Dancing with the Stars is the name of a group of international television series based on the format of the British series Strictly Come Dancing, distributed by BBC Worldwide the commercial arm of the BBC. Presently distributed in 31 countries, Australia was the first country to adapt the BBC show, and versions have also been produced in the USA

with Dancing with the Stars, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Chile, China, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Latvia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Russia, Slovakia, South Africa, Sweden, and Ukraine. As a result the format has become the world’s most popular television programme across all genres in 2006 and 2007 according to magazine Television Business International,[1] reaching the Top 10 in 17 countries. The show pairs a number of celebrities with professional ballroom dancers, who each week compete by performing dances, which are then given scores by a panel of judges. Viewers are given a certain amount of time to place votes on their favorite dancers, either by telephone or (in some of the shows) by the Internet. The couple with the lowest combined score (judges plus viewers) is eliminated and does not go on to the next week. This process continues until there are only two or three couples left, at which point one couple is declared the champion.
Franchise history
Cheryl Burke, Julianne Hough, Raimondo Todaro and Stefano Oliveri made Dancing With The Stars franchise history by becoming the only professional dancers to win two back-to-back championships, each. Cheryl Burke won her first Dancing With The Stars USA Championship with 98 Degrees boy band member Drew Lachey in the second season and won her second championship with NFL star Emmitt Smith in the third season. Julianne Hough won her first championship with Olympic Speed Skating Gold Medalist Apolo Anton Ohno in the fourth season and her second championship with Indy 500 Champion star Helio Castroneves in the fifth season. Raimodo Todaro won his first championship on the Italian version of Dancing with the Stars called “Ballando con le stelle” with former Miss Italia and Television presenter Cristina Chiabotto in the show’s second season and again with Olympic Long Jump Silver Medalist Fiona May during the show’s third season. Stefano Oliveri won his first championship on Dancing with the Stars New Zealand with Suzanne Paul, a New Zealand infomercial television star in season 3, and his second in season 4 with Temepara George a New Zealand netball champion. Brendan Cole judges on the New Zealand series and is a regular dancer on the UK version, Strictly Come Dancing, in which he won the first series with newsreader, Natasha Kaplinsky.
Mark Ballas is the only professional dancer to win two seasons, that were not back to back. Season 6 with Kristi Yamaguchi and Season 8 with Shawn Johnson. Mark has the honor of being the only male professional dance to win two seasons as well.
In New Zealand, Carol-Ann Hickamore is the only female pro dancer to win. She won the 2nd season with former rugby player Norm Hewitt. Carol-Ann later became a judge in Seasons 3 & 4 after Season 1 judge Donna Dawson left.
Julianne Hough became the youngest professional dancer on Dancing with the Stars when she was partnered with Apolo Anton Ohno in Season 4 at age 18.
Shawn Johnson became the youngest contestant on Dancing with the Stars in season eight at age 17 and the youngest winner on the show.
Kym Johnson, Tobias Karlsson, Ingrid Thompson, Stefano Olivieri, Hayley Holt, Brian Fortuna, Kimberley Smith and Csaba Szirmai have appeared on two different versions of Dancing with the Stars. Kym has danced on the U.S. and the Australian versions, while Tobias Karlsson appeared in the Danish and Swedish versions. Ingrid Beate Thompson appeared in the Norwegian and Swedish versions, while Csaba Szirmai and Stefano Olivieri appeared in the Australian and New Zealand versions. Hayley Holt appeared in the New Zealand and “Strictly Come Dancing” in the UK. Kimberley Smith appeared in the Belgian and Netherland versions. Brian Fortuna danced one season in the US with Shandi Finnessey, and has signed up to do Strictly Come Dancing.
Edyta Sliwinska is the only professional dancer on Dancing with the Stars to appear in every US season. In the original UK format, Strictly Come Dancing, Anton du Beke, Erin Boag, Brendan Cole and Camilla Dallerup have appeared in every series thus far.
In the New Zealand version, Rebecca Nicholson is the only professional to have appeared in every season. She came (out of 3rd in Season 1, 6th in Season 2, 5th in Season 3 and 4th in Season 4.
Jill Halfpenny and Darren Bennett were the first couple to ever receive a perfect forty score in the format on Strictly Come Dancing for the Jive in the series two finale.
Two competitors have presented a series of the format. The winner of series one Strictly Come Dancing, Natasha Kaplinsky stood in for Tess Daly, who was on maternity leave for series two (she co-presented with Bruce Forsyth), while the winner of season two of Dancing with the Stars Drew Lachey stood in for Samantha Harris, who was on maternity leave for season five (he co-presented with Tom Bergeron).
The lowest score ever given out in the Dancing with the Stars franchise history was a 1, which was giving out to Rodney Hide during his cha-cha and Nikki Webster in Australia in 2005.

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