Dancing with the Stars (American season 7)
Promotional poster, featuring pro dancer Edyta ?liwi?ska
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	21
Release
Original network	ABC
Original release	September 22 - November 25, 2008
Additional information
Celebrity winner	Brooke Burke
Professional winner	Derek Hough
Season chronology
Previous Season 6 Next -> Season 8

Season seven of Dancing with the Stars premiered on September 22, 2008 as a part of ABC's fall 2008 line-up. Instead of 12 couples like previous seasons, this was the first season to showcase a lineup of 13 couples. This season also introduced four new dances: the hustle, the salsa, the jitterbug, and the west coast swing, as well as Team Dancing. Tom Bergeron and Samantha Harris return as the show's hosts. Len Goodman, Bruno Tonioli, and Carrie Ann Inaba continue as the judges this season, with Michael Flatley having appeared temporarily as a guest judge for Len Goodman during week six.

Only three 30s were given out this season, and all were given to the winner, Brooke Burke: once for her foxtrot in week seven, once for her freestyle in the finals, and once for her repeated favorite dance, the Viennese waltz, also in the finals. This is the second season (the other being season 1) where all perfect 30s were given to one person.

The official cast announcement was made on the morning of August 25, 2008 on Good Morning America. This is the third season to have its cast announced on GMA.^[1][2]

Couples

The 13 celebrities and professional dancers who competed were:

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 (or couples) eliminated that week.

     indicates the returning couple was the last to be called safe (they may or may have not been in the bottom two).

     indicates the returning couple that finished in the bottom two.

     indicates the couple withdrew from the competition and did not dance that week.

     indicates the couple that would have been eliminated had an elimination taken place.

     indicates the winning couple.

     indicates the runner-up couple.

     indicates the third-place couple.

Average score chart

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

Season notes

• Cloris Leachman became the oldest woman in the series.
• During rehearsal of their first dance, Jeffrey Ross was accidentally poked in the eye by Edyta ?liwi?ska, suffering a scratched cornea. Against doctor's advice, Ross continued the competition. They were the first couple to be eliminated.
• On Friday, October 3, 2008, Misty May-Treanor was injured during practice. She received immediate medical attention.^[3] At the end of the next episode, on Monday, October 6, May-Treanor announced that she had ruptured her Achilles tendon, and thus had to withdraw from the competition; moreover, she had surgery scheduled for October 7. She plans to return to volleyball competition after her recovery, stating that she had already planned to take some time off, so this injury did not affect her career.^[4] On the results show the next night, Bergeron revealed that no one would be eliminated that week because of May-Treanor's withdrawal; instead, the week three scores would be combined with the scores from week four. He also revealed that Rocco DiSpirito would have been eliminated.
• On Sunday, October 19, 2008, Brooke Burke was injured during the camera blocking for her Jitterbug with partner Derek Hough. She was doing a front flip and came down too hard on her right foot. She put ice on it immediately, but ended up going to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center Monday morning, October 20, 2008, for treatment and X-rays. There, it was determined that she had severely bruised her foot, but as of Monday afternoon, an ABC spokesperson told People magazine that Burke and Hough were still planning to perform on that night's live show.^[5] They did just that, and went on to receive a 29 for their Jitterbug, remaining at the top of the leaderboard for the fifth straight week.
• On the Monday, October 20 show, Tom Bergeron announced that Susan Lucci had fractured two bones in her foot, but she would still dance her Hustle that night.
• On the Tuesday, October 21 results show, Tom Bergeron announced that Michael Flatley would sit in as a guest judge for Len Goodman during week six. Goodman got one week off due to an "impossible schedule," as stated by Samantha Harris.
• Forty minutes after the Tuesday, October 21, results show, Julianne Hough was taken by ambulance to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center for increasingly painful stomach pains.^[6] Initially Hough said she was taking a day off from the group rehearsal to relax and try and feel better. However, on October 27 she was diagnosed with endometriosis.^[7] She announced on the October 27th show that she would undergo surgery to remove her appendix on October 28, and that she would bow out of the competition until she recovers. Her partner Cody Linley worked with Edyta ?liwi?ska for weeks seven and eight of the competition.^[8] Hough returned to the show for week nine, the semi-finals, on November 17.
• Julianne Hough's scheduled performance for the October 21st results show was pre-recorded and postponed. It aired during the November 18th results show with Mark, Derek, and Lacey performing a choreographed routine along with Julianne.
• On Thursday, October 30, Lacey Schwimmer reported that she has endometriosis but unlike Julianne, she would continue the show because her condition would not require surgery.
• Due to ABC's television coverage of the 2008 Presidential Election on November 4, 2008, the week seven results show was moved to Wednesday, November 5.
• Tuesday, November 25 marked the first time since season two that a couple (or two) did not receive a perfect 30 for their favorite dance of the season, as Lance Bass received a 28 and Warren Sapp received a 27.
• During the season, Toni Braxton had a tumor under her breast and was scheduled not to go on tour, though after it was removed, she reported she would.
• To this date, Brooke Burke holds the record of the most weeks at the top of the leader board with eight weeks.

Highest & lowest scoring dances

The best and worst performances in each dance according to the judges' marks are as follows:

Ted McGinley, Misty May-Treanor & Kim Kardashian are the only celebrities to not land on this list

Highest and lowest scores

Weekly scores and songs

The following is a list of the dances and songs played. The song titles are followed by the artist who recorded the song.

Individual judges scores in 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 (Night 1)

Running order (Night 2)

• The pro dance performed on night three of week one was to "Under Pressure" by Queen and David Bowie.

Week 2

Running order

Week 3

Running order

Week 4

Running order

Week 5

Running order

Week 6

Individual judges scores in charts below (given in parentheses) are listed in this order from left to right: Carrie Ann Inaba, Michael Flatley, Bruno Tonioli. Len Goodman is with Kenny Mayne and Jerry Rice.

Running order

Week 7

Running order

Week 8

Running order

Week 9

Running order

Week 10

Running order (Night 1)

Running order (night 2)

Dance chart

     Highest Scoring Dance

     Lowest Scoring Dance

     Withdrawn Dance (Not Performed/Scored)

     Performed but not scored

* Misty May-Treanor and Maksim Chmerkovskiy could not perform an encore due to Misty still recovering from the Achilles tendon injury that had forced her to withdraw. Toni Braxton and Alec Mazo did not perform their encore due to Toni recuperating from a recent surgery.

Junior ballroom dancing competition

• Names in bold are the winners of each round.

• For the final round, Tony Dovolani helped Kirill & Hannah, Julianne Hough helped Mitchell & Maria, and Maksim Chmerkovskiy helped Craig & Samantha.

Musical guests

Macy's Stars of Dance

• For the November 11 "Design a Dance" performance, viewers had voted in the weeks beforehand about what style dance they wanted (Jive), what song they wanted the dance to ("Great Balls of Fire"), and what professionals they wanted to do the dance. Also, Dancing with the Stars held an online contest where viewers could submit their drawings for outfits for the performance. Allen, Texas resident Kelly Kealy-Mayton won, and her designs were turned into the outfits for Derek and Julianne Hough, and she and her husband won a trip to the show.^[9]

References

External links

• Official website