Dancing with the Stars (U.S. season 2)

Season two of the Dancing with the Stars (U.S. edition) premiered on the ABC network on January 5, 2006, and ended February 24, 2006. This season expanded to ten couples from six in the previous season. All the professionals dancers from season one, with the exception of Alec Mazo (who was the incumbent champion) and Charlotte Jørgensen, were a part of season two. Tom Bergeron returned as host while Samantha Harris replaced Lisa Canning as co-host. Carrie Ann Inaba, Len Goodman and Bruno Tonioli returned as judges.

Season two expanded each program from an hour to 90 minutes, and added an hour-long results show the following night (in the first season no couples were eliminated in the first week; the first couple was eliminated at the end of the second episode, the second couple at the end of the third episode, and so on). Two couples were declared safe in an earlier portion of the show, the remaining couples were then named off until only the bottom two were left (the last two couples had the lowest amount of votes, with the exception of week seven, where the show explicitly stated that the order of all but the eliminated couple was random).

Couples

Rapper Romeo was scheduled to appear in this season, but suffered an injury before the first show and was replaced by his father, Master P.^[1] Romeo eventually participated in season 12 and was partnered with Chelsie Hightower.

The ten celebrities and professional dance partners were:

†Drew Lachey returned for the All-Stars season, where this time he was paired with Anna Trebunskaya. They finished 11th.

Summary

In season two, Drew Lachey and Stacy Keibler broke out as the early frontrunners, as both had solid early performances, and some prior dance experience: Lachey's stage performances with 98 Degrees were extensively choreographed, and Keibler had childhood dance training as well as being a professional cheerleader. Although both Keibler and Lachey were assumed to have some form of a fan base, there was no way of knowing whether 98 Degrees fans or WWE fans were responsible for their success—Drew credited the people of Cincinnati, Ohio for helping him stay in the competition. Lachey was lauded for his passion and willingness to take risks, and Keibler for her long legs and technical perfection. In regard to the judges' scoring, in nearly every week, Lachey and Keibler held the top two spots in the scoring (either first-second or tied for first). In addition, Lachey and Keibler were the only dancers in the season to receive a perfect score (Keibler four, Lachey three), and have three of the four "encore" performances (Lachey twice, Keibler once). In week six, Stacy and Tony became the first couple in series history to receive two 30s (maximum judges' score) in a row. Drew and Cheryl were always among the top two highest scores and along with Jerry Rice and Anna Trebunskaya, were the only couple never chosen for the bottom two. The judges repeatedly told Keibler and Lachey that they were the best or among the best dancers in any of the international versions of the series. Also, Master P and his partner Ashly DelGrosso scored the lowest score in the history of the show, an 8 (4,2,2) out of 30. Despite making it to the finals, the three Finalists had one unlearned dance that they did not perform. Drew & Jerry had not learned the Waltz, and Stacy had not learned the Paso doble. Also, none of the male stars performed the Waltz.

Musical guests such as the Pussycat Dolls, Jesse McCartney, Natasha Bedingfield, Michael Bublé, Bill Medley, Burt Bacharach, Mary J. Blige, Scissor Sisters and Barry Manilow performed while the professional dancers demonstrated various routines. In week four the results show introduced an encore of what the judges considered the previous night's best routine—twice going to Drew Lachey (the paso doble in week four and the rumba in week seven), once to Stacy Keibler (the Samba (ballroom) in week five) and once to Rinna (the quickstep in week six).

Scoring chart

Red numbers indicate the couples with the lowest score for each week.

Green numbers indicate the couples with the highest score for each week.

     indicates the couple that was eliminated that week.

     indicates the couple who was called last to be safe.

     indicates the winning couple.

     indicates the runner-up couple.

     indicates the third place couple.

Average chart

This table only counts for dances scored on a traditional 30-point scale.

Highest and lowest scoring performances

The best and worst performances in each dance according to the judges' 30-point scale are as follows:

Kenny Mayne & George Hamilton are the only stars that did not land on this list.

Couples' highest and lowest scoring performances

According to the traditional 30-point scale.

Weekly scores and songs

Unless indicated otherwise, individual judges scores in the charts below (given in parentheses) are listed in this order from left to right: Carrie Ann Inaba, Len Goodman, Bruno Tonioli.

Week 1

Running order

Week 2

Running order

Week 3

Running order

Week 4

Running order

Week 5

Running order

Week 6

Running order

Week 7

Running order

Week 8

Running order

Dance Chart

Week 1: Cha-cha-cha or Waltz Week 2: Rumba or Quickstep Week 3: Jive or Tango Week 4: Paso doble or Foxtrot Week 5: Samba & group Salsa Week 6: One unlearned dance & group Viennese Waltz Week 7: One unlearned ballroom & Latin dance Finals: Favorite dance, freestyle, & randomly chosen dance

* The couple performed this dance at the finale

•      Highest Scoring Dance
•      Lowest Scoring Dance

Controversy

Fan voting influence

The fan voting for Master P and Jerry Rice received some controversy during this season. Master P received very low points from the judges during his time on the show and the fans and judges were disappointed that he outlasted Tatum O'Neil and Giselle Fernandez. Towards the end of the competition, Jerry Rice received negative feedback from the judges and scores that were much lower than his competitors,^[2] but he advanced to the finals. Even though Rice improved during the finals, some viewers and critics were disappointed with Rice getting into the finals over Lisa Rinna and 2nd place over Stacy Kiebler.^[3][4]

References

External links

• Official website