ABC Gleb Savchenko and Jana Kramer
Across 31 seasons, “Dancing With the Stars” has produced nearly 500 episodes and almost 3000 dances. A new report from Vegas Insider, sent to Heavy via press release, analyzed all of those routines to determine which style of dance is behind the most eliminations. It also revealed which dance style is the “safest,” i.e. is behind the fewest number of eliminations.
Read on for the results, which are pretty interesting. For the data, Vegas Insider analyzed every season since the show’s premiere in 2005.
The Dances That Lead to the Most Eliminations Are…
In what might come as a bit of surprise to fans, the tango is the dance that is behind the most number of eliminations, at 34 couples being eliminated the week they danced a tango over the years.
We find this a little surprising because the pros and judges always talk about how hard dances like the samba, jive and quickstep are, but they don’t say that as much about the tango. Many fans have said over the years that they find the tango kind of boring, so maybe that’s why — if it doesn’t excite the fans, they would probably not be inclined to vote for that couple.
The second most eliminated dance is the cha cha cha with 31 couples, followed by a tie for third between the paso doble and the samba with 29 couples eliminated in the week they danced those dances.
We were curious, so we looked up all the tangoes that led to elimination. Certainly the most memorable tango that led to an elimination was in season 23 when Jana Kramer and Gleb Savchenko performed one of the sexiest tangoes the show has ever seen to “Stay the Night” by Zedd featuring Hayley Williams. In fact, Kramer and Savchenko later revealed on an episode of her podcast “Whine Down” that ABC actually censored the original choreography for being too racy.
Some of the other most memorable ones include:
Season 6 couple Shannon Elizabeth and Derek Hough dancing a tango to “Tanguedia II” by Astor Piazzolla.
Season 12 couple Romeo Miller and Chelsie Hightower dancing a tango to “Hold It Against Me” by Britney Spears.
Season 13 couple Ricki Lake and Derek Hough dancing a tango to “The Murder” by Bernard Hermann.
Season 15 couple Emmitt Smith and Cheryl Burke dancing a tango to “Leave Me Alone” by Michael Jackson.
Season 18 couple James Maslow and Peta Murgatroyd dancing a tango to “Adore You” by Miley Cyrus.
Season 31 couple Jordin Sparks and Brandon Armstrong dancing a tango to “Oogie Boogie’s Song” by Ed Ivory and Ken Page.
The Dances That Kept the Most Couples Safe Are…
In what is another bit of a surprise, the dance that keeps the most couples safe is the jive. We find this a little surprising because the jive is generally considered a really hard dance. But maybe that’s part of the reason a jive gets more votes from fans. It could also be because the jive tends to be a really fun, upbeat dance — remember Alfonso Ribeiro’s famous jive with Witney Carson to “3-6-9” in season 19? It was straight fire.
Anyway, the jive has been the dance of 187 safe couples over the years. It is followed by the quickstep at 177 couples, which is another surprise because of the degree of difficulty, but again — the quickstep tends to be an upbeat, fun dance, so maybe that’s why it gets votes.
Third was the foxtrot at 173 couples safe the week they danced the foxtrot.
The data also revealed the average score each dance receives. We aren’t including here dances that have only been performed a handful of times, like Bollywood or disco. So, for dances that are consistently performed on “Dancing With the Stars,” here is the break down for the average scores, highest to lowest:
Contemporary, 30.4
Jazz, 30.1
Argentine tango, 29.2
Freestyle, 28.5
Paso doble, 26.4
Rumba, 26.3
Tango, 26.0
Viennese waltz, 25.8
Quickstep, 25.7
Samba, 25.4
Salsa, 25.3
Jive, 25.2
Waltz, 25.1
Foxtrot, 24.8
Cha cha cha, 22.5
Mambo, 21.5
What’s interesting about these numbers is that the highest scoring dances are not official competitive ballroom or Latin dances. We wonder if the judges score those higher because there isn’t a concrete set of technical skills to look out for in contemporary, jazz or freestyle?
“Dancing With the Stars” airs Monday nights at 8 p.m. Eastern and Pacific times on Disney Plus.