Dancing With the Stars is back for a 16th whirl around the dance floor, and a lot has changed since that long steamy summer of 2005, when daytime soap actress Kelly Monaco and Seinfeld’s J. Peterman catalogue magnate John O’Hurley staged a dance-off for the ages. Dancing With the Stars was already a hit in the U.K. and Australia. Strictly Come Dancing, as it was known in the U.K., bowed in the summer of 2004; the Australian version bowed five months later. Few believed, though, that a talent competition show based on ballroom dancing and featuring faded celebrities from the past could possibly compete for public attention in the U.S. and Canada opposite the likes of Survivor, American Idol, The Amazing Race and Big Brother.
Dancing not only silenced the doubters but it became a cultural phenomenon in its own right. The flame that burns twice as bright turns twice as fast, though. And when Dancing returns Monday with a new cast of “some of these you’ll have to look up” celebrities, it faces a tough challenge. Ratings have slipped in recent seasons, particularly in the U.S., where the all-important renewal and cancellation decisions are made and nightly schedules are mapped out for the season ahead.