Dancing with the Stars (Australian TV series) (Courtesy Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

Dancing with the Stars is an Australian television series based on the British Strictly Come Dancing. It was the first adaptation of the now widespread format. The show pairs a number of celebrities (or stars) with professional ballroom dancers who each week compete against each other in a competition to impress a panel of judges and ultimately the viewing public in order to survive potential elimination. Through a telephone poll, viewers vote for the couples they think should stay, taking into account an average score as given by the panel of judges. Dancing with the Stars has been a huge success and a consistently high rating performer, usually finishing as one of the top 5 shows for every week. It is filmed live in Melbourne on Tuesdays at 7.30pm. It regularly rates as Tuesday's number one show with an average of two million viewers.

On Air

Hosts

Daryl Somers
Sonia Kruger

Judges

Todd McKenney
Helen Richey
Paul Mercurio
Mark Wilson

Series

Series One (Late 2004)

The first series aired in late 2004 and featured the following celebrities:

James Tomkins (Olympic Gold Medal Rower) & Patrice Smith
Gabrielle Richens (Model) & Mark Hodge
Katrina Warren (Television Vet- Harry's Practice) & Csaba Szirmai
John Wood (Actor- Blue Heelers) & Jenni Pederson
Matt Shirvington (Olympic Athlete) & Natalie Lowe
Justin Melvey (Actor- Days of our Lives) & Kym Johnson
Pauline Hanson (Former politician- One Nation Party founder) & Salvatore Becchio
Bec Cartwright (Actress- Home and Away) & Michael Miziner

Bec Cartwright and partner Michael Mizner were eventually declared the winners, beating Pauline Hanson and Sal Becchio.

Series Two (Early 2005)

Series two aired in early 2005 and featured the following celebrities:

Steven Bradbury (Winter Olympic Gold Medal Speed Skater) & Sarah West
Sara-Marie Fedele (Former Big Brother contestant) & Trent Whiddon
Shane Gould (Former Olympic Gold Medal Athlete) & Csaba Szirmai
Suzie Wilks (Television Presenter- Changing Rooms) & Jonathan Doone
Nikki Webster (Singer) & Sasha Farber
Derryn Hinch (Radio Presenter- 693 3AW) & Patrice Smith
Jason Smith (Actor- Home and Away) & Luda Kroitor
Holly Brisley (Actress) & Mark Hodge
Ian Roberts (Former NRL Player) & Natalie Lowe
Tom Williams (Television Presenter- The Great Outdoors) & Kym Johnson

Tom Williams and his partner Kym Johnson were eventually declared the winners, defeating Ian Roberts and his partner.

Series Three (Late 2005)

Series three premiered in late 2005 and featured the following celebrities:

Tania Zaetta (Former Television Presenter- Who Dares Wins) & Michael Miziner
Michael Caton (Actor- The Castle) & Kym Johnson
Ky Hurst (Ironman) & Maria 'Masha' Belash
Nicky Buckley (Model) & Andrew Palmer
Dawn Fraser (Former Olympic Gold Medal Swimmer) & Gordon Gilkes
David Campbell (Singer) & Luda Kroitor
Brodie Holland (AFL Footballer) & Alana Patience
Ian "Dicko" Dickson (Television Presenter- My Restaurant Rules, Australian Idol) & Leeanne Bampton
Chris Bath (Television Presenter- Seven News) & Trenton Shipley
Ada Nicodemou (Actress- Home and Away) & Aric Yegudkin

Ada Nicodemou and her partner Aric Yegudkin were eventually declared the winners, defeating Chris Bath and her partner.

Champion of Champions

The winners of Series Two and Series Three competed to be crowned Champion of Champions.

Ada Nicodemou & Aric Yegudkin
Tom Williams & Kym Johnson

Ada Nicodemou and her partner Aric Yegudkin were eventually declared the winners, defeating Tom Williams and his partner on the basis of both scores from the judges (winning both nights of competition) and viewer votes.

