The premiere of Dancing with the Stars: Athletes will be tougher than ever. Not only will the 10 couples have to perform their first dances, but at the end of the night more than one of them will be going home.
DWTS: Athletes Preview: Get to Know the Male Stars>>>
ABC has revealed the dance styles and songs for the first routines as well as more details on how the voting will work. For the premiere, viewers will be able to vote online at ABC.com during the episode, starting at 8pm ET and ending shortly after the final couple performs their routine. Then those live viewer votes will be combined with the judges’ scores and at least two couples will go home.
ABC’s press release didn’t specify how many couples will gone, simply that there will be “eliminations.” In addition, regular voting will open after the show that will factor into the second episode’s eliminations.
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As for the dances, the first night will give us three Cha-Cha-Chas, three Foxtrots, three Salsas and a Viennese Waltz for Jamie Anderson and Artem Chigvintsev. Jamie’s routine may be especially emotionally since they will dance to a song by Avicii, who died suddenly last week.
Most of the other songs seem to fit the stars’ personalities, whether it’s Kareem and Stevie Wonder, Johnny Damon with a classic song about baseball or Adam Rippon taking on RuPaul.
Here is the complete list of first dances for the 10 couples on Dancing with the Stars: Athletes.
CHA-CHA-CHA
-Adam Rippon and Jenna Johnson: “Sissy That Walk” by RuPaul
-Josh Norman and Sharna Burgess: “Finesse” by Bruno Mars
-Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Lindsay Arnold: “Signed, Sealed, Delivered (I’m Yours)” by Stevie Wonder
FOXTROT
-Jennie Finch Daigle and Keo Motsepe: “All-American Girl” by Carrie Underwood
-Johnny Damon and Emma Slater: “Centerfield” by John Fogerty
-Tonya Harding and Sasha Farber: “When You Believe” by Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey
SALSA
-Mirai Nagasu and Alan Bersten: “No Excuses” by Meghan Trainor
-Arike Ogunbowale and Gleb Savchenko: “Them Girls” by Whitney Myer
-Chris Mazdzer and Witney Carson: “Mr. Put It Down” by Ricky Martin featuring Pitbull
VIENNESE WALTZ
-Jamie Anderson and Artem Chigvintsev: “Feeling Good” by Avicii
Which routine are you most excited to see? Dancing with the Stars: Athletes premieres Monday, April 30 at 8/7c on ABC. For more updates, like BuddyTV’s DWTS Facebook page.
(Image courtesy of ABC)
Senior Writer, BuddyTV
John watches nearly every show on TV, but he specializes in sci-fi/fantasy like The Vampire Diaries, Supernatural and True Blood. However, he can also be found writing about everything from Survivor and Glee to One Tree Hill and Smallville.
