Dancing with the Stars (American TV series) season 8

*Dancing with the Stars*
Dancing with the Stars
Season 8
	Promotional poster, featuring former pro dancer Edyta Śliwińska
Hosted by	Tom Bergeron; Samantha Harris;
Judges	Carrie Ann Inaba; Len Goodman; Bruno Tonioli;
Celebrity winner	Shawn Johnson
Professional winner	Mark Ballas
No. of episodes	21
Release
Original network	ABC
Original release	March 9 –; May 19, 2009
Season chronology
	← Previous; Season 7 Next →; Season 9

Season eight of Dancing with the Stars premiered on Monday, March 9, 2009, on the ABC network.

Quick Facts Hosted by, Judges ...

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The show generally followed the format of previous seasons, with thirteen couples, although there were some changes, including two new dances, the Argentine tango and Lindy Hop, and an occasional dance-off between the bottom two couples, in order to determine who would be eliminated.

Olympic gymnast Shawn Johnson and Mark Ballas were crowned the champions, while Gilles Marini and Cheryl Burke finished in second place, and Melissa Rycroft and Tony Dovolani finished third.^[1]

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Couples

This season featured thirteen celebrity contestants. This season was originally advertised as the first American season where a husband and wife would compete against each other: rodeo champion Ty Murray and singer-songwriter Jewel. However, Jewel fractured both of her tibiae and was unable to compete.^[2] She was replaced by Holly Madison. Murray chose to continue on the show, while Jewel appeared during the season as a special musical guest. Nancy O'Dell, then co-host of Access Hollywood, was also originally announced to be on the show, but was forced to withdraw from the competition due to a torn meniscus, which required surgery.^[2] She was replaced by Melissa Rycroft, who had won season 13 of The Bachelor.

More information Celebrity, Notability ...

Celebrity	Notability	Professional partner	Status
Belinda Carlisle	Singer-songwriter	Jonathan Roberts	Eliminated 1st on March 17, 2009
Denise Richards	Actress	Maksim Chmerkovskiy	Eliminated 2nd on March 24, 2009
Holly Madison	Playboy model & reality television personality	Dmitry Chaplin	Eliminated 3rd on March 31, 2009
Steve Wozniak	Apple co-founder	Karina Smirnoff	Eliminated 4th on March 31, 2009
David Alan Grier	Actor & comedian	Kym Johnson	Eliminated 5th on April 7, 2009
Steve-O	Jackass star	Lacey Schwimmer	Eliminated 6th on April 14, 2009
Lawrence Taylor	NFL linebacker	Edyta Śliwińska	Eliminated 7th on April 21, 2009
Chuck Wicks	Country singer	Julianne Hough	Eliminated 8th on April 28, 2009
Lil' Kim	Rapper	Derek Hough	Eliminated 9th on May 5, 2009
Ty Murray	Rodeo cowboy	Chelsie Hightower	Eliminated 10th on May 12, 2009
Melissa Rycroft	The Bachelor contestant	Tony Dovolani	Third place on May 19, 2009
Gilles Marini	Actor	Cheryl Burke	Runners-up on May 19, 2009
Shawn Johnson	Olympic artistic gymnast	Mark Ballas	Winners on May 19, 2009

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Future appearances

Shawn Johnson, Gilles Marini, and Melissa Rycroft later competed in the All-Stars season, where Johnson was paired with Derek Hough, Marini was paired with Peta Murgatroyd, and Rycroft remained with Tony Dovolani.

Host and judges

The show was again co-hosted by Tom Bergeron and Samantha Harris. Len Goodman, Bruno Tonioli and Carrie Ann Inaba returned as judges.

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The highest score each week is indicated in bold green with a dagger (†), while the lowest score each week is indicated in italicized red with a double-dagger (‡).

Color key:

Winners

Runners-up

Third place

Bottom two

Eliminated

More information Couple, Pl. ...

*Dancing with the Stars* (season 8) - Weekly scores
Couple	Pl.	Week
		1	2	1+2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11
		1	2	1+2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Night 1	Night 2
Shawn & Mark	1st	23	24	47	27†	25	26	26	28	27+25=52	27+29=56	30+26=56	28+30=58†	+30=88†^[a]
Gilles & Cheryl	2nd	24†	27†	51†	27†	30†	29†	26	27	27+28=55	29+27=56	30+30=60†	30+28=58†	+30=88†^[b]
Melissa & Tony	3rd	23	26	49	27†	29	25	27	29†	21+25=46‡	27+30=57†	28+27=55	29+27=56‡	+30=86‡^[c]
Ty & Chelsie	4th	14	20	34	23	25	21	18	24	24+28=52	25+21=46‡^[d]	25+23=48‡^[e]
Lil' Kim & Derek	5th	21	23	44	25	27	26	28†	26	28+28=56†	25+27=52^[e]
Chuck & Julianne	6th	20	20	40	23	22	23	23	27	26+25=51^[e]
Lawrence & Edyta	7th	16	20	36	20	19	20^[d]	22	21‡^[e]
Steve-O & Lacey	8th	17	14‡	31	15	15^[d]	18‡	16‡^[e]
David & Kym	9th	19	17	36	24	22	22^[e]
Steve & Karina	10th	13‡	17	30‡^[d]	10‡	12‡^[e]
Holly & Dmitry	11th	18	18	36	17^[d]	16^[e]
Denise & Maks	12th	18	21	39	16^[e]
Belinda & Jonathan	13th	17	18	35^[e]

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Notes

This couple finished in first place.
This couple finished in second place.
This couple finished in third place.
This couple was in the bottom two, but was not eliminated.
This couple was eliminated.

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Individual judges scores in charts below (given in parentheses) are listed in this order from left to right: Carrie Ann Inaba, Len Goodman, Bruno Tonioli.

Week 1

Each couple performed either the cha-cha-cha or waltz. Couples are listed in the order they performed.