Series Four (Early 2006)

Series four premiered in early 2006 and featured the following celebrities:

Grant Denyer (Television presenter and the Sunrise Weatherman) & Amanda Garner
Kostya Tszyu (Boxer) & Luda Kroitor
Toby Allen (Singer - Human Nature) & Leeanne Bampton
Noelene Brown (Actress) & Carmelo Pizzino
Kate Langbroek (Radio Presenter- Nova 100) & Alexander Bryan
Jennifer Hawkins (Television Presenter - The Great Outdoors, former Miss Universe) & Serghei Bolgarschii
Simone Callahan (Socialite and ex-wife of Shane Warne) & Gordan Derbogosijan
Alicia Molik (Tennis Player) & John Paul Collins
Luke Ricketson (Former NRL Player) & Eliza Campagna
Molly Meldrum (Music guru) & Alana Patience

Grant Denyer and his partner Amanda Garner were eventually declared the winners, defeating Kostya Tszyu and his partner.

Series Five (Late 2006)

Series five premiered on Tuesday September 26 , 2006 and concluded on Tuesday November 28, 2006. It featured the following celebrities:

Celebrity	Occupation	Professional Partner	Status
Kerry Armstrong	Actress	Christopher Ryan	Eliminated 3^rd on October 17
Arianne Caoili	Teenage chess champion	Carmelo Pizzino	Eliminated 9^th on November 28
Fiona Falkiner	The Biggest Loser contestant	Serghei Bolgarschii	Eliminated 1^st on October 3
Andrew Gaze	Basketball star	Linda DeNicola	Eliminated 7^th on November 14
Chris Hemsworth	Actor on Home and Away	Abbey Ross	Eliminated 6^th on November 7
Amanda Keller	Radio Host	Csaba Szirmai	Eliminated 5^th on October 31
Anthony Koutoufides	Carlton Football Club Aussie Rules player	Natalie Lowe	Winners on November 28
Tamsyn Lewis	Mid-distance runner	Arsen Kishishian	Eliminated 8^th on November 21
Gary Sweet	Australian actor	Eliza Campagna	Eliminated 4^th on October 24
Tom Waterhouse	Son of horse trainer and businesswoman Gai Waterhouse	Alana Patience	Eliminated 2^nd on October 10

Anthony Koutoufides and his partner Natalie Lowe were eventually declared the winners, defeating Arianne Caoili and her partner.

Controversy

Throughout all of the seasons there has been controversy. Some that revolved around the Dancing with the Stars contestants include:

All of the Home and Away stars competing in each season, consistently lasted until close to the end, with both Bec Cartwright and Ada Nicodemou winning their respective seasons, 1 and 3.

In Season 2, it was believed that judge Todd McKenney did not like Nikki Webster and thus gave her low scores.

Following this, in Season 4, Kate Langbroek locked horns with Todd when she disapproved of the way Todd had acted towards Webster.

Bec Cartwright (Season 1), Nikki Webster (Season 2) and Jennifer Hawkins (Season 4) all had previous dancing experience and many saw them as having an unfair advantage, despite the fact that they had experience in forms of dance, such as cheerleading and ballet, which are quite different styles to ballroom dancing. Bec Cartwright especially copped a lot of flack after winning, with many irate Pauline Hanson supporters using the excuse that she "cheated".

All of the winners thus far have come from Seven Network shows—Bec and Ada from Home and Away, Tom Williams from The Great Outdoors, and Grant Denyer from Sunrise—leading to accusations that Seven Network personalities are favoured in front of everyone else. Season five will be the first to have a non-7 personality final.

In the semi final of Season five, judge Todd McKenney stated that he believed Arianne Caoili had received professional dance lessons prior to the competition. Arianne denied this. Channel 7's Today Tonight supported McKenney's claims, producing video footage of Arianne attending Salsa classes, but on Saturday 25th of November Arianne said that everything that Todd said wasn't true, the only thing she's done was when the producers rang up to cast her for Dancing, she just started doing Salsa lessons. This all started because Todd got a tip-off from somebody which how he knew this happened.

Dancing with the Stars (Australian TV series)