Dancing with the Stars (New Zealand TV series)

Dancing with the Stars is a New Zealand television series based on the British series Strictly Come Dancing. The show introduces New Zealand celebrities paired with professional ballroom dancers who each week compete against each other in a competition to impress a panel of judges and the viewing public in order to survive potential elimination. Through a telephone poll, viewers vote for those couples who should stay. The public vote and the average score given by the panel of judges equally go towards deciding who should leave. Proceeds from the voting go to the celebrity contestant's charity of choice.

Dancing with the Stars has been popular with the New Zealand public. The first series, which aired in 2005, was the highest rated timeslot programme, averaged 730,000 people per episode, while the second series had an average of 804,000. Up to a million people tuned into each of the series finales.^[1][2] The third series premiered in 2007 with 735,000 viewers, the fourth series premiered in 2008 with 720,000 viewers, and the fifth series premiered with over 800,000 viewers, the highest of all previous series debuts.^[3]

From 2005–2009, the show was hosted by television personality Jason Gunn and co-hosted by professional dancer Candy Lane. All music was performed live by the Dancing with the Stars band, led by musical director Carl Doy. For the 2015 series, the show was hosted by Dominic Bowden and co-hosted by radio personality Sharyn Casey.

TVNZ announced in November 2009 that the show would not be returning in 2010, due to the economic climate.^[4] In November 2013, television production house Great Southern Television announced that it had acquired the New Zealand rights to the show and would be pitching a new series to all broadcasters.^[5] In March 2015, it was announced that Dancing with the Stars had been picked up by TV3 for a sixth series, which began airing in May 2015.^[6]

Judging panel

• In the second series, Carol-Ann Hickmore, who partnered Norm Hewitt in the first series, replaced Donna Dawson who had relocated to Australia.
• In the third series, Craig Revel Horwood, a judge on Britain's Strictly Come Dancing, replaced Paul Mercurio who left the show to concentrate more on the Australian version of Dancing with the Stars.
• In fourth series, Paul Mercurio was available to come back to the New Zealand version.

List of dances

The following are a list of dances that contestants and their partners have performed in an episode:

In the sixth series, the Argentine Tango and Salsa were also performed.

Series 1

Series 2

Series 3

Series 4

Series 5

Series 6

References

External links

• Official site