Lisa Rinna

Lisa Rinna

Lisa Deanna Rinna (born July 11, 1963) is an American actress. She is best known for her roles as Billie Reed on Days of our Lives, Taylor McBride on Melrose Place, and most recently the host of SoapNet's Soap Talk.

At 22, Rinna appeared in the 1985 John Parr "Naughty Naughty" music video as the passenger in Parr's car. Rinna later appeared as the girlfriend to Jason Bateman's character in several episodes of The Hogan Family in 1990. She received national recognition when she first starred on NBC's Days of our Lives in the role of Billie Reed from 1992 to 1995; she briefly reprised the role in 2002. She later switched from daytime TV to primetime, playing Taylor McBride on Aaron Spelling's Melrose Place from 1996 to 1998. Rinna starred in the Lifetime movie Sex, Lies & Obsession opposite husband Harry Hamlin. Her previous Lifetime movie, Another Woman's Husband, boasted one of the highest ratings for a movie on Lifetime since 1999. She also guest-starred on an episode of Movie Stars for the WB, the first ever on-screen appearance she shared opposite her husband. Rinna nabbed her first role in the feature film Good Advice, starring Charlie Sheen and Jon Lovitz, and recently appeared in an episode of HBO's Entourage. Rinna recently announced that she would love to reprise her role of Taylor McBride on CW's revival Melrose Place, if given the offer.

In 2002, Rinna was named co-host of Soap Talk, the daily lifestyle show that airs on SOAPnet, for which she received a Daytime Emmy Award nomination. In June 2006, SoapNet announced that it was canceling Soap Talk after four seasons due to low ratings.

In August 2007, Rinna replaced Joan Rivers as the host of TV Guide Network's red carpet coverage. Rinna has recently guest-hosted Live with Regis and Kelly.

Lisa Rinna hosts the TV makeover program "Merge" on Lifetime.

She competed in the second season of Dancing with the Stars and was eliminated in Round Seven based on audience voting, despite having higher marks from the judges than fellow celebrity dancer Jerry Rice.

On December 4, 2008, TV Guide reported that Rinna and Hamlin have signed a deal to create a reality TV series based around their family life. The series is being developed by TV Land.

In 1998, Rinna created a stir when she posed for a nude pictorial while six months pregnant in the September issue of Playboy magazine. She will pose again in 2009. Rinna explains she received direct orders from Playboy photographer Deborah Anderson, who also shot Rinna for the Room 23 book. "She said, 'I do not want you long and sinewy and angular and muscular. I want you soft,' " says Rinna. "This was really hard for me because being 45 years old and posing for Playboy, you want to amp it up," Rinna told People at Tuesday's Room 23 book launch hosted by Sanela Diana Jenkins and Neuro Brands.

Rinna recently starred in the Broadway production of "Chicago", playing the role of Roxie Hart, alongside her husband, who played the role of Billy Flynn.

Rinna owns two Belle Gray clothing boutiques in Southern California's San Fernando Valley, one in Sherman Oaks and one in Calabasas. The stores' name comes from the middle names of her two daughters, Delilah Belle and Amelia Gray.

Rinna married actor Harry Hamlin in 1997. They have two daughters, Delilah Belle (born 1998) and Amelia Gray (born 2001). They have performed together in a number of television and film productions, including portraying a married couple on the first season of the television series Veronica Mars.

She has acknowledged having plastic surgery and using botox and juvederm; although she remains fond of botox, she has said that using juvederm was a mistake.

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Tease (TV series)

Actress Lisa Rinna is the host of Oxygen Network's Tease, airing since 2007. Known to television audiences from her starring roles on Dancing with the Stars, Soap Talk, Melrose Place and Days of our Lives, Emmy-nominated Rinna is also recognizable for her signature layered hairstyle. Each Tease episode features two up-and-coming hair stylists as they face-off in an exciting Olympics-style tournament.

