Sunday 20 April 2014

Facts and Trivia from Dancing with the Stars


Looking at all of the seasons of Dancing with the Stars it is rather interesting the patterns that start to emerge sometimes.  Learning some of the facts and trivia of the show can be really entertaining and is often quite exciting.

There are numerous tidbits of trivia that is not always widely known.  For example, the oldest male celebrity in the competition was George Hamilton at 66; the youngest male celebrity so far was Mario at a spry 21 years old.

The oldest female celebrity was Priscilla Presley, the widow of Elvis Presley at 62 years old.  The other end of the spectrum found Sabrina Bryan at just 23 the youngest female celebrity.

The oldest professional is Nick Kosovich at a mere 43 and Julianne Hough takes the prize for being the youngest at only 19.

If you start looking at actual performance on the show there are several other interesting things to learn.

Jerry Springer is the one celebrity with the greatest number of bottom 2 appearances.  He appeared in the bottom 2 a grand total of four times before being eliminated.

For professionals, Edyta Sliwinska has appeared in the bottom 2 a total of 12 times, however this is spread across all six seasons as Edyta is the only professional to appear in all six seasons.

Celebrities who have never been in the bottom two include: Drew Lachey, Mario Lopez, Emmitt Smith, Helio Castroneves, Apolo Anton Ohno, and finally season six winner Kristi Yamaguchi.

Professionals who have been in the bottom two the least includes Fabian Sanchez, Mark Ballas and also Julianne Hough whom has also won two different seasons as well.  These three professionals have each found themselves in the bottom 2 a single time.

Kristi Yamaguchi is the only celebrity to place First in a total of eight instances.  However, on the other end, P. Miller, Jerry Springer, Marie Osmond and Clyde Drexler all appeared in last place four times each.

The list could go on for miles, but finding the details that are actually interesting is not always easy.  After all, who really cares that the tallest celebrity to participate was Clyde Drexler at 6’7” tall?  Or that Marissa Jaret Winokur was the shortest at a tiny 5’0”?  Most people instead are concerned with actual performances.

As far as the most times champion for the professions both Julianne Hough and Cheryl Burke both win the prize after winning two seasons each.  Additionally, Julianne enjoyed the thrill of being the youngest professional to win, being only 18 at the time of her first win and 19 at the time of her second.  Alec Mazo who is also a winning professional was the oldest professional to win at 31 years old.

For the celebrities themselves Apolo Anton Ohno was the youngest winner at only 25, while Emmitt Smith was the oldest at 37 years old.

Looking over all of the seasons it is truly incredible just how diverse the group has been.  While many of the professionals have remained the same throughout many seasons, there are constant changes in the celebrities that are sought.  Trying to ensure that you are really looking over all of the true details and statistics is not always easy, but it can certainly be a lot of fun and when combined together with the thrill of the actual show can be a really great way to pass some time.

Dancing with the Stars The Tour


Trying to maximize the financial boost of the show as much as possible during the broadcast on October 25, 2006, it was announced that Dancing with the Stars The Tour was going to start embarking around the country.  With the promise of many of the celebrities as well as professionals all combined together for a great performance at a location near you the tour started out quite small and managed to grow substantially as time went out.

After three successful tours the empire has continued to grow and the results that ABC are finding is absolutely incredible.

The first tour kicked off on December 19, 2006 in sunny San Diego, California and wrapped up after 38 different arenas on February 11, 2007.  The first tour showcased celebrities Drew Lachey, Joey McIntyre, Lisa Rinna, Joey Lawrence and Harry Hamlin.  The professionals involved in the initial tour included Cheryl Burke, Kym Johnson, Louis van Amstel, Edyta Sliwinska, and Karina Smirnoff.

Rout two for the tour was a bit smaller with only celebrities Joey McIntyre, Apolo Anton Ohno, Drew Lachey, Joey Lawrence and Joey Fatone combined with professionals Julianne Hough, Cheryl Burke, Edyta Sliwinska and lastly Kym Johnson.

