The second season of the American edition of Dancing with the Stars premiered on the American Broadcasting Company network on January 5, 2006 and ended February 26, 2006. This season expanded to ten couples from six in the previous season.

The second season expanded each program from an hour to ninety 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).

Couples

The 10 celebrities and professional dance partners were:

Celebrity	Occupation	Professional partner	Status
Kenny Mayne	ESPN sports anchorman	Andrea Hale	Eliminated 1st on January 6, 2006
Tatum O'Neal	Academy Award winning actress	Nick Kosovich	Eliminated 2nd on January 13, 2006
Giselle Fernandez	TV journalist	Jonathan Roberts	Eliminated 3rd on January 20, 2006
Master P	Rapper and Entrepreneur	Ashly DelGrosso	Eliminated 4th on January 27, 2006
Tia Carrere	Actress and Model	Maksim Chmerkovskiy	Eliminated 5th on February 3, 2006
George Hamilton	Actor	Edyta Śliwińska	Eliminated 6th on February 10, 2006
Lisa Rinna	Actress and TV host	Louis van Amstel	Eliminated 7th on February 17, 2006
Stacy Keibler	Former WWE Diva and Actress	Tony Dovolani	Third Place on February 24, 2006
Jerry Rice	Retired NFL wide receiver	Anna Trebunskaya	Second Place on February 24, 2006
Drew Lachey	98 Degrees member	Cheryl Burke	Winners on February 24, 2006

The second series cast was similarly assembled to that of the first season: Both had a retired athlete (Holyfield/Rice), an ex-boy band member (McIntyre/Lachey), a model (Hunter/Carerre), a soap star (Monaco/Rinna), and an older man (O'Hurley/Hamilton).

Season summary

In the second season, 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 season 2 to receive a perfect score (Keibler four, Lachey three), and have three of the four "encore" performances (Lachey twice, Keibler once). In week eight, Drew and Cheryl 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.

Musical guests such as the Pussycat Dolls, Jesse McCartney, Natasha Bedingfield, Michael Bublé, Bill Medley, Burt Bacharach, Mary J. Blige and Barry Manilow performed while the professional dancers demonstrated various routines. In week four the results show introduced an encore of what the judges considered the previous night's best routine—twice going to Drew Lachey (the paso doble in week four and the Rumba (dance) in week seven), once to Stacy Keibler (the Samba (ballroom) in week five) and once to Rinna (the quickstep in week six).

Controversies over fan voting

Once again, fans accounted for half the vote total. This was partly responsible for the extended presence of Master P, who had the worst average of any dancer ever (as of early 2008, he remains the only dancer to receive a score under 10) and refused to wear dance shoes. In spite of harsh criticism from some of the judges, he stayed for several weeks. It was also revealed that by the fourth week of competition, Master P had logged only 20 hours of dance training (other stars had logged 100 hours by week 4). His continued presence was attributed to his strong fan base, as well as fans who saw him as the underdog or who wanted to "vote for the worst". After the surprise departure of Giselle Fernández and low scores (a total of just 8 points for his final dance, the lowest score in the history of the series) from the judges, he was finally eliminated.

Jerry Rice also benefited from the fan vote. In the closing weeks of the competition, the judges became increasingly critical of Rice (Len Goodman, at one point said, "Jerry Rice? It's more like geriatric!"), and although they acknowledged that he continued to put great effort in his performances, they felt he no longer deserved to be there. Rice and his outspoken partner Trebunskaya rebutted those criticisms, and the fan vote sided with them, ensuring Rice never placed in the bottom two (until the final three). In week seven, in a matter of some controversy, Rice advanced to the finals, and Lisa Rinna (whom the judges and some viewers felt was superior to Rice) was eliminated. However, in the final three dances, the judges began to admire Rice's effort and his scores improved, though he still lagged behind both Lachey and Keibler. In the season finale Rice once again avoided elimination when Stacy Keibler was given third place. Two of the judges, Bruno Tonioli and Len Goodman, and some viewers were disappointed with Kiebler finishing in third place instead of Rice because Keibler's scores were far better than Rice's. At the finale, Kenny Mayne even said, "We just eliminated a girl with a perfect score." Much of this can be attributed to the fact that lines for voting were open at the beginning of the show and Rice danced first in many of the episodes.

