Dancing with the Stars (U.S. season 2)
| Dancing with the Stars (season 2) | |
|---|---|
Promotional poster (made by BLT & Associates)
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| Country of origin | United States |
| No. of episodes | 15 |
| Release | |
| Original network | ABC |
| Original release | January 5 – February 24, 2006 |
| Additional information | |
| Celebrity winner | Drew Lachey |
| Professional winner | Cheryl Burke |
| Season chronology | |
Season two of the Dancing with the Stars (U.S. edition) premiered on the ABC network on January 5, 2006, and ended February 24, 2006. This season expanded to ten couples from six in the previous season. All the professionals dancers from season one, with the exception of Alec Mazo (who was the incumbent champion) and Charlotte Jørgensen, were a part of season two. Tom Bergeron returned as host while Samantha Harris replaced Lisa Canning as co-host. Carrie Ann Inaba, Len Goodman and Bruno Tonioli returned as judges.
Season two expanded each program from an hour to 90 minutes, and added an hour-long results show the following night (in the first season no couples were eliminated in the first week; the first couple was eliminated at the end of the second episode, the second couple at the end of the third episode, and so on). Two couples were declared safe in an earlier portion of the show, the remaining couples were then named off until only the bottom two were left (the last two couples had the lowest amount of votes, with the exception of week seven, where the show explicitly stated that the order of all but the eliminated couple was random).
Rapper Romeo was scheduled to appear in this season, but suffered an injury before the first show and was replaced by his father, Master P. Romeo eventually participated in season 12 and was partnered with Chelsie Hightower.
The ten celebrities and professional dance partners were:
In season two, Drew Lachey and Stacy Keibler broke out as the early frontrunners, as both had solid early performances, and some prior dance experience: Lachey's stage performances with 98 Degrees were extensively choreographed, and Keibler had childhood dance training as well as being a professional cheerleader. Although both Keibler and Lachey were assumed to have some form of a fan base, there was no way of knowing whether 98 Degrees fans or WWE fans were responsible for their success—Drew credited the people of Cincinnati, Ohio for helping him stay in the competition. Lachey was lauded for his passion and willingness to take risks, and Keibler for her long legs and technical perfection. In regard to the judges' scoring, in nearly every week, Lachey and Keibler held the top two spots in the scoring (either first-second or tied for first). In addition, Lachey and Keibler were the only dancers in the season to receive a perfect score (Keibler four, Lachey three), and have three of the four "encore" performances (Lachey twice, Keibler once). In week six, Stacy and Tony became the first couple in series history to receive two 30s (maximum judges' score) in a row. Drew and Cheryl were always among the top two highest scores and along with Jerry Rice and Anna Trebunskaya, were the only couple never chosen for the bottom two. The judges repeatedly told Keibler and Lachey that they were the best or among the best dancers in any of the international versions of the series. Also, Master P and his partner Ashly DelGrosso scored the lowest score in the history of the show, an 8 (4,2,2) out of 30. Despite making it to the finals, the three Finalists had one unlearned dance that they did not perform. Drew & Jerry had not learned the Waltz, and Stacy had not learned the Paso doble. Also, none of the male stars performed the Waltz.
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