PureDWTS DWTS Junior, Season 1 – How the Show is Going to Work

I was getting a lot of questions about how the scores/eliminations/dance styles/etc. would work, so I sat down and picked Deep Throat’s brain to figure out the ins & outs of how DWTS Junior is going to go down. Admittedly, this is probably going to be more dry and technical and not as fun and exciting as celebrity & pro spoilers – so if that’s what you’re looking for, go here.  If you want to speculate on partnerships, you’ll want to go here; if you’re more interested in what curious things the pro mentors/junior pros/junior celebs have been doing on Instagram, that’s going to be here.  This post is strictly going to be about the rules/format of the show. Sorry there’s so many posts – I know this is a lot of information to take in, so I’m trying to keep it as organized as I can.  Thanks for hanging in here with me! 🙂

How is the scoring going to work?

Three judges scores, PLUS a voting percentage generated by the in-studio audience, minus the friends/family of the pros & celebs in attendance. Each member of the audience eligible to vote (so the general public audience members – not Alana’s mom, Miles’ co-stars, Artyon’s siblings, anyone the pros/celebs/mentors have invited) is given a digital clicker, with which they can cast ONE vote for their favorite couple AFTER ALL THE COUPLES HAVE DANCED.

How will the eliminations work?

Based on the scoring, the couple(s) with the lowest combined total of judges’ scores/studio audience votes will be eliminated at the end of each show – very similar to regular DWTS, minus the viewer votes at home.  Judges’ critiques and scores are being given after each dance (just like on regular DWTS), but the audience vote component obviously isn’t factored in until the end of the show – and that has often been the determining factor in who gets eliminated, as a few low-scoring couples have actually been saved by the audience vote, and a few decent-scoring couples have been eliminated by the audience vote (or lack thereof). Source mentioned that the mentors were told that the eliminations “would not be drawn out like they are on regular DWTS”, which I think is good – no need to put these kids through any prolonged anxiety.

Will there be any double eliminations?

Source was told that (2) couples would be eliminated the first week, but wasn’t sure about eliminations after that. If I had to guess, I think there’s probably (1) week with no elimination built-into the schedule, so that would mean (1) couple per week eliminated (except during the no-elimination week – maybe during week 5 or 6?) and would leave us with a (3) couple finale. That’s assuming this unfolds like regular DWTS.

What dance styles are they doing?

Source said production was basically letting the kids pick songs they wanted to dance to, and then were making efforts to find dance ballroom/Latin styles that fit those songs – and if they weren’t able to make the song fit one of the ballroom/Latin styles, then they were going to the “other” dance styles (jazz, contemporary, etc). There will be theme weeks, so that will also factor into the dance styles and songs that are chosen. An added challenge: since this is a kid’s show, they’re having to find music that is lyrically appropriate for kids to be dancing to.  Sorry, Cardi B. 😛 Apparently *most* of the week 1 dances are ballroom/Latin, though – so perhaps this show will still be pretty ballroom-centric.

How long do the kids have to learn the dances?

They had about two weeks to learn their week 1 dance – but after that, they’re going to have to do two dances per week, so they’ll only have about three days to learn/rehearse two dances (see taping schedule below; and by law, the kids must have Sundays off). Source said the kids seem to be picking things up pretty quickly, though, so we’ll see.

What is the taping schedule like?

In a word, HECTIC. They intend to tape (2) episodes per week – one episode on Friday, one episode on Saturday; camera blocking for both episodes will happen on Thursday of the same week. This week, they are taping the week 1 episode on Saturday, and then next week they’ll camera block for week 2 and week 3 on Thursday, tape the week 2 episode on Friday and the week 3 episode on Saturday, etc.  Show will be 9 weeks long, with a 3-couple finale. I came up with the table below to show what is being taped when, and when it will air – in case you social media fiends want to peep all the cast members to see if they post anything interesting during that time 😉 The only airdates I was unsure about were the ones airing during Thanksgiving week and beyond – not sure if they’ll shift those to different days or what, given that DWTS will already be over.  They are cramming an entire season’s worth of content into a month, basically. They kind of have to, since most of the kids will be back in school by September.

Any further questions? Comments? Thoughts? I’ll try to get any further questions answered as best I can, but just keep in mind that it seems like nobody 100% knows what’s going on with the show at any given time – this is a new beast, and everybody’s just kind of going with the flow and figuring things out, day by day 😉