The aspiring stylists put their skills to the tress test in front of a panel of expert judges: Peter Ishkhans, master hairstylist, Roshumba Williams, supermodel and Frank Moore, talent agent. The aspiring stylists compete for a chance at the supreme challenge – a one-on-one battle with one of three high-profile master stylists, Clyde Haygood, Stephanie Hobgood and Kim Vo. Should the aspiring stylist surpass the expertise of a hair pro, his or her photo is hung on the Tease hair wall of fame and he or she receives the “silver scissors,” the crowning symbol of a styling victory.

Tease is executive produced by Michael Yudin for MY Entertainment (King of Vegas, and Pros vs. Joes) and Brian Gadinsky for G Group (American Idol Season One, American Gladiators, and America’s Most Wanted).

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Joan Rivers

Joan Rivers (born Joan Alexandra Molinsky, June 8, 1933) is an American comedian, actress, talk show host, and businesswoman. She is known for her brash manner and loud, raspy voice with a heavy metropolitan New York accent. Rivers' comedic style relies heavily on poking fun at herself.

Before entering show business, Rivers worked at various jobs such as a tour guide at Rockefeller Center, a writer/proofreader at an advertising agency and as a fashion consultant at Bond Clothing Stores. During this period, an agent named Tony Rivers told her to change her name, so she suggested Joan Rivers.

Her first marriage was in 1955 to James Sanger, the son of a Bond Store's merchandise manager. The marriage lasted six months, and it was annulled on the basis that Sanger did not want children and had not told Rivers before the wedding.

Her second marriage was on July 15, 1965. to Edgar Rosenberg. Their daughter, Melissa Warburg Rosenberg (now known as Melissa Rivers), was born January 20, 1968.

Rivers maintains that, "Bert Hacker," had fabricated the story with, "vicious lies," and offered a $5,000 bounty to anyone who could reveal his true identity. She later filed a $50 million libel suit against the person identified as the article's author and GQ's publisher Condé Nast Publications.

Rivers is a supporter of animal rights and an active member of PETA.

Some time in the late 1950s, she appeared in a short-lived Off-Off Broadway play called Driftwood, in which she played a lesbian with a crush on a character played by Barbra Streisand. The play ran for six weeks .

She performed in numerous comedy clubs in Greenwich Village in the early 1960s, including The Bitter End and The Gaslight Cafe . In the early 1960s, she appeared several times as a guest on The Tonight Show, which at the time originated from New York and was hosted by Jack Paar.

In 1965, she had a stint on TV's Candid Camera as a gag writer and participant as "the bait" to lure people into ridiculous situations for the show. On Feb. 17, 1965 she got a big break by making her first appearance on The Tonight Show with its new host Johnny Carson.

In the 1960s, Rivers made other television appearances on The Tonight Show and The Ed Sullivan Show, as well as hosting the first of her several talk shows. Later in that decade she made a brief but appearance opposite Burt Lancaster in The Swimmer, a 1968 film.

In 1969, she had a short-lived syndicated daytime talk show, and her first guest was Johnny Carson .

In the middle of the 1960s, she released at least two comedy albums, The Next to Last Joan Rivers Album and Joan Rivers Presents Mr. Phyllis & Other Funny Stories .

In the 1970s, Joan Rivers appeared often as a guest on various television comedy and variety shows including The Carol Burnett Show. From 1972 to 1976, she was the narrator for The Adventures of Letterman, an animated segment for The Electric Company.

In 1978, Rivers directed and wrote the film Rabbit Test starring her friend Billy Crystal.

Rivers was the opening act for singer Helen Reddy on the Las Vegas Strip during the 1970s. She would eventually become a headliner in her own right into the 1980s.

In the 1980s, Rivers frequently substituted for Johnny Carson as guest host on The Tonight Show. On April 9, 1983, she hosted Saturday Night Live at about the same time she released a best-selling comedy album on Geffen Records, What Becomes a Semi-Legend Most? The recording reached number 22 on the U.S. Billboard 200 and was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Comedy Recording . In August 1983, she was named the first and only permanent guest host on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson .

In spring 1986, the Fox Television Network announced that it was giving Rivers her own late night talk show, The Late Show Starring Joan Rivers . It would be one of the launch shows for the new network, and The Late Show would air from 11:00 p.m. – 12:00 a.m. Eastern Time.