The third tour, which started on December 18, 2007 and ran through February 10, 2008 was much larger and offered a much greater cast.  This time the tour included Sabrina Bryan, Monique Coleman, Joey Lawrence, Wayne Newton, Marie Osmond, Drew Lachey, Mario Lopez, Joey Fatone and finally Helio Castroneves for celebrities.  The professionals for this tour included Mark Ballas, Derek Hough for a brief period, Alec Mazo, Edyta Sliwinska, Cheryl Burke, Jonathan Roberts, Kym Johnson, Brian Fortuna, Karina Smirnoff, and Julianne Hough.

Trying to really generate interest for the tour, it was really important that it not last too long.  Additionally, it is also extremely certain that the show would limit the show dates to accommodate the very small amounts of time that is left open between seasons.  Dancing with the Stars continuously starts a new season after only very short breaks, which leaves very little time for a tour.

The overall tour has not been as successful as the actual television show; however, it is has still performed extremely well with most audiences.  The last run of the tour was certainly the biggest with the largest cast participating from all three tours.

One person who was obviously missing from the third tour was Melanie Brown the second place winner for season five.  Due to a Spice Girls Reunion Tour, she was unable to participate in the tour and was forced to miss out completely.  Additional problems can when professional Cheryl Burke started having problems with her appendix and was forced to withdraw from the show.

While it is not quite time for the next tour to set out across the country, it will be extremely curious to see celebrities like Joey Lawrence and Drew Lachey will return again, after all they are the only two celebrities who have participated in all three tours.  Trying to work out an ever growing cast may be a nightmare logistically, but for the audience it means an even bigger and better show than previously and is certainly well worth all of the time and effort to really get great seats.  After all, how many other opportunities are presented to actually see Dancing with the Stars live?

Dancing with the Stars Spinoff – Bruno vs. Carrie Ann



With all highly successful shows, you always find a few spinoffs’ that appear to try and steal some of the thunder.  With Dancing with the Stars, the spinoff was designed to be between two of the judges and several contestants that the judges choose.  The actual storyline was that Carrie Ann Inaba and Bruno Tonioli would each bet assigned to a group of talented individuals.  Through the coaching of Carrie Ann and Bruno, the contestants would battle and vie to see which was truly the best at the end.

The show was hosted by Drew Lachey the season two winner of Dancing with the Stars and first hit the airwaves on January 7, 2008.  The season finale was concluded on February 18, 2008 and by most was considered to be an enormous flop.  The contestants were pulled from several different locations around the country with auditions held in Nashville, Santa Monica and also New York City.  A total of 14 contestants started off during the show, however two were cut from the show immediately.

The final twelve contestants were divided up into teams and were assigned to work with either Bruno or Carrie Ann.  Despite the success and popularity of Dancing with the Stars which both Bruno and Carrie Ann are involved with this show never managed to take off, in fact it pulled more viewers for the very first show than it managed to do for the season finale.

The other spinoff’s of Dancing with the Stars that have appeared have been a bit more successful, however they all follow the exact same format as Dancing with the Stars and also are actually classified as spinoffs of Strictly Come Dancing the British version of Dancing with the Stars.  While popularity had been hoped to tap into in order to make the Bruno vs. Carrie Ann a success it ended in complete failure.

Luckily, for the judges the success of Dancing with the Stars and also the tour has managed to win over the hearts of enough people to keep them a job.  While the pair works well together on television shows including Dancing with the Stars, overall they are not a highly desirable couple without the added concepts that Dancing with the Stars really brings.

The actual format for the show was initially taken from the British television show Dance X.  While the show has been popular in the United Kingdom, it has pulled substantially less attention.  However, the show was not marketed as heavily as it could have, only having auditions in a total of three locations certainly worked to ultimately harm the show.  In order to actually see a substantial show that provides the viewers desired it should have been pushed heavier in the initial stages and also in the follow up marketing.

With this spinoff of Dancing with the Stars successfully squashed, it will be interesting to see the new formats that are tried and the new approaches that are demonstrated.  The ultimate concept of finding a successful spinoff is not impossible.  After all, Dancing with the Stars offers a huge amount of freedom and flexibility as well as great freedom of viewers to become personally invested in the show.  Tapping into this potential is huge for allowing an additional show to be created that will actually start to win over the hearts of viewers as well.

