DWTS Season 15 – The All-Star Season

Season 14 has concluded for Dancing with the Stars and TPTB have spent at least half of the season if not the past year fanning flames for Season 15. In the now-official announcement of an “All Star Cast” being on the horizon. For those that are confused, Vogue posted a video a while back of Mario Lopez joining Kelly Ripa on her show “Live! with Kelly” and mentioned that he was approached to be a part of the cast of Season 15.

But before I go any further let’s go back a few years. Back in late 2009, John posted a “All I Want for Christmas” DWTS wish list, who would have thought that some of the items would have come true:
1. Replace Samantha – TPTB DID replace Samantha with Season 7’s winner: Brooke Burke. In some ways that was an improvement, and in other ways… it still felt the same. Ah well
2. No Live Band – No such luck. *pouts*
3. More Behind the Scenes – I think there is quite a bit behind the scenes footage now… moreso than I remember there being before.
4. How about a themed DWTS? All sports people or all singers or all tv personalities. – Unfortunately when John first mentioned a “themed DWTS” he meant all the celebs be from a particular group versus themed nights… can’t have everything.
5. Dancing with the Stars All Stars – More on this later
6. More Pro Dances – This is also hard to see if it has happened or not.
7. DWTS Tour – Well we got a Vegas Live show now… that’s better than nothing.
8. Edyta For the Win – Unfortunately Edyta left after Season 10. So unless they bring her back for the All Star Season and make it so she wins… I don’t see this happening.
9. Fewer Contestants – Ever since Season 9 (which had a whooping 16 couples), TPTB had only 11 or 12 couples per season.
10. A DWTS Professionals Special – We’ve had a few specials that showed some of the best routines from previous seasons, be it celeb/pro dances or pro dances or pro group dance numbers. I say this was a win.

Of the above Top Ten wish list, I wouldn’t be surprised if TPTB actually went through the list and looked to see what was doable. Now the big one: Since 2009 PureDWTS have mentioned a desire for an “All Star Season” and how cool it would be to bring old favorites from previous seasons and watch them compete for their chance at the mirror ball trophy. In fact Cheryl Burke once tweeted that a possible “All Star Season” was in the works two seasons from when she first mentioned it. Looking at the date of the post… the “two seasons” lead into Season 15, then add to that Mario Lopez’s comment of being asked to be a part of the All-Star line up. Well… let’s just say that at the date that this post was original written (April 27th) we now know that this is a definitive possibility.

So where does that bring us? Well, I got curious, since I (Marianya) predict scores for the show… having an All-Star season would totally bust my predictions and calculations, because these would all be celebrities that now have some sort of prior dance experience coming in. Another factor is how many of them would actually remember want was taught to them the first time they were on the show? To me it doesn’t seem to be very many, but I could be dead wrong. One thing’s first certain, the expectations would be higher and the scores would be crazy!

Then there are the celebrities that are participating in the DWTS Live Show at the Tropicana, namely: Carson Kressley, Joey Fatone, Kyle Massey, Sabrina Bryan and Tia Carrere. Would they be counted out since they are already participating in another DWTS related show?

Taking what Tom has already mentioned on the show, he said that the contestants would include:
– Past Mirrorball Winners
– Fan Favorites
– Controversial Characters

Umm… I don’t necessarily mind the “controversial character” because I do see the draw of that to the show, but I have an issue with past Mirrorball winners. I mean, I would much prefer that everyone in the cast not have won before so it would give the celebrities a second chance to win. People don’t necessarily have to agree with me, but dammit I don’t think it would be fair for the celebrities in particular if there were past winners in the All-Star cast. In fact, I would much rather have a separate season (perhaps for Season 20?) where all of the previous Mirrorball winners would compete to see who is the best of the best… but that’s just me.

And then there is the question of: What constitutes a “fan favorite”? Do they have polls, numbers, know who averaged the most number of call ins? And on top of all that: Will they be nice and take one celebrity to represent every season of DWTS thus far, but wouldn’t that give those of Season 14 an unfair advantage? The questions are endless.

Still, this will undoubtedly bring a lot of the fans that have tuned off the show back on if they have the right mix of celebrities. I’ve talked to a number of my friends that were fans of the show but haven’t really had any huge desire to watch the show in recent months, so perhaps bringing in an All-Star season is exactly what is needed to bring a jolt into the series.

Next up… I’ll have posts analyzing the scoring progressions of two of the stars that were rumored to be approached for the All-Star Season: Mel B and Mario Lopez as well as adjustments to the upcoming season.