Dancing with the Stars
The ballroom show that made Len Goodman, Carrie Ann Inaba, and Bruno Tonioli household names. ABC's Dancing with the Stars premiered June 1, 2005, as a six-celebrity summer experiment, and within a year its finales were pulling 27 million viewers.
The format came from Britain. Strictly Come Dancing premiered on BBC One on May 15, 2004, its title mashing together the film Strictly Ballroom and the long-running Come Dancing, and BBC Worldwide went on to license it to 60 other countries under the name Dancing with the Stars; Guinness World Records called it the world's most successful reality television format in 2010. ABC's version arrived June 1, 2005, with Tom Bergeron hosting, Lisa Canning co-hosting, and Len Goodman as head judge beside Carrie Ann Inaba and Bruno Tonioli.
Season one was small, six celebrities and eight episodes, and it ended in a fight. Kelly Monaco and partner Alec Mazo beat John O'Hurley and Charlotte Jørgensen, and the uproar was loud enough that ABC staged a "Dance Off" rematch on September 20, 2005, in which the judges scored O'Hurley 77 to Monaco's 74 but only the audience vote counted; Bergeron announced two days later that O'Hurley had won by one percent. Monaco kept the title, and the network never staged another. The premiere had drawn 13.48 million viewers; the finale, 22.36 million.
From there it was a juggernaut. Season two in January 2006, won by Drew Lachey and Cheryl Burke, finished with 27.23 million viewers; season three that fall, won by Emmitt Smith and Burke, finished with 27.51 million and ranked third for the TV season. Samantha Harris co-hosted seasons two through nine. The 2000s winners read like a sports hall of fame: Apolo Anton Ohno, Hélio Castroneves, Kristi Yamaguchi, and Shawn Johnson, with Brooke Burke and Donny Osmond closing out the decade. The 100th episode aired May 6, 2008. After 16 years on ABC the show moved to Disney+ in 2022, returned as a simulcast on both from season 32 in 2023, and opened its 35th season in September 2026.
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