Dancing with the Stars Season 2 Recap



Building upon the success of season one of Dancing with the Stars was something that sent audiences into overdrive.  Pulling the total number of competing couples up to 10, rather than just the six that season one offered was one of the largest changes.  However, it certainly was not the only change for the show, which allowed it to reach a wider base of viewers.  Another substantial change for the show was the change to an hour and a half time slot, rather than just the single hour time slot.  Added to this change was the addition of a results show that was aired the subsequent night, which ran for an hour.

Following many of the changes that were in store for the season it was extremely important to begin season two of Dancing with the Stars with a fabulous cast of celebrities pulled together.  In order to really do this, the show pulled out several well known celebrities to really give the show a serious boost.  The huge changes in the show paid off and it continued to grow in popularity.  However, it was also speculated that the viewer voting was creating problems in the results, as many people who received extremely low scores from the judges were actually given the ability to remain on the show an extremely long period of time.

Kenny Mayne was the first contestant to be sent packing.  As an ESPN sports commentator he was teamed up with professional Andrea Hale.  After an extremely brief stint on the show, he was eliminated on January 6, 2006 with the new season only starting on January 5, 2006.  As one of the shortest durations on the show, he was certainly passed over by many when discussing highlights of the show.

Tatum O’Neil was partnered with professional Nick Kosovich and was eliminated on January 13, 2006.  For her previous accomplishments, she was a successful actress and has even won an Academy Award previously.

Giselle Fernandez is a TV journalist who appeared in season two partnered with Jonathan Roberts.  Following the elimination on January 20, 2006, she was expected to return to her normal job.

Master P is the rapper that everyone loved to support.  Drawing the love of the viewers, he was kept around for many weeks despite the fact that he had no real skills in ballroom dancing.  After putting in very few hours of actual dance training, it was immediately obvious that the viewers were voting for him simply due to his popularity, rather than his actual dancing skills.  Partnered with Ashly DelGrosso the pair was eventually eliminated on January 27, 2006 after causing quite a stir over the voting process.

Tia Carrere is a model and actress who was partnered with professional Maksim Chmerkovskiy.  The duo was eliminated on the February 3, 2006 episode.

George Hamilton an actor was partnered with Edyta Sliwinska after a successful run on the show the pair was eliminated on February 10, 2006.

Lisa Rinna was designated as one of the best dancers in the competition and was paired with professional Louis van Amstel.  Despite best efforts and scores from the judges, Lisa was eliminated on February 24, 2006.

Stacy Keibler an actress and also a former Diva for WWE was paired with professional Tony Dovolani.  The pair was eliminated on February 24, 2006 in third place; however, there was disputes that they should have rightfully beaten the second place finishers due to much better performances over the duration of the show.

Jerry Rice is a retired and highly successful NFL wide receiver.  After being chided by the judges continuously over his lack of ability, it became obvious that the reason he stayed for so long was due to the viewers voting for him.  The controversy surrounding the voting reached a fever pitch when Jerry finished second place.  Many attributed his win to the votes that poured in right immediately following his dancing which was often at the very beginning of the show.

The final contestant for season was Drew Lachey, brother to Nick Lachey and also member of the boy band 98 Degrees.  His professional partner was Cheryl Burke and they managed to secure a first place win on February 24, 2006.  This was the first major project that Drew was involved in for quite a while, and his wonderful performances on the show attributed heavily to his win.

Dancing with the Stars Grows During Season Four



With the latest season of Dancing with the Stars starting on March 19, 2007, the show hit the ground running and never looked back.  Several adjustments were made to the show though to improve the overall flow.  The first change that was in store was the shift in timeslots.  This was actually done to accommodate a larger audience that would otherwise potentially be wrapped up watching American Idol on Fox, rather than tuning into Dancing with the Stars.  Additional changes also included waiting until the end of week 2 to start actually eliminating contestants.  A final change was airing the show in the UK, which had not been done previously.

Pulling out the contestants for season four was a lot of enjoyment, with a range of athletes, singers, and even actors combined together it created a really enjoyable show.

