Last Monday, the seventh season of "Dancing with the Stars" premiered on ABC. With a fresh new cast of celebrities and even some new additions amongst the professional dancers, "Stars" starts out on the right path toward a successful season, even as the format of the show sticks to its worn-out formula.
"Stars" picks a different celebrity cast each season, always ensuring that there will be some who dance only for laughs and some who are actually pretty good (usually the athletes and singers). Last season's winner, figure-skater Kristi Yamaguchi, was only the second female to ever win, but this season, it looks as though the females are going to be the ones leading the pack.
Among the females looking to take the trophy for this new season are Grammy-award winning singer Toni Braxton, TV personality Brooke Burke and Olympic gold-medalist volleyball player Misty May-Treanor. Both Braxton and Burke know how to move their bodies, and if May-Treanor can learn to tone down her powerful mannerisms, she also could have a good chance at winning.
The women who probably won't last very long include actresses Kim Kardashian, Cloris Leachman and Susan Lucci. Though it is impressive to be the oldest competitor ever featured on the show, Leachman, at 82 years old, probably doesn't want to risk breaking a hip while jumping and jiving. Lucci, a daytime television actress, doesn't seem to know where she is at times — plus, it's surprising that the woman's toothpick legs can support her weight. Kardashian is definitely the funniest dancer of the three because she has all the tools and has no idea how to shake what her mother gave her.
Of the male competitors, one of them, comedian Jeff Ross, has already been sent home. Most likely soon to follow are chef Rocco DiSpirito, actor Ted McGinley from "Married with Children," and Olympic gold-medalist track star Maurice Greene. These last three are not so much amusing as they are painful to watch on a weekly basis.
The men who actually have a shot at beating one of the females are former 'N Sync member Lance Bass, teen Disney actor Cody Linley and former defensive lineman Warren Sapp. Both Bass and Linley are paired with two of the youngest, more original professional dancers, Lacey Schwimmer and Julianne Hough, respectively, so they have a good chance of impressing the judges and America by constantly renewing their routines. Sapp is surprisingly good for a big man and could fly under the radar until the end.
The skill level of the professional dancers is reason enough to watch the show. The women are gorgeous, probably more so than many of the Hollywood starlets. Hough and Schwimmer are two examples of dedicated young women, and if that's not enough, Edyta Sliwinska often dances in nothing more than underwear and ankle warmers. For the ladies, the male professional dancers are extremely attractive and uber-masculine as well, despite those tired stereotypes about male dancers.
Those who have watched "Stars" for some time know that the show never really changes. The three judges — Carrie Ann Inaba, Len Goodman and Bruno Tonioli — have stayed the same since season one. The dance choices are always the same; either ballroom or Latin, and the dances are never really exciting until the finale when the finalists get to do a freestyle number in which none of the stodgy rules apply.
To really love this show, one has to love dance, because even if the professional dancers come up with an incredibly original routine, the token crabby old judge will inevitably bark that dancing must follow the rules assigned to it. After the first few weeks, the bad seeds are weeded out one by one and the celebrities actually start to look like professional dancers as the routines become incredibly complex and impressive. And if that's enough to constitute good television by your standards, you're probably already hooked.