In October 1986 , The Late Show Starring Joan Rivers premiered on Fox TV. By May 15, 1987 , Rivers was fired from the show. The title was shortened to The Late Show , and it featured a rotating series of guest hosts.

In 1988, Rivers guest-starred on the Pee-Wee's Playhouse Christmas Special.

In her book, Bouncing Back, she describes how she developed bulimia and contemplated suicide. Eventually she recovered with counseling and the support of her family. Eventually she returned to television with her own daytime talk show, The Joan Rivers Show which ran from 1989 until 1994.

In 1994, she and daughter Melissa first hosted the E! Entertainment Television pre-awards show for the Golden Globe Awards . Beginning in 1995, they hosted the annual E! Entertainment Television pre-awards show for the Academy Awards .

Beginning in 1997, Rivers hosted her own radio show on WOR in New York. In 2003, Rivers and the station mutually decided to part ways.

From 2005–2007, Rivers was a host for the TV Guide Channel, often co-hosting red carpet specials before awards shows with her daughter, Melissa Rivers. She was replaced by Lisa Rinna starting with the 2007 Emmy Awards telecast. TV Guide chiefs decided they wanted a friendlier face greeting the stars and asked TV actress Lisa Rinna to take over the show.

In the movie Shrek 2, she cameoed as a computer-generated version of herself, hosting the parody ME! Medieval Entertainment Television channel.

Rivers is the National Chairwoman of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and is a board member of God's Love We Deliver, a group that delivers meals to homebound AIDS patients.

In 2004, she appeared as a guest on the first episode of the BBC One stand-up comedy programme Jack Dee Live at the Apollo. She would eventually guest host the fifth episode in the 2007 season.

When in New York, where she lives, Rivers appears weekly in workshop productions at the small venue The Cutting Room. She donates proceeds to the charities God's Love We Deliver (for which she is a board member) and Guide Dogs for the Blind.

Rivers appeared in two episodes of the show Nip/Tuck during its second and third seasons. During her first appearance, she wanted to find out what she would look like without all the plastic surgery she has had and was horrified by the result. During her second appearance, she wanted to invest in a post-surgical health spa.

She is also an avid collector of jewelry. Rivers also appears regularly on television's The Shopping Channel (in Canada), and QVC (in both the U.S. and the U.K.), selling her own line of jewelry under the brand name "The Joan Rivers Collection", which in fact is one of that network's best-selling lines. Rivers was a guest speaker at the opening of the American Operating Room Nurses' 2000 San Francisco Conference.

While touring in the UK, Rivers appeared on BBC Radio 4's Midweek programme and became involved in a heated on-air argument over the issue of race with broadcaster Darcus Howe.

Together with Melissa, Rivers appeared in a special feature on the season one DVD set of The Golden Girls, commenting on the sometimes-odd fashion styles worn by the characters in the sitcom.

Both Joan and her daughter Melissa are frequent guests on Howard Stern's radio show. Joan frequently appears as a panelist on UK game show 8 Out Of 10 Cats.

She has also insulted Chris Burney, the guitarist in the band Bowling for Soup, calling him, "fatso," and renaming his band, "Bowling for Crap." Later that year she voted Bowling for Soup the worst-dressed musicians.

On The Simpsons episode, "Make Room for Lisa," Homer Simpson asks an employee at Kharma-Ceutric, an alternative medicine shop, "What's keeping Joan Rivers alive?," to which she replies, "Fetal Grindings." Rivers was satirized in three other episodes as well.

On August 16, 2007, Rivers began a two-week workshop of her new play, with the working title, "The Joan Rivers Theatre Project," at The Magic Theatre, in San Francisco.

On December 3, 2007, Rivers was featured before Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth and His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh, in the Royal Variety Show 2007, at the Liverpool Empire Theatre.

In January 2008, Rivers became one of 20 hijackers to take control of the Big Brother house in the UK, in a spin-off show entitled Big Brother: Celebrity Hijack. She did so for one day, bringing her usual sniping wit with her.

