Season Changes to Dancing With the Stars

One of the most popular reality and competition shows in the last several seasons has been Dancing With the Stars, and along with that popularity comes changes that have been made over the seasons. These changes are thought to have increased the show's popularity as well as made it a more fair competition.

Dancing With the Stars began with a total of six couples comprised of six professional dancers and six well-known celebrities, with each couple consisting of one celebrity and one professional dancer. Judges and also audience voters then judged them on their dancing ability after a short period of practice.

By the time season two came around, the popularity had increased, and so they increased the couples count by four. This allowed for 10 couples, a professional and a celebrity, and more fun was had by all.

For season three, a few more changes came into the show. The biggest vote change was that viewers' votes were moved into a percentage rather than points, but it was still worth half of the final tally. This was actually done in order to make it fairer, and not just a popularity vote, allowing those with more talent to be judged fairly.

The popularity of Dancing With the Stars allowed it to be moved into a better time slot by season four. The year was 2007, and in order to avoid the popular hit show American Idol, Dancing With the Stars was given its own time slot and its popularity and ratings once again increased.

By the time season five arrived, there were 12 couples that were judged on their dancing skill, with still one professional and one celebrity. Complications with the voting from viewers was a constant irritant to dance aficionados, as the good dancers who were not well known were being voted off in favor of those who were more popular. The show was never meant to be a popularity contest, but more of a dancing contest to see how far the contestants could move in their dancing ability from week to week. Having a popularity vote was rather discouraging for those with real talent.

Early in the show voting was allowed during the show itself, which allowed viewers to vote for their favorite right away before they had seen the other dancers. This was soon changed, making viewers wait until the end of the show in order to vote. This permitted all the dancers to be seen before viewers had to make up their mind and a fairer vote was the result.

The producers of Dancing With the Stars made changes throughout the seasons to better the show. There's no doubt that some of the changes were a bit frustrating for viewers, but for the show's benefit, these changes actually made it fairer. At this point in time, Dancing With the Stars contestants appear to be happy with all of the changes made for the show, and it continues to be one of the most successful reality and competition shows on the air today.