Dancing with the Stars: Can the Celebrity Contestants on ABC's Hit Reality Competition Dancing with the Stars Really Be Considered Celebrities?

B-list celebrities will do just about anything to revitalize their careers after their original fifteen minutes is up, but these days their only outlets seem to be reality TV shows that follow the same generic format. On ABC's hit reality show Dancing With the Stars, B-list celebrities are paired up with world-renowned dancers to compete against each other in different categories of dance every week.

After the initial six- week rehearsal process, these celebrities are then expected to learn dances ranging from the tango to the merengue in a matter of days. During each episode we are offered a glimpse of the difficulties not only these celebrities have learning these dances, but the hardships the professional dancers have teaching it to them. Obviously this is no easy feat for either party in the matter but by the end of the week each team seems to muster up enough strength to put on as good of a performance as they can.

After each performance, the couples are supposed to stand in front of the judges for their critiques in an American Idol like manner. Since American Idol seems to have set the formula for reality talent competitions all across TV-land, these judges include the sweet and saccharine judge, Carrie Ann Inaba, a la Paula Abdul; the funny but honest judge, Bruno Tonioll, who performs his duties in a Randy Jackson fashion; and last but not least the mean but honest British man Len Goodman who does yet another exhausting impression of Simon Cowell.

Together these judges rate the performances with numbers ranging between 1-10 with 10 being the highest. When a low score is given by a judge the audience boos in an almost to perfect unison. But our good old host Tom Bergeron of America's Funniest Home Videos and Hollywood Squares fame reminds us not to worry because we, as audience members, can still vote as well to keep our favorite teams alive.

Although Tom Bergeron successfully hosted the first season of Dancing With the Stars all on his own, the producers decided to bring in some eye candy in the form of another, attractive, female host, Samantha Harris, who also serves as a news correspondent for E! News Live. While these two have absolutely no chemistry as co-hosts it sure is interesting to watch them try. But watching them interviews these B-list celebrities is hardly why we tune in.

Viewers eagerly tune into this program to see if their former favorite celebrity can truly break it down on the dance floor. This year, Dancing With the Stars currently boasts Tucker Carison, Monique Coleman, Sara Evans, Willa Ford, Vivica A. Fox, Harry Hamlin, Joey Lawrence, Mario Lopez, Shoana Moakler, Emmitt Smith, and Jerry Springer among its bevy of B-list celebrities who are paired up with professional dancers, most of whom are returning from previous seasons. According to Jake Brennan's article Celebrities Who Aren't Really Celebrities, there are different categories that "smell-ebrities", as he calls them, fall under and most reality TV show contestants happen to fall under the "Stinkers" category because they are all just really average people.

Un-like most reality talent competitions where the goal is to launch unknowns into stardom, the object of this show is to revitalize the careers of these celebrities who were once better known. While some critics don't even think Dancing With the Stars should be considered a reality TV show, it does succeed in re-starting careers that have had slumps in recent years. For example, last season's champion, Drew Lachey, went from being one of the country's tabloid king's little brother to becoming "that guy who won Dancing With the Stars".

The season before that it even managed to take a little known soap opera actress and turn her into "that girl who won Dancing With the Stars". Although this talent competition only buys these B-list celebrities an extra fifteen minutes of fame, it seems well worth it if it means weekly exposure on network television.

Or is it? Even though Dancing With the Stars has successfully re-launched the careers of Drew Lachey, a washed up pop star, and Kelly Monaco a minimally successful soap star it only seems to be for a moment. This goes to show that even if you win, you are still dependant on the show in order to have continuous success but of course with a new season must come new contestants. It's like going on a road trip and having your car break down halfway there. You can find jumper cables to get you going again, but ultimately the rest of the journey is up to you to complete.

Take for instance Season Two's winner Drew Lachey. Of course he had interviewers lined up around the corner for a few minutes, but has anybody heard a peep from him since Tom Bergeron presented him with that gaudy trophy? Or even the original champ, Kelly Monaco. She may have appeared all over the media for the first couple of days following her win but she has since dissipated from the public eye. Although Dancing With the Stars does offer the prospect of an extra few minutes of fame for its contestants and an unattractive trophy if they go all the way and leave their fellow competitors in the dust, it seems that the true winner in this case is the show itself.

Dancing With the Stars went from being some rip off of an already successful British program that nobody was willing to take seriously to being an Emmy nominated, top rated show. The success of the actual show leaves that of its contestants looking like peanuts despite the fact that the show feeds off of this B-list talent to get where it is in the first place. Dancing With the Stars would be nothing without its contestants and even more so vice versa. This leads to the type of relationship where both parties depend on the other in order to get ahead, even if one seems to get just a little further than the other. But then again, this may hold true for most reality TV shows.