Judges' Scoring summary

Red numbers indicate the couples with the lowest score for each week.

Green numbers indicate the couples with the highest score for each week.

indicates the couples eliminated that week.

indicates the returning couple that finished in the bottom two.

indicates the winning couple.

indicates the runner-up couple.

indicates the runner-up couple.

Couple	Place	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
Drew & Cheryl	1	24	27	27	28	27	30	26+29=55	30+30+27=87
Jerry & Anna	2	21	23	19	24	23	23	20+21=41	26+27+27=80
Stacy & Tony	3	22	29	27	26	30	30	27+28=55	30+26+30=86
Lisa & Louis	4	19	20	25	26	25	27	26+27=53
George & Edyta	5	18	22	22	21	24	23
Tia & Maksim	6	20	22	26	25	22
P & Ashly	7	12	16	14	8
Giselle & Jonathan	8	23	24	22
Tatum & Nick	9	23	17
Kenny & Andrea	10	13

Average Chart

This chart is based on the dancers' averages and not their place in the competition.

Rank	Competitive rank	Couple	Total	Number of Dances	Average
1	1	Drew & Cheryl	305	11	27.7
1	3	Stacy & Tony	305	11	27.7
3	4	Lisa & Louis	195	8	24.3
4	2	Jerry & Anna	254	11	23.0
4	6	Tia & Maksim	115	5	23.0
4	8	Giselle & Jonathan	69	3	23.0
7	5	George & Edyta	130	6	21.6
8	9	Tatum & Nick	40	2	20.0
9	10	Kenny & Andrea	13	1	13.0
10	7	P & Ashly	50	4	12.5

Perfect Tens

Team	Total No. of Tens	Week	Judge(s) who gave a ten	Dance Performed	Score
Stacy/Tony	15
		2	Len Goodman & Bruno Tonioli	Rumba	29
		5	Carrie Ann Inaba, Len Goodman, & Bruno Tonioli	Samba	30
		6	Carrie Ann Inaba, Len Goodman, & Bruno Tonioli	Jive	30
		7	Bruno Tonioli	Cha-Cha-Cha	28
		8	Carrie Ann Inaba, Len Goodman, & Bruno Tonioli	Jive	30
			Carrie Ann Inaba, Len Goodman, & Bruno Tonioli	Samba	30
Drew/Cheryl	12
		4	Bruno Tonioli	Paso Doble	28
		6	Carrie Ann Inaba, Len Goodman, & Bruno Tonioli	Tango	30
		7	Carrie Ann Inaba & Bruno Tonioli	Rumba	29
		8	Carrie Ann Inaba, Len Goodman, & Bruno Tonioli	Paso Doble	30
			Carrie Ann Inaba, Len Goodman, & Bruno Tonioli	Freestyle	30

Dance Chart

Couple	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8 & Finals
Drew & Cheryl	Cha-Cha-Cha	Quickstep	Jive	Paso Doble	Samba	Tango	Foxtrot, Rumba	Paso Doble, Freestyle, Jive
Jerry & Anna	Cha-Cha-Cha	Quickstep	Jive	Foxtrot	Samba	Paso Doble	Tango, Rumba	Foxtrot, Freestyle, Cha-Cha-Cha
Stacy & Tony	Waltz	Rumba	Tango	Foxtrot	Samba	Jive	Quickstep, Cha-Cha-Cha	Jive, Freestyle, Samba
Lisa & Louis	Waltz	Rumba	Jive	Paso Doble	Samba	Quickstep	Foxtrot, Cha-Cha-Cha
George & Edyta	Cha-Cha-Cha	Quickstep	Tango	Paso Doble	Samba	Rumba
Tia & Maksim	Waltz	Rumba	Tango	Foxtrot	Samba
P & Ashly	Cha-Cha-Cha	Quickstep	Jive	Paso Doble
Giselle & Jonathan	Waltz	Rumba	Tango
Tatum & Nick	Waltz	Rumba
Kenny & Andrea	Cha-Cha-Cha

References