Paulina Porizkova a supermodel was paired with Alec Mazo and was the first contestant that was sent home.  Paulina and Alec departed the show on March 26, 2007 after only two weeks on the show.

Shandi Finnessey has enjoyed a career as a former Miss USA and also a game show host.  Partnered up with Brian Fortuna she was also struck from the show extremely quickly and found herself removed on April 3, 2007.

Leeza Gibbons a talk show host was paired up with professional Tony Dovolani and only stayed for 4 episodes before being eliminated from the show on April 10, 2007.

Clyde Drexler a retired NBA player was teamed up with professional Elena Grinenko and was eliminated on April 17, 2007 after holding on for several weeks.

The former wife of Beatle Paul McCartney, Heather Mills was on the show for season four as well.  Her official job was listed as Charity Campaigner; however, this has not been verified since there is some difficulty locating her actual job.  It was rumored that her stay on the show was dragged out due to the publicity surrounding her extremely public divorce to Paul McCartney.  As the only contestant with a prosthetic leg, she only had one incident where her leg created a problem.  She was partnered with Jonathan Roberts and was eliminated finally on April 24, 2007.

John Ratzenberger an actor with credits including the hit television show Cheers was partnered with professional Edyta Sliwinska but was eliminated on May 1, 2007.

Billy Ray Cyrus the one hit wonder of the 1990’s was partnered up with Karina Smirnoff.  Presently best known as the father of Hannah Montana star, Miley Cyrus he was eliminated from the show on May 8, 2007.

Ian Ziering an actor with credits that include the popular show Beverly Hills, 90210 was partnered with professional Cheryl Burke for his stay on the show.  After an elimination on May 15, 2007, they finished in fourth place.

Laila Ali the daughter of Mohammad Ali and also a professional Boxing World Champion.  Partnered with professional Maksim Chmerkovskiy she pulled out a third place finish on May 22, 2007 at the season finale.

Joey Fatone from the 90’s boy band ‘N Sync was partnered with Kym Johnson and pulled out a second place finish.  Despite an extremely limited career outside of music before his appearance on the show, he was extremely popular with the audience and received a large amount of votes.

Apolo Anton Ohno is a five time Olympic Medalist in Short Track Speed skating.  After winning two gold, one silver and also two bronze medals in the Olympics Apolo appeared on season four of Dancing with the Stars and was partnered together with professional Julianne Hough and danced his way to victory yet again by winning the title and first place in the season finale on May 22, 2007.

With the wide range of celebrities involved, it was only natural for a bit of controversy to follow as well.  The biggest controversies included Vincent Pastore an actor pulling out of the show right before it began.  Originally partnered with Edyta Sliwinska he was replaced by John Ratzenberger.  There were two professionals who pulled out of this season as well, Ashly DelGrosso pulled out due to a pregnancy and Louis van Amstel pulled out due to personal reasons but still appeared as a professional dancer for performances and assisted with choreography.

Dancing with the Stars from the Beginning



If you have ever wondered exactly where the show Dancing with the Stars has come from, it is really an amazing story.  With six different celebrities paired together with six different professional ballroom dancers, a phenomenon was born into the United States.  The show was already a hit in England, however trying to gauge exactly how well the show would perform in the United States was not quite so easy due to the dramatic differences between viewers.

With the start of the show on June 1, 2005, it was immediately obvious that the show was a hit.  The viewers for the very first episode hit an enormous 13 million viewers and climbed its way to the number one position.  This was an incredible feat for a show that was just starting out, and was success that would just continue to grow as the show went on.  Combining together celebrities from a wide field, incredible costumes and some fabulous dancing has all proven to be a great recipe for success for the show.

The initial cast of the show for celebrities included several people who had not been seen heavily for a very long time, and demonstrated that a bit of time away from the spotlights of Hollywood is not always fatal for a career.

The initial contestants for the show included:
Trista Rehn, her claim to fame was her time on the show the Bachelorette as well as also competing on The Bachelor.  Her time on the show was extremely short lived as she was eliminated on June 8, 2005 along with her partner Louis van Amstel.

