The American ABC Network adaptation premiered on June 1, 2005, to over 13 million viewers, the biggest summer debut ever for an American reality series. The second week climbed to 15 million viewers, and the show climbed to #1 in the summer 2005 TV season ratings, where it remained for the remainder of the season. The season finale aired July 6, 2005.
Couples
The 6 professionals and celebrities that competed were:
Some viewers felt the outcome at the end of the season between John O'Hurley and Kelly Monaco was unfair. Based on judges' scores from previous dances, O'Hurley had ranked higher than Monaco in all rounds but one. On the final night of the competition, when Monaco and her partner Alec Mazo received a score of 10 (the maximum) from each of the judges on the last dance, it edged O'Hurley and his partner Charlotte Jørgensen by one point in the judges' tally (see Judges' Scoring summary below). As half of the winning points came from the judges' votes, instead of solely from the votes of viewers, those who protested the final standings perceived that Monaco and Mazo had won because of the judges' votes. But this view reflected a misunderstanding of the scoring system; in fact, because the scoring was based on ordinals and the audience vote was the tiebreaker, Monaco and Mazo must have received more audience votes.
In response to the criticism, ABC announced a 90-minute special, Dancing with the Stars: Dance-off, a rematch between Monaco and O'Hurley (with their respective partners), to air September 20, 2005, at the beginning of the Fall 2005 television season. The winner, determined solely by fan votes, was announced in a September 22 results show. This time, O'Hurley and Jørgensen emerged as the winners.
After the competition
Evander Holyfield and Rachel Hunter appeared on Strictly Come Dancing, the British version of Dancing with the Stars, in a special Christmas 2005 competition. Both were eliminated during the first two rounds.
The success of Dancing with the Stars quickly inspired a similar show from the Fox Broadcasting Company entitled Skating with Celebrities (based on another British show, Dancing on Ice, from ITV). (Another dance show, So You Think You Can Dance, an RTL Group contest featuring unknown aspiring dancers, was already set to air before Dancing with the Stars premiered.)
Judges' Scoring summary
Red numbers indicate the teams with the lowest score for each week
Green numbers indicate the teams with the highest score for each week
Gold backgrounds indicate the teams that were in the bottom two with the eliminated team
Turquoise backgrounds indicate the teams that were last and so eliminated
Yellow backgrounds indicates the winning team
Magenta backgrounds indicates the runner-up team.
Orange backgrounds indicate the dance-off winner.
Cornflowerblue backgrounds indicate the dance-off second place couple.
Couple
Place
1
2
3
4
5
6
Dance Off
Kelly & Alec
1
13
17
21
26
22+25=47
25+30=55
25+24+25=74
John & Charlotte
2
20
26
24
21
27+27=54
27+27=54
22+30+25=77
Joey & Ashly
3
20
21
22
20
20+25=45
Eliminated
Rachel & Jonathan
4
20
24
26
25
Eliminated
Evander & Edyta
5
18
14
13
Eliminated
Trista & Louis
6
18
19
Eliminated
Perfect Tens
Team
Total No. of Tens
Week
Judge(s) who gave a ten
Dance Performed
Score
Kelly/Alec
3
6
Carrie Ann Inaba, Len Goodman, & Bruno Tonioli
Freestyle
30
John/Charlotte
3
Dance-Off
Carrie Ann Inaba, Len Goodman, & Bruno Tonioli
Waltz
30
Dance Chart
This couple performed this dance at the finale of Dancing With the Stars.