Henry Byalikov and Gleb Savchenko.

Color key:
 * Active member of the troupe
 * Professional partner

For 17 seasons, the Harold Wheeler orchestra and singers provided the live music for the show. On February 7, 2014, it was announced that the new bandleader is Ray Chew. Along with him is a new band of instrumentalists and singers.

DWTS All-Access
Starting in Season 19, Dancing with the Stars began airing DWTS All-Access on ABC.com. The show is hosted by Dominic Bowden and Lacey Schwimmer, and has cameras in many areas of the ballroom such as the judges table, the skybox, the ballroom floor, and the red room in addition to a focus on Bowden and Schwimmer. The pair give commentary on the contestants and also have interviews with the celebrities, their partners, and even past contestants. Starting with Season 20 viewers could view their favorite couple's live rehearsels during the week. This portion does not include any hosts. Also in season 20 new host Gethin Jones took over this season. Originally former pro Anna Trebunskaya was his co-host, but she stopped appearing after week two for an unknown reason. Emma Slater was the usual co-host after that, but several other former and current pros took over the hosting duties along with Jones. In season 21, Bowden returned to the program as a regular host. His guest co-host for the first two weeks has been Kym Johnson. Karina Smirnoff hosted in week 3. Tony Dovolani hosted in weeks 4, 6, & 11. Anna Trebunskaya hosted in week 5. Louis van Amstel hosted in week 7. Emma Slater hosted in weeks 8 & 10. Joey Fatone hosted in week 9. In season 22, Bowden returned for his third season as host. Kym Johnson guest co-hosted in weeks 1, 2, & 5. Louis van Amstel co-hosted in week 3. Maksim Chmerkovskiy co-hosted in week 4. Tony Dovolani co-hosted in weeks 6 & 7. Karina Smirnoff co-hosted in week 7. Witney Carson and Sasha Farber co-hosted in week 8. Bowden returned for his fourth season in season 23. Kym Johnson co-hosted in weeks 1, 2, & 3. Emma Slater co-hosted in weeks 4, 5, 6, 8, & 9. Maksim Chemrkovksiy co-hosted in week 7. Cheryl Burke co-hosted in week 10.

All-Access did not return for season 24.

Scoring and voting procedure
In seasons one and two, only the overall ranking between competitors by the judges and the public was relevant. In season three and all subsequent 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 half-point intervals from 0.5 to 10.0, for a total score of 1.5 to 30.0. 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 20/200 = 10%.) This percentage is then added to the percentage of North American votes received by each contestant. The bottom two couples are identified in the results show, and the couple with the lowest combined total gets eliminated. Season eight added an occasional "dance-off", in which contestants could re-do 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 ten times each. In November 2010, the Washington Post reported that online voting appeared not to require a valid email address, and accordingly that a large number of 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, 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 or digital subchannel carries the program live as scheduled).

Seasons one and three featured only two celebrities in the final week instead of three. Starting with season 16, four celebrities made it into the final week, although the top three finalists proceeded to dance one more time for the judges after the fourth place couple was announced.

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.

Withdrawals
The first person to withdraw from competition was Romeo in the season two. His father, Master P, took his place in the competition, being partnered with Ashly DelGrosso. However, Romeo later competed in season 12 and finished in 5th place. Romeo was partnered with Chelsie Hightower.

On week six season three, 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 four on February 28, when Vincent Pastore withdrew from the competition after only one week of training. Pastore said he did not realize 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 seven, 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 else was eliminated that week.

In season eight, 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 nine, 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 sixteen, 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 star Lisa Vanderpump, would've been eliminated, but Hamill withdrew before the results could be announced, meaning that no one was eliminated that week.

In season eighteen, week three, actor Billy Dee Williams had to withdraw from the competition due to a back injury, which resulted in no elimination that week.

Injuries and health issues
Celebrities and professional partners have experienced minor injuries, or in some cases more serious, which did not affect later performances.

In season five, Marie Osmond infamously fainted after her performance in week five of the competition, after which the program immediately went into commercial; however, Osmond was able to regain composure and continued with the program. Episodes of food poisoning or the flu have caused stars like Jane Seymour to miss portions of other programs. Mark Ballas dislocated his shoulder when he came back in the finale to dance again with his eliminated partner, Sabrina Bryan.

In season six, Cristián de la Fuente suffered a ruptured tendon in his left biceps muscle during his performance on week seven. The judges critiqued him according to his performance up to the injury. He was sent to the hospital immediately and missed the end of the show. Derek Hough injured his neck in a rehearsal with Shannon Elizabeth but still performed.

In season seven, Julianne Hough was rushed to the hospital after the results show on Week 6 with increasingly severe stomach pains. She was released the same night after it was determined that it was "just a bad stomach ache". However, she was ordered to sit out the group hip-hop dance rehearsals the next day as a precaution. On the October 27 performance show, Hough announced that she had been diagnosed with endometriosis and would be having surgery on October 28 to have her appendix removed. Cody Linley, her partner, stayed to dance with Hough's temporary replacement, Edyta Sliwinska, who had been eliminated first. She returned in the semi-finals to dance with Linley and was eliminated with him that week.

In season eight, after landing on a wireless microphone pack and injuring his back during a dress rehearsal, Steve-O and his partner, Lacey Schwimmer, were unable to perform live. The judges critiqued their pre-recorded dress rehearsal performance. Melissa Rycroft suffered a rib cage injury also during a rehearsal and was judged based upon her pre-recorded dress rehearsal. Before her Group Mambo, professional Lacey Schwimmer filled in for her dancing with Tony Dovolani.

In season nine, both Lacey Schwimmer and Derek Hough had the flu and could not perform with their partners (Mark Dacascos and Joanna Krupa) who ended up dancing with substitute pros (Anna Trebunskaya and Maksim Chmerkovskiy).

In season ten, Evan Lysacek broke two of his toes during rehearsal. The injury was not bad enough to affect his ability to dance and he remained in the competition. He also had a mild concussion after falling on his head while doing a lift with his partner, Anna Trebunskaya, but he remained in the competition. Mark Ballas injured his knee and his partner, Shannen Doherty, was going to be dancing with Ballas' father, Corky but she was eliminated and did not have to dance at all anymore. Mark returned on May 4 results show to dance to "Hey, Soul Sister" performed by Train.

In season 11, Jennifer Grey was recovering from cancer and tumors in her neck. This caused her great pain during the show. In week seven it was revealed that she had torn a knee tendon. On the day of the finale results show, she had a procedure done that morning due to an injury that happened during her night one of performances. She had ruptured a disk and was unsure if she was going to perform for night two of dances. She ended up performing and winning season 11.

In season 12, Ralph Macchio suffered a leg injury that affected his rehearsals for week eight. He still made it through to the semi-finals before being eliminated. Professional dancer Kym Johnson suffered a neck injury during rehearsals for her semi-finals Argentine tango while attempting a lift. She eventually recovered and went on to win season 12 with Hines Ward.

In season 13, Maksim Chmerkovskiy hurt one of his toes before rehearsal and brought in Ted Volynets from the dance troupe to prepare a Samba with Maksim's partner (Hope Solo) in week seven. While in rehearsals for week nine, J.R. Martinez suffered an ankle injury but stayed in the competition and was the last celebrity voted into the finals and ended up winning the show.

In season 14, Maria Menounos broke two ribs in an incident where her ribs hit her partner, Derek Hough's, knee. She also had a stress fracture in her feet which both didn't affect her performance. The next week she hit her chin during rehearsals when her partner dropped her on the floor. Melissa Gilbert suffered a head injury during her performance causing her to miss the end of the show and the results show the next night. They were revealed to be safe. William Levy injured his ankle but still danced on Monday. Katherine Jenkins suffered a head injury when her partner Mark Ballas kneed her on the head in rehearsals. She still danced later that evening.

In season 15, Melissa Rycroft suffered a herniated disc during her Team Freestyle rehearsal. She still danced that night. Pro Derek Hough suffered a neck injury during week six, so Mark Ballas who was Bristol Palin's partner (eliminated in week 4) filled in as Shawn Johnson's partner for week seven. Ballas was Johnson's partner in season eight which was the season they won. Kelly Monaco suffered a broken toe on her right foot while rehearsing for her week four contemporary dance with partner Valentin Chmerkovskiy. She went on to dance that night and advanced to the following week. Professional dancer Tony Dovolani suffered a back injury while rehearsing for his semi-finals Argentine tango. Dovolani was cleared to dance with partner Melissa Rycroft, and eventually ended up winning season 15. Also during season 15, Shawn Johnson suffered a minor injury to her left knee, resulting in her sitting out the remainder of the rehearsals for the group dance, which was held later that night.

In season 16, Dorothy Hamill withdrew from the competition during the week two results show due to a potential back injury. Lisa Vanderpump fainted while rehearsing her week four cha-cha-cha. The doctor said that she had a viral infection with fever, which caused her to have low blood pressure and a rapid heart rate. She went on to perform the dance routine. (However, she was eliminated that week.) Mark Ballas suffered a back injury during week seven rehearsals. Troupe member Henry Byalikov would be his replacement, but he was able to perform. In the dress rehearsals for week ten, Zendaya, wearing a sequined dress, accidentally elbowed her partner, Val Chmerkovskiy, in his eye causing a split in his eyelid which required 14 stitches (Chmerkovsky did not go to the hospital until after the dress rehearsals were over). He was, however, able to perform that night and the couple went on to finish in second place.

In season 17, Bill Nye was taken to a hospital for a quadriceps injury after his week two dance. He did dance in week three as a robot, using a brace to immobilize his leg. Brant Daugherty injured his left foot during practice for week three. The cause is unknown. His injury required a cast. Amber Riley also faced knee issues throughout the course of the competition, but was still able to dance well and receive high scores. She won the competition.

Macy's Stars of Dance: Design a Dance
Beginning season seven, viewers had the opportunity to vote for their favorite pros (or in some cases former contestants) to dance to a style of dance as well as a song to dance to. An online contest is also usually held so viewers can submit drawings of outfits for the performance.


 * Season 7: Derek Hough and Julianne Hough dancing the Jive to "Great Balls of Fire"
 * Season 8: Mark Ballas, Derek Hough, Julianne Hough, and Lacey Schwimmer dancing the Quickstep to "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)"
 * Season 9: Sabrina Bryan and Mark Ballas dancing the Paso Doble to "Eye of the Tiger"
 * Season 10: Joey Fatone and Melissa Rycroft dancing the Tango to "Rock and Roll All Nite"
 * Season 11: Cheryl Burke and Derek Hough dancing the Cha-Cha-Cha to "It's Still Rock and Roll to Me"
 * Season 12: Cheryl Burke, Maksim Chmerkovskiy, Lacey Schwimmer, and Chelsie Hightower dancing the Jive to "We Got the Beat"
 * Season 13: Derek Hough and Anna Trebunskaya dancing the Paso Doble to "Bad Romance"
 * Season 14: Chelsie Hightower and Tristan MacManus dancing the Samba to "End of Time"

100th episode
The show celebrated its 100th episode on Tuesday, May 6, 2008, during week eight of season six. 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 six cast, included Paula Abdul (in a video introduction), Jane Seymour, Ian Ziering, Mark Cuban, Wayne Newton, Leeza Gibbons, Harry Hamlin, Shandi Finnessey and Helio 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.

The Judges also presented a countdown of their choices for the top 10 perfect-scoring dances of the first five seasons. Their choices were:
 * Judges' top 10 dances

200th episode
In season 11, viewers were allowed two votes per day on the DWTS website to vote for their favorite 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 favorites came back to judge; Helio 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 & Cheryl, Kyle & Lacey and Bristol & Mark, while Brandy & Maksim, Jennifer & Derek and Kurt & Anna were on Ohno's team. On the results show of November 2, some awards were given out to past celebrity contestants and professionals.

300th episode
The 300th episode took place on the week nine results show of season 16. Twenty-two past and present pros 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 & Derek Hough danced their "Argentine Tango" as the week's encore.

Tributes
In seasons nine and ten, three tribute performances have been done in honour of some people. The first was a tribute to recently deceased actor Patrick Swayze, on Sep 23, 2009. "She's Like the Wind" from the Dirty Dancing soundtrack (originally written by Swayze for his film Grandview USA), "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 by select professional dancers of the show, and all coming together for "Thriller".

In season ten, Professional Haitian dancers performed as a tribute to victims of the 2010 Haiti earthquake on March 30, 2010. One of the male dancers had lost his son in the rubble. They were dancing to "Dance Like This" by Wyclef Jean.

In season seventeen, in week eight, all dance numbers were done to guest judge Cher's hit songs. She also performed live "Believe" and her newest single "I Hope You Find It" from her recent album Closer to the Truth, after an eleven-year hiatus.

Highest-scoring celebrities
The scores presented below represent the best overall accumulative average scores the celebrity gained each season.

Number of perfect 30s
Despite not making the Top 10 list, Jennifer Grey and her partner Derek Hough hold the record of the most perfect 30s in a season, with a total of six. They won season 11 and maintained an average score of 27.2. Their record would later be tied by Meryl Davis and her partner Maksim Chmerkovskiy in season 18. The record would be tied again in season 20 by Rumer Willis and Val Chmerkovskiy. Bindi Irwin and Derek Hough broke the record in season 21 with 7 perfect scores.

The scores presented below represent the perfect 30s which the celebrities gained in their original season. The All-Stars season is counted separately. Team Dances not counted. Based off the traditional 30-point system. Fourth guest judges scores and relay scores are not included.
 * Celebrities
 * Professionals
 * 36: Derek Hough
 * 20: Cheryl Burke, Mark Ballas
 * 18: Valentin Chmerkovskiy
 * 17: Maksim Chmerkovskiy
 * 14: Karina Smirnoff
 * 11: Kym Johnson, Tony Dovolani
 * 9: Julianne Hough
 * 5: Witney Carson, Allison Holker
 * 4: Dmitry Chaplin, Peta Murgatroyd, Sharna Burgess
 * 2: Anna Trebunskaya, Edyta Sliwinska, Sasha Farber
 * 1: Alec Mazo, Louis Van Amstel, Artem Chigvinstev

Highest and lowest scoring routines
The best and worst performances in each dance according to the judges' 30-point scale are as follows:

Italics represent the All-star season

Success of athletes
Athletes have historically been far more successful as a group than other celebrities on the show. At the end of the spring 2011 season, 28 athletes have competed on the show, representing 20% of the contestants. They've won six competitions and placed second four times; a collective success (win or runner-up) rate of 36%. In other words, better than one third of the athletes who have appeared on the show have finished either first or second. This is far better than the rate for reality-show contestants, supermodels, actors, politicians and other celebrities. Musicians/singers, at 27%, are the second most successful group.

It is speculated by the cast and staff on the show as well as the athletes themselves, that they have several advantages in some key areas:


 * Physical ability – Many of the physical abilities associated with gifted athleticism such as strength, agility, quickness, balance, stamina and more generally, body control and muscle coordination, are also considered useful and advantageous qualities in competitive dancing.


 * Training and coaching – Athletes are familiar with effective and efficient training techniques. Professional dancer Cheryl Burke states, "They are used to being coached and they respond to criticism better than, say, actors". Casting director Deena Katz says, "They know their limits and don't overtrain like some others do", and so they avoid injuries, which hamper many of the contestants.


 * Competitive instinct – Successful athletes are competitive individuals and therefore comfortable in an environment which encourages "bettering" an opponent. In addition, they are familiar with performing under pressure and in some cases, thrive on it. Highly successful, elite athletes are capable of performing at their highest level when it is most important. They are able to focus and possibly even raise the quality of their performance during the biggest of competitions, whereas other contestants may falter under the same pressure.

There are disadvantages as well, particularly with the larger athletes such as football and basketball players. Some of these athletes have difficulty making their over-sized frames look graceful on the dance floor. However, this can also be an advantage: since this struggle with their large size is often plainly apparent during their performances, voters will tend to give them more leeway in this area, while an actor or singer with known dance background or training may be held to a higher standard in the voters' minds.

In every season finale in which an athlete was present, and was either tied for the top of the leader board or one point behind the leader said athlete went on to win the season. This has happened on five occasions:
 * Season 3: Emmitt Smith and Mario Lopez tied in the finale, with both scoring 89/90
 * Season 5: Helio Castroneves scored one point behind Mel B in the finale, scoring 84/90 to her 85/90 (Castroneves is the only, male, non-NFL player for this to occur to)
 * Season 8: Shawn Johnson and Gilles Marini tied in the finale, with both scoring 88/90 (Johnson is the only female athlete for this to occur to)
 * Season 12: Hines Ward and Chelsea Kane tied in the finale, with both scoring 89/90 (Kane, however, landed in third place)
 * Season 14: Donald Driver scored one point behind Katherine Jenkins in the finale, scoring 89/90 to her 90/90