On June 17, 2008, Joan Rivers was removed from the set of the British ITV lunchtime talk show, Loose Women after swearing live on air. She described actor Russell Crowe as a piece of "fuckin' shit". She made an error, not realizing the program aired live, without a delay. She was removed from the set during a break. A spokesperson for the show stated, "Guests are always briefed that it is a live daytime show and are reminded not to swear or use inappropriate language. An editorial decision was taken that Joan Rivers should not appear in the final part of the programme. We would like to apologise to Loose Women viewers for the inappropriate language used on today's show." Joan noted that this was the first time she had been removed from a TV show in 40 years and she was "thrilled" .

On June 24, 2008 Rivers appeared on NBC’s show Celebrity Family Feud. She competed with her daughter, Melissa, against Ice-T and Coco. She was asked if her face was a cross between OJ Simpson and Al Unser Jr. Rivers immediately left the set.

Rivers will appear as a contestant alongside her daughter Melissa on Celebrity Apprentice. Throughout the season, each celebrity will be raising money for a charity of their choice; Rivers has selected the charity "God's Love We Deliver" .

Rivers was also a special pink carpet presenter for the 2009 broadcast of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade.

Rivers had a cameo in the film Shrek 2 (though for the UK version she was dubbed by Kate Thornton). Rivers also appeared in the Simpsons episode, "Viva Ned Flanders," as a desperate infomercial host and in the Futurama episode, "That's Lobstertainment!," as a talking head. She appeared in Drawn Together, as "Clara's" talking vagina, called a, "Vajoana," as the result of "Clara" having too much plastic surgery. Rivers appeared in the Season 2's season finale, and also in Season 3, of the tv program Nip/Tuck, as herself. She loaned her voice to the Mel Brooks film Spaceballs, as, "Dot Matrix." She has also appeared in a GEICO insurance commercial making satirical comments about her many plastic surgeries. She also appeared as herself in a parody of her career on E! True Hollywood Story, on April 1, 2001.

Rivers was an Honorary Chair of the Imperial Court of New York's Annual Charity Coronation Ball, Night of A Thousand Gowns, on March 21, 2009. Other Honorary Chairs for the evening's charity event included Sir Elton John CBE, Patti LuPone, John Cameron Mitchell, Idina Menzel and Dame Robin Strasser.

In 1983, she was awarded the Sour Apple Award, one of the Golden Apple Awards.

In 1984, she was awarded Woman of the Year by Hasty Pudding Theatricals.

In 1989, she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7030 Hollywood Blvd.

In 1994, she was nominated for Tony and Drama Desk Awards for Best Leading Actress in a Play for Sally Marr and Her Escorts, which she wrote with Erin Ladd Sanders and Lonny Price.

In a 2005 BBC Channel 4 poll to find The Comedian's Comedian, she was voted 40 amongst the top 50 comedy acts ever by fellow comedians and comedy insiders.

Rivers co-hosted a segment of the Australian 2006 Logie Awards. She was given a specially commissioned pink Logie award, threw it over her shoulder and remarked "It's the ugliest award I have ever seen." Months later (in June), footage of the spectacle featured in an episode of Web Junk 20 and on YouTube.

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SOAPnet

SOAPnet (stylized from 2000 to 2002 as SoapNet) is an American cable television channel. It has been broadcasting current and past soap operas since January 20, 2000.

In the beginning, the network only aired current ABC soap operas in the evening and early morning, so people who worked could watch at their convenience. The programming was inclusive in the beginning as the network is owned by ABC. The channel has high cable coverage due to Disney's aggressive policy of pulling ABC affiliates and the highly viewed ESPN networks from cable companies if they wouldn't agree to also carry SOAPNet; this was the main reason for WABC (Channel 7) being pulled from Time Warner Cable in Manhattan for two days in May 2000.

There were plans by Sony Pictures Entertainment to launch a competing channel and website called SoapCity when SOAPNet was announced, which would air all of the CBS soap operas and NBC's Days of our Lives, a Sony-owned/produced show. The plans were later abandoned early in 2000 for the cable channel after failing to acquire cable carriage, though the website component remained.

