Dancing with the Stars is the name for a number of international television series based on the format of the British series Strictly Come Dancing. Not all the international versions share this title. The format is distributed by BBC Worldwide, the commercial arm of the BBC. Australia was the first country to adapt the BBC show, and versions have also been produced in Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Hungary, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Mexico, Poland, Portugal, Panama, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Serbia, South Africa, Sweden, Turkey, Ukraine and the United States of America (USA).

The format has become popular internationally and was the world's most popular television programme across all genres in 2006, reaching the Top 10 in 17 countries. The show pairs a number of celebrities with professional ballroom dancers, who each week compete by performing dances, which are then given scores by a panel of judges. Viewers are given a certain amount of time to place votes on their favorite dancers, either by telephone or (in some of the shows) by the Internet. The couple with the lowest combined score (judges plus viewers) is eliminated and does not go on to the next week. This process continues until there are only two or three couples left, at which point one couple is declared the champion.

Dancing with the Stars is a Primetime Emmy Award-nominated and People's Choice Award winning reality show airing on American Broadcasting Company in the United States. The show is based on the United Kingdom BBC Television series Strictly Come Dancing and is part of BBC Worldwide's international Dancing with the Stars franchise. Its sixth season will begin on March 17, 2008.

Dancing with the Stars is a multi Logie Award winning Australian light entertainment television series based on the British Strictly Come Dancing.

The show pairs celebrities with professional ballroom dancers who each week compete against each other in a dance-off to impress a panel of judges and ultimately the viewing public in order to survive potential elimination.

Through a telephone and sms voting, viewers vote for the duo they think should remain in the competition. Judges scores are also taken into account and are combined with the viewer votes when determining which duos stay and go each week.

Dancing with the Stars is one of the most successful television programs to air on Australian television, after seven seasons, the program continues to attract viewers and remains a watercooler program.

Filmed live from the HSV-7 studios in Melbourne, the show averages around 2 million viewers a week nationally.

Dancing with the Stars is a New Zealand television series based on the British series Strictly Come Dancing. The show introduces eight local "celebrities" paired with professional ballroom dancers who each week compete against each other in a competition to impress a panel of judges and the viewing public in order to survive potential elimination. Through a telephone poll, viewers vote for who should stay. 50% of the public votes and the average score given by the panel of judges goes towards deciding who should go. Proceeds from the voting will go to the celebrity contestant's charity of choice.

Dancing with the Stars has been popular with the New Zealand public. The 2005 season, which was the highest rated timeslot programme, averaged 730,000 people per episode, while season two had an average of 804,000 and up to a million tuned into each of the season finales. The third season started in 2007 with 735,000 viewers, the highest of all previous season debuts.

All music is performed live by the "Dancing with the Stars band", led by musical director Carl Doy.

The fourth season of the United States edition of Dancing with the Stars premiered on March 19, 2007 and aired until May 22, 2007.

To avoid direct competition with Fox Broadcasting Company's American Idol, Dancing with the Stars changed time slots from the previous season. In the fourth season, the performance show aired on Mondays, and the results show aired on Tuesdays. No elimination was scheduled for the first week, in order to allow viewers two weeks to see all of the couples perform both Latin and Standard ballroom dances.

This season was broadcast on BBC One in the United Kingdom on Sunday afternoons from Sunday, July 15, 2007. Captions appeared on screen throughout the show to remind viewers that this was recorded earlier in the year and that they could vote on the outcome. None of the first three seasons were screened in the UK.

This season resulted in the most 10s (the maximum score a single judge can award) awarded in any season so far (61).

The fifth season of Dancing with the Stars (US TV series) premiered on September 24, 2007 with a special three-night premiere week. The season ended on November 27, 2007. As with previous seasons, CTV Television Network had aired the series in Canada.

The show was hosted by Tom Bergeron, with returning judges Len Goodman, Bruno Tonioli, and Carrie Ann Inaba. Co-host Samantha Harris gave birth on September 23, 2007 ; during her leave of absence second-season champion Drew Lachey served as co-host. On October 15, 2007 Harris returned to the show.

On August 29, 2007, the celebrity cast was announced on Good Morning America by host Tom Bergeron, judge Carrie Ann Inaba, and reigning celebrity champion Apolo Anton Ohno. The winner of this season's competition was announced on November 27, 2007.

Daryl McKenzie (I) stood in as musical director for the first two editions of series two in 2005 while Chong Lim played on the John Farnham (II) and Tom Jones (I) tour.

Soap star Rebecca Cartwright and her dance partner, Michael Miziner received a perfect score of "40" from the judges for their freestyle dance in the Grand Final of the first season.

Newsreader Chris Bath (I) and her dance partner, Trenton Shipley received a perfect score of "40" from the judges for their freestyle dance in the Grand Final of the third season.

Presenter Tom Williams (XVII) and his dance partner, Kym Johnson received a perfect score of "40" from the judges for their freestyle dance in the Grand Final of the second season.

Dancer Cheryl Burke (II) was the first professional dance partner to win two seasons (back-to back). She and former 98 Degrees member, Drew Lachey won season 2. In season 3, she and NFL legend Emmitt Smith won. Julianne Hough became the second professional dance partner to complete such a task. She and Apolo Ohno won season 4 and her and underdog Helio Castroneves closely beat out Melanie Brown (I) for the Season 5 title.

Julianne Hough is the youngest professional dancer ever to have competed and win the overall title on the show at age 18 (season 4) with Apolo Ohno, and at age 19 (season 5) with Helio Castroneves.