Dancing with the Stars is the name of several international television series based on the format of the British TV series
Strictly Come Dancing, which is distributed by
BBC Worldwide – the commercial arm of the
BBC. Currently the format has been licensed to 32 countries (as of November 2010). Australia was the first country to adapt the show, and versions have also been produced in Albania, Argentina,
Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Chile, China, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece,
India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, Latvia, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Pakistan, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, Ukraine and
United States. As a result, the series became the world's most popular television program among all genres in 2006 and 2007, according to the magazine
Television Business International, reaching the Top 10 in 17 countries.The show pairs a number of celebrities with professional
ballroom dancers, who each week compete by performing dances. The dancers are then scored by a panel of judges. Viewers are given a certain amount of time to place votes for their favorite dancers, either by telephone or (in some countries) online. The couple with the lowest combined score provided by the judges and viewers is eliminated. This process continues until there are only two or three couples left, at which point one couple is...
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