The SOAPnet channel's inaugural lineup aired current soaps such as All My Children, One Life to Live, and General Hospital, plus cancelled daytime and nighttime soaps such as Port Charles, Falcon Crest, Knots Landing, The Colbys, Hotel, Sisters, and Ryan's Hope.

As the years went on, SOAPnet tried its hand at original programming, like Soap Center and Soap Talk, the latter of which has been nominated for many Daytime Emmy awards, most recently in 2006 for Best Talk Show Host(s). Soap Center, which debuted the same day as SOAPnet in early 2000, initially hosted by former soap stars Brooke Alexander and David Forsyth, but a year later, they were replaced by, Peggy Bunker discussing East Coast soaps and Tanika Ray discussing West Coast soaps. By 2003 , Peggy was let go and soon after the show ceased filming original material. Other original series include 1 Day With, a half-hour of General Hospital star Wally Kurth interviewing soap actors, I Wanna Be a Soap Star, a recurring reality series which gives 12 young actors the opportunity to compete for a contract on a daytime soap, and Soapography, a 30-minute show which profiles two different soap opera actors in each episode which mainly focuses on their life and which soap they're in.

In 2002, SOAPnet began airing reruns of Dynasty, and by 2003 SOAPnet added highly requested programming such as reruns of Another World and Dallas, Replacing Falcon Crest, The Colbys, Hotel and Sisters. In 2004, SOAPnet acquired same-day episodes of Days of our Lives and in September of the same year, they began airing reruns of Melrose Place, and added Beverly Hills 90210 in January 2005. On April 24, 2006, SOAPnet began offering same-day episodes of The Young and the Restless.

Ryan's Hope, which had not been seen since it was cancelled in 1989, was shown from its debut in 1975 until the late 1981 episodes. At this time, many viewers who did not have SOAPnet at its inception petitioned to rerun the show from the very beginning. In 2003, the network aired the first episodes starting on St. Patrick's Day. Currently, the episodes being run are from 1977.

From time to time, the network airs past episodes in thematic format, such as Daytime's Most Unforgettable Weddings, spotlighting the best episodes of popular couples on the ABC soaps. Other thematic blocks of episodes aired include the Sonnylicious! marathon, showcasing the best of Maurice Benard in his role on General Hospital, and the Tad the Cad marathon, with classic episodes of All My Children from the 1980s, in which the character Tad Martin, played by Michael E. Knight, beds Liza Colby and then her mother, Marian, in quick succession. This is usually limited to the series they have rebroadcast rights to (ABC's lineup, Days, and Y&R). However in a lead-up to the 33rd Annual Daytime Emmy Awards, the channel showed episodes of soaps that showcased performances that garnered award-nominating attention--including those from Guiding Light and As The World Turns--a first for the network. On Labor Day--September 3rd 2007--an O.C. marathon called "Summer Spice" was aired showing Summer's metamorphoses throughout the series.

Since the network is a subsidiary of the Walt Disney company, special deals have been made to broadcast events from the annual ABC Super Soap Weekend, which is held every November at Walt Disney World, and in the summer at Disney's California Adventure. Lisa Rinna and Ty Treadway from Soap Talk have hosted question and answer sessions at the events, allowing fans to ask questions to their favorite soap stars.

In January 2005, the network began to air the Fox dramas Beverly Hills, 90210 and Melrose Place, and in the spring of that year aired repeats of short-lived nighttime soaps The Monroes and Skin. In 2004 SOAPnet reran a short-lived '80s soap called Paper Dolls. In July 2005 SOAPnet picked up the Fox primetime soap Pasadena, including nine episodes not aired during the show's initial run which debuted in the fall.

Some viewers complained about what they viewed as an overabundance of primetime programming, some of which (90210 and Melrose Place) had only been out of original broadcast for a few years and had been repeated on other networks. These fans also object to the large amount of new episodes of the ABC lineup and Days, and have repeatedly requested rebroadcast of old daytime soaps such as Loving (which Disney/ABC have the rights to), The Edge of Night, Santa Barbara and Search for Tomorrow. SOAPnet is reportedly working on a second channel which will broadcast older soaps, but the channel has yet to materialize.

On March 16, 2006, SOAPnet announced that it had finally acquired the rights to daytime ratings winner The Young and the Restless and began airing it in April — making it the first CBS network soap to air on the network.

On February 7, 2007, SOAPnet announced that it would be picking up the reruns of The O.C. and One Tree Hill. The syndicaton deal also gave SOAPnet the ability to pick up a fifth season of One Tree Hill at the time if The CW chose not to renew the show. However the show is now in its sixth season on the broadcast network.

In November 2007, Deborah Blackwell left her position as general manager. ABC Daytime president Brian Frons will assume her duties.

In August 2008, it was revealed that SOAPnet had lost rights to air both Dallas and Melrose Place and they would discontinue airing the 2 shows in September.

In 2009, the network will further expand their acquired programming; the network began to air Greg Behrendt's Wake Up Call, a program which was originally scheduled to air on ABC in the 2006-07, but never found a place on their schedule due to several factors. After airing the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation series MVP in 2008 (which was subsequently cancelled by the CBC due to low ratings), the network has also acquired the American broadcast rights to CBC's Being Erica for airing in February 2009; the show began in January on the CBC.

During Summer 2007, SOAPnet aired a prime-time spin off of General Hospital, entitled General Hospital: Night Shift, which became its highest-rated program to date, pulling in 1 million viewers for the premiere episode. Viewership dwindled over the course of the 13 week series, putting a second season in jeopardy. The first season wrapped up on October 4, 2007. It was renewed for another season, naming new Head Writer, Sri Rao, and a new Executive Producer, former Passions Executive Producer, Lisa de Cazotte.

As part of an ongoing strategic effort to increase SOAPnet's reach, target new viewers and expand the genre, Brian Frons, President, Daytime, Disney-ABC Television Group, announced today the acquisition of 19 movies from Sony Pictures Television, Inc., expanding SOAPnet's Sunday Night Movie franchise, which airs Sundays at 10PM ET/PT. The theatrical titles from Sony Pictures Television, Inc. include Hitch, Fun with Dick and Jane, Something's Gotta Give, Sleepless in Seattle, My Best Friend's Wedding, Jerry Maguire, Groundhog Day, Roxanne, Fools Rush In, Postcards from the Edge, Only You, It Could Happen to You, Crazy in Alabama, Ice Castles, Loverboy, Cruel Intentions 2, Mixed Nuts, Nadine, and Lone Star State of Mind.

Other films that SOAPnet has aired include Mommie Dearest, Moonstruck, Clue and The Ref and also television movies such as Romy and Michele: In the Beginning, Betrayed by Love and Just a Walk in the Park.

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18th Soap Opera Digest Awards

The eighteenth annual Soap Opera Digest Awards were held in 2003. It was aired on SOAPnet. The awards were not held in 2002. It was hosted by Lisa Rinna and Ty Treadway.

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Dancing with the Stars (U.S. TV series)

Dancing with the Stars is a 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.

The eighth season premiered on March 9th, 2009.

The show pairs a celebrity with a professional ballroom dancer. The professional dancer is responsible for teaching the celebrity how to perform specific dances, which the pair perform live on the show each week. The dancers are scored by a panel of three professional dance judges. Additionally, viewers of the program may vote by phone, text message, or online methods. The team which receives the lowest total score (a combination of the judges' scores and viewer votes) each week is eliminated from the competition.

Dancing with the Stars is hosted by Emmy Award-winning game show host and TV personality, Tom Bergeron, and E! reporter Samantha Harris (who joined the show in season 2, replacing Lisa Canning). For the first three weeks of season 5, season 2 celebrity champion Drew Lachey co-hosted with Bergeron while Harris was on maternity leave.

Dancing with the Stars is produced at CBS Television City in Los Angeles in Studio 46, but airs on ABC.

The panel of judges consists of Len Goodman (head judge), Carrie Ann Inaba, and Bruno Tonioli; Goodman and Tonