The dance floor has barely gotten a chance to cool down since Brooke Burke and Derek Hough were crowned the winners of Dancing with the Stars season 7, but ABC has already announced the March premiere date for the dancing show's eighth season premiere in March.

There's definitely a reason why Dancing with the Stars is such a heavy-hitter for ABC. It's entertainment that the whole family can enjoy together. It involves sequins and Tony Dovolani's bare, waxed chest. It's good programming that consistently draws in lots of viewers; however, I propose a few changes that might make the show even better.

6. Voting Transparency

Dancing with the Stars is unique to many competition-based reality shows because the eliminations are based on both judges' scores and audience votes. We always know how the contestants stand based on the judges' scores, but nobody tells us the results of the email, phone and text votes, sometimes to the detriment of the producers' credibility. For example, in the two-night season finale, the judges presumably could have known the result of the vote, so they could have calculated the exact score each couple needed on Tuesday night in order to win. I do think that everything was above board, but I'd rather minimize the potential for malfeasance.

While we're at it, I'd love to know which two couples are in the bottom two every week. What's the point of sharing this information only sometimes?


5. Lift the Lift Ban

Carrie Ann Inaba is the queen of deducting points for illegal lifts, but why not give her a break and make them legal? I often think that lifts are the most entertaining part of a ballroom dance performance. Let the people lift!


4. More Non-Traditional Styles

I loved the inclusion of the four new styles this season: the hustle, the West coast swing, the jitterbug and the salsa. Many of these performances became my favorites of the entire season. Even Len Goodman, who consistently gets his panties in a bunch when he notices that we're living in the 21st century, enjoyed watching these non-traditional dances, so you know that they have broad appeal.


3. All-Star Season

After seven complete seasons, I think it's about time to have an all-star season of Dancing with the Stars, wherein participants from previous seasons come back to perform against each other. You know you've wondered whether Kelly Monaco could actually hold her own against Kristi Yamaguchi, or whether Lance Bass could beat Joey Fatone. The best thing about having an all-star season is that the celebrities wouldn't be complete beginners, which would mean that the quality of dance would drastically improve.


2. Give the Pros a Break

It never occurred to me how hard these professional dancers work on Dancing with the Stars until I interviewed Edyta Sliwinska. These pros are pretty much going non-stop, year after year. Dancing with the Stars season 7 just ended, but pretty soon, the pros will be hitting the road to dance on tour. And then, pretty much as soon as the tour wraps up, they'll have to get back into the rehearsal studio to start practicing for season 8. Dancing is extremely physically demanding, and it's no wonder that everyone keeps getting injured. Give them a chance to rest up and heal. Now, naturally, we don't want to have to wait longer for the next season to start, so instead, ABC execs can hire more pros and have them rotate through. Lacey Schwimmer did a fantastic job and really added something fresh and new to this show, so let's get some more So You Think You Can Dance alums on DWTS.


1. Get Rid of Samantha Harris

Oh my God, please get rid of Samantha Harris. This woman has no business being on live television. Tom Bergeron is an excellent host, capable of thinking on his feet and bantering with the best of them. He knows when to stick up for the dancers, when to sass back at the judges, and he always comes across as a fun and compassionate guy. His partner, however, has trouble getting a complete sentence out, even when reading off the teleprompter. Backstage, when she interviews the dancers as they await their scores, she manages to ask the most awkward, uncomfortable questions, and then cuts everyone off as they try to formulate a response. How nice was it when she was on maternity leave and Drew Lachey took over?



-Debbie Chang, BuddyTV Staff Writer
(Image courtesy of ABC)