Dancing With Stars Tickets

Hosted by Tom Bergeron (America's Funniest Home Videos), and Samantha Harris (E! Entertainment), Dancing With The Stars is a popular U.S. reality TV show. It is based on the British series Strictly Come Dancing, where celebrity contestants are paired with professional dancers and compete against each other in weekly elimination rounds to determine a winner.

The dancers have 10 weeks to whip their celebrity partner into professional shape. Each week, the pairs cut a rug in front of a national audience whose votes are combined with scores from a panel of judges (Len Goodman, Bruno Tonioli and Carrie Ann Inaba). The lowest scoring dance pair gets eliminated each week. The weekly results shows are a new addition to the format. As well as revealing the couple to be eliminated from the competition, the show will also feature performances from top musical acts, professional dance demonstrations and exciting behind-the-scenes footage of training and other aspects of the show.

The five main dance categories are the Foxtrot, the Quickstep, the Waltz, the Viennese Waltz, and the Tango, as well as a full assortment of Latin dances like the Samba and the Cha-Cha-Cha. Past celebrity winners include football star Emmitt Smith, Olympic gold medalist Apolo Anton Ohno, 98 Degrees member Drew Lachey, and actress Kelly Monaco (BASEketball). The upcoming season has the most star-studded roster yet with Wayne Newton, Marie Osmond, Scary Spice and more!

In little more than a year, this ABC ballroom dancing competition has grown from a midsummer lark to one of the biggest shows on television. Now regularly drawing some 20 million fans to each of its twice-weekly broadcasts, Dancing With the Stars has turned into the second-most-popular reality show, ranking behind only American Idol. This fall it is running neck and neck for the most viewers each week with high-powered shows like Desperate Housewives, CSI and Grey's Anatomy.

The viewers are fascinated to watch people who don't know how to dance like this make such progress each week as well as the determination of nonprofessionals to stand up to the scrutiny of professional dance judges, and the behind-the-scenes montages that demonstrate just how hard the contestants familiar from their roles as sitcom actors, talk show hosts or retired sports stars are working to learn their steps each week. For the contestants, it is hard to underestimate the difficulty inherent in learning not only new choreography each week but also a new style of dance, one that usually requires specific steps, body carriage and attitude.

The show offers real entertainment value about an art form that's often overlooked and seen as outdated. It's refreshing to watch a cultured show and more and more young audiences are tuning in. Despite not being all that popular initially among younger viewers, the series has shown improvement among those 18 to 49, as it has moved into the top 10 shows of the week in the 18-to-49 group, and on a Tuesday last month, its ratings beat those of the World Series, both in total viewers and among adults under 50. Also, the audience is required to dress up, and its members come wearing sequins and silk shirts, giving the evening an air of elegance.

Dancing with the Stars has broad appeal, offering viewers dazzling costumes, dancing, celebrity gossip, behind-the-scenes training and contemporary music performed by a live 15-piece band. The format has already been an international hit in several countries. Season 5 kicked off with some fine dancing from Helio Castroneves and Julianne Hough. Julianne Hough is the defending champ and she is going to be hard to beat this year.

Week three resulted in the highest week three scores (a three way tie for first with Sabrina Bryan, Melanie Brown, and Jane Seymour each having 27/30). Dancing with the Stars 5 favorites and current loves Sabrina Bryan and Mark Ballas will return to the show for its finale at the end of the month, and for the first time, they'll perform a full routine. Mark and Sabrina have both signed on to do the third national Dancing tour.

Sabrina will join fellow season five celebrities Wayne Newton and Marie Osmond; also touring are Drew Lachey, Joey Lawrence, Monique Coleman, and a number of professional dancers from the series. The tour starts Dec. 18 in Seattle and ends Feb. 10, after visiting 35 cities.