Dancing with the Stars (U.S. season 7)

Dancing with the Stars (season 7)
Season seven promotional advertisement made by BLT & Associates
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.

The 13 celebrities and professional dancers who competed were:

Week 1: Brooke Burke & Derek Hough received a ²³⁄₃₀ (the highest score of the night) for their cha-cha-cha and received a  ²⁶⁄₃₀ for their Quickstep. Cloris Leachman received a ¹⁶⁄₃₀ for her Foxtrot. While Rocco DiSpirito & Karina Smirnoff earned their Foxtrot a  ¹⁴⁄₃₀ and Jeffrey Ross & Edyta Śliwińska received a  ¹²⁄₃₀ (the lowest score of the night) for their cha-cha-cha. The September 23 episode featured competition and elimination on the same night. Each couple that was called safe performed a new routine. At the end of the episode, Jeffrey Ross was eliminated. Ted McGinley was eliminated on the results show the following night.