Evander Holyfield, he dazzled the world as a major heavyweight boxer and proved that while he was not the most graceful on his feet; he certainly was not the worst.  Pulling all of his experience, as a boxer did not seem to benefit him greatly as his time on the show was tragically brought to an end on June 13, 2005 after just two weeks.  His professional partner was Edyta Sliwinska.

Rachel Hunter, as a famous supermodel it is standard that moving gracefully is required.  While dancing with partner Jonathan Roberts it was unfortunate that Rachel was eliminated on June 22, 2005, which brought their time on the show to an end.

Joey McIntyre, made famous by the 1980’s boy band, New Kids on the Block he has also done a few acting gigs, mostly plays though.  With his own semi-successful music career covering several years, it had been a while since he had been actively heard from.  Paired with professional Ashly DelGrosso he was eliminated on June 29, 2005 after coming in 3rd place.

John O’Hurley was able to secure several acting jobs as well as numerous television show hosting gigs; however, his first stint at competing came on Dancing with the Stars.  Paired with Charlotte Jorgensen as his professional partner the pair was eventually awarded a second place finish on July 6, 2005 for the season finale.

Kelly Monoco, a successful actress with numerous shows to her credits including Baywatch, Port Charles, Hard Copy, Spin City, and General Hospital to name a few was declared the winner of season one on July 6, 2005 with professional partner Alec Mazo bringing a successful end to the first season for the show.

Due to the success of the first season, additional seasons of the show were quickly organized.  Each additional season of the show has increased the number of viewers watching and each features a unique set of celebrity contestants as well.  One of the key factors that has helped to influence the success of the show is the uniqueness compared to anything else that is currently on television.  Because the show pulls upon the success of contestants and offers no prize money at all, it is only a title as well as a trophy that the winning pair is awarded.  While many contestants are not as comfortable with this idea, many others are thoroughly pleased to simply be able to compete again and stay in the public spotlight.

Dancing with the Stars Contestants – Where are they Now?



Several of the contestants on the hit ABC television show Dancing with the Stars have had some great success pulling their careers back into the public spotlight.  With a large number of celebrities getting renewed attention due to the show, many others are starting to look for new ways to revive their careers.  With a large number of celebrities starting to appear in the spotlight more and more following their stints on the show it is a great ability for many to locate a rejuvenated career.

Joey McIntyre has picked up quite a bit of publicity surrounding his performance.  After successfully finishing in a third place finish for season one his band New Kids on the Block decided to create a reunion tour and also is working on promoting an album of new material that the group has recently released.

From season two the biggest name to make a splash recently has been Tatum O’Neal who was recently in legal troubles after being arrested by police in California over drug charges.  The only other member of the season two cast to spark a huge career boost has been Drew Lachey who has appeared in all three Dancing with the Stars The Tour as well as also stood in for the show’s co-host while she delivered her baby.

Mario Lopez in season three brought back the attention that had since waned from his A.C. Slater days on Saved by the Bell.  By turning to Broadway to star in A Chorus Line, he has certainly seen a renewed spark of attention.

For season four the biggest contestants ended up being Billy Ray Cyrus who is working to heavily boost his image as the father of Miley Cyrus the star of Hannah Montana.  With plenty of publicity surrounding his teenage daughter he has made great advances in staying in the public spotlight, just not quite for his career per say.

In the midst of season five Melanie Brown of the Spice Girls spent a large amount of time in a very public paternity dispute with actor and comedian Eddie Murphy as well as working to organize a reunion tour with the girl power group Spice Girls.  All of the publicity that was extended also poured over to Floyd Mayweather Jr. who is nicknamed “Pretty Boy” and he made several appearances on shows that earned him additional publicity as well.

With all of the celebrities involved in season six; it is rather quite on the home front.  There have been so far no major attempts to really create massive amounts of publicity for the newest season.  However, with the season just ending at the end of May it is extremely early into the summer to see exactly how the publicity that the contestants received will really pay out.

For all of the attention that is drawn, many of the contestants disappear into the background once their time on the show is over.  For all of the attention and all of the viewers that the show pulls, it is also important to stay on the show long enough to actually gather a good following in order to see real results in the publicity and careers of each of the contestants.  With so much going on for a few of the contestants, it is true that the career really can see a huge boost after a great run on the show.