Official: Dancing With The Stars Season 18 To Premiere March 17th!!
The premiere date for Dancing With The Stars Season 18 was just announced at the Television Critics Association Winter 2014 Press Tour. Here is a tweet from TV Guide. Set your calendars for March 17th!!
Other ABC premiere dates: #DWTS on Monday, March 17 at 8/7c and #TheBlackBox on Thursday, April 24 at 10/9c. #TCA14
ETA: Other tweets with info that took place:
From TVGuide Canada:
“We’re going to continue to work with Maks” on #DWTS, but Paul Lee won’t say anything more #TCA14
Hmmm, I wonder if that means he will judge again? I thought he did a great job the last time. I wouldn’t mind seeing him doing it again. Though not sure I want him to judge full time?
From TVGuide:
Lee: We were pleased with #DWTS on one night. It opened up Tuesdays for us. #TCA14
What do you think of this news? I think it’s for the best and I ended up liking it more.
ETA2: Below is a take from ABC MediaNet. Note how it mentions there will be 12 celebs again:
“DANCING WITH THE STARS” (Monday, March 17, 8:00-10:00 p.m., ET)
“Dancing With the Stars” returns for its 18th season with an all-new celebrity cast. The competition will feature twelve celebrities who will brave the dance floor for the very first time. Each week, these celebrities will leave their comfort zones and endure hours of grueling rehearsals to master technical choreography and entertaining performances. In the end, only one star will rise above the rest to be crowned champion and win the coveted mirror-ball trophy.
Hosted by Emmy® Award-winning Tom Bergeron (“America’s Funniest Home Videos”) and Brooke Burke-Charvet (“Dancing with the Stars” Season 7 Champion), “Dancing with the Stars” is the hit series in which celebrities perform choreographed dance routines which are judged by renowned ballroom judge Len Goodman and dancer/choreographers Bruno Tonioli and Carrie Ann Inaba.
“Dancing with the Stars” is produced by BBC Worldwide Productions. Conrad Green, Ashley Edens-Shaffer and Joe Sungkur are executive producers. Alex Rudzinski directs.
ETA3: Below is more from E Online;
Despite some shocking eliminations throughout DWTS’ 17th season, Lee revealed that the network is pleased with the new one-night format and it helped with the series’ ratings. “It actually grew. We didn’t quite end the season as high, but the season itself was higher.”
The ABC president explained that season 18 will also follow the one-night trend. “We want to find ways to turn that up just a little bit. We were pleased with how it worked for us,” he said.
Fans were thrilled to see a mini-shake up on the judges’ panel when former professional dancer Max Chmerkovskiy filled in for head judge, Len Goodman, for an episode. Lee agreed that he loved Max’s creative input and there’s a possibility that we could be seeing the hunky Ukranian back with a paddle in his hand. “We thought Max did a fabulous job and we’re going to continue working with him in the future. Nothing to announce now, but we will keep working with him,” he said.
The official press release is on tv by the numbers
There will be 12 new stars, it will be 1 night and the judges are returning !
I don’t mind the one night at all. But, as good as I thought Maks was as a judge, I really want him back on the dance floor!
Wooohoo! Can’t wait!
I am so ready for the cast announcement as well!!
Guessing it will be around late February?
Another season of my hopes of getting rid of Brooke being crushed.
Also, based on one of Julz’s tweets, I’m inclined to think Maks is done. For anyone who didn’t see it, according to him the rule is once you judge, you can’t dance again.
I am disappointed to see they’re keeping the crappy 1 night format.
Hmmm… Kinda tepid for me. Sad to see all 3 Stooges mentioned. I was hoping they’d replace Bruno with Maks, and CAI with Kym. Both Maks & Kym have something the existing Stooges don’t – they’ve guided celebs from not knowing how to dance to a live TV performance in 3 weeks. They understand what the celebs are going through. I think it would’ve made the judging MUCH MUCH better. Oh well… 🙁
I miss the couples coming down the stairs, watching some of the old seasons that has always been one of the highlights of the show for me.
Can they please get rid of the couches positioned next to the judges table… Awkward! And I also would like the judges table back on the other side of the room where it belongs, for some reason I just couldn’t get used to everything on the other side of the dancefloor.
Brooke doesn’t really bother me any longer. To me she is the least of their problems.
i have to say that I liked the one-night format a whole lot. That’s a change worth keeping, in my book. And I’m all aboard with a switch up – even if only occasionally – at the judges’ table – Maks did a great job, I thought. Agree with everyone, they’ve got to get rid of those damn red couches !
fingers crossed both Tristan and Sharna will be back ……
Linde – Ditto on Tristan and Sharna coming back. And Tristan getting a partner who can get him far(ish) in the competition. Same for Sharna.
I can’t wait! Although I’m kinda bummed Maks will never be back as a pro,I’m glad all of judges will be back! and I agree they need to get rid of the “glitter pit/sexy bus stop”. And I think it’d be cool if they moved the judges table to I guess the bottom-ish of the ballroom(in like birds eye view).
I like the one night format. Just wanted more pro numbers and Ballroom dances (tired of contemporary, jazz and all… want more salsa, argentine tango maybe lambada, merengue, zouk, wcs, bachata, different ballroom styles…)
I’m still interested on watch DwtS. But the show is lacking memorable dances, as Stacy’s sambas, Drew’s freestyle, Helio’s Mask Quickstep, Nicole’s 50’s paso, or even pro dances such as Jonathan and Anna’s, Louis and Cheryl’s…
I think Maks is a good character, but he’s not for the judges table or to come back as a pro. Maybe for special reporter.
As for the judges, I like them as characters. But they are annoying. Don’t like their inconsistency on what they say and how they score, for example.
Love Tom and the liberty he had talking to the couples. Brooke doesn’t affect me… specially ’cause she don’t use “how do you feel” too much anymore. =p
As for the pros, I’d like to see a good change. Bring new pros! Some of them are a little previsible now. Who watched all seasons and rewatch favourite dances a lot – like a lot of us – already know what steps Derek, Karina, Cheryl, Tony likes to use or are often used by them on a samba, chacha or fox routine… we simply know… Give ringers to Tristan, Sharna, Emma (I know it’s hard because sometimes the star pick the pro, but)… I wanna see what they can do.
Loved the cast last season. Specially because the footballer went on week 2, but we lost some good chars, like Snooki too early, IMO.
That’s what I have to say.
I’m guessing TPTB will give extra points or immunity to the best couples of the week to avoid shoking eliminations…
I wonder if they will have Sasha back as a pro? He isn’t the tallest guy in the world, So I wonder what celebs would be shorter than him?
Hated Maks as a judge. I was actually looking forward to him. I like the idea of former pros judging using real standards but all Maks seemed interested in doing was pointing out what the couples didn’t do and then saying he didn’t care. I know he wanted to tell the audience how hard the pros work, but he seemed to judge on some standard in his head.
Duly noted and anxiously awaited! 🙂
I wish the dancers were back in the skybox, and the judges were on the other side of the dance floor. I enjoyed watching the cast bond and act goofy at times after their dances. Since the BBC owns dwts, we will never lose Len and Bruno as judges.