Dancing with the Stars

Dancing with the Stars is an ABC television program which has ran with two "seasons" every year, except one, since 2005. The tv show features celebrity actors, musicians, models, athletes and politicians, who are paired with professional dancers in a dance off competition. American viewers call or text in to give their votes on which dancers they want to continue dancing.

Dancing with the Stars is hosted by Tom Bergeron and is judged by Len Goodman, Carrie Ann Inaba and Bruno Tonioli. Both Michael Flatley and Baz Luhrmann have acted as guests judges when Len Goodman was not available for one week stints. Though the Dancing with the Stars judges' scores play only a small part in who advances in the contest, like American Idol, bad scores from the judging phase can sometimes influence the home viewing audience in how they vote.

Types of Dances on Dancing with the Stars

The dancers on DWTS are asked to perform difference dances every week, to show the widest range of dancing skills. The types of dances on Dancing with the Stars include the following dances.

Not every one of the dance styles mentioned above have been used every season. The standard repertoire of dances danced every single season of the show are the Cha-Cha-Cha, Foxtrot, Freestyle, Argentine Tango, Bolero, Charleston, Jive, Paso Doble, Quickstep, Rumba and Samba. Of these, the freestyle competition is considered the most pivotal, since the winner of the most votes on the freestyle dance have gone on to win Dancing with the Stars every year but Season 3.

Winners of Dancing with the Stars

Here's a list of the winners of Dancing with the Stars by season:

Runner Up Couples on Dancing with the Stars

Here's a list of the runner up couples on Dancing with the Stars by season:

Male celebrities seem to have an advantage in the fan voting process. Males have won 7 of the 12 prior seasons of Dancing with the Stars, while male celebrities have been runner-ups in 8 of the 12 seasons. The voting can often be controversial, such as Season 1, when many fans of Dancing with the Stars believed John O'Hurley and Charlotte Jorgensen were the best dance tandem.

Celebrities on Dancing with the Stars

As mentioned earlier, each year has a new and interesting cast of stars, which tends to keep the show fresh in the mind of the audience. The star power tends to increase as time goes by, though the standard format continues fairly consistently, as famous entertainers and public figures have danced for the U.S. public. Some struggle mightily, while others have excelled beyond the wildest expectations. A few have had to withdraw, usually due to injuries or the physical demands of the dance competition. Americans love to see a little bit of both in the celebrities on Dancing with the Stars.

Dancing with the Stars - Reality TV Programming

Unlike many "reality shows", Dancing with the Stars has little of the negativity and none of the back-biting between stars on the show, at least in front of the cameras. Dancing with the Stars is all about energy, positivity and cheering on your favorite set of performers. The judges do seem to single out one or two pairs they rain critical comments on week in and week out, but these have to do with that couple's dance performance and not some personality flaw. Like American Idol, Dancing with the Stars is almost all smiles, with one or two notable exceptions.

For these reasons, I don't consider Dancing with the Stars as a standard reality tv show, filled with histrionics, bizarre challenges that have no connection to real life and personalities taken not from real life, but seemingly out of central casting. Dancing with the Stars is more a talent competition, like popular tv shows of yesteryear, more like Star Search than Survivor. Therefore, if you've avoided Dancing with the Stars to this point because you wanted to avoid a reality television program, I would give it a try. Dancing with the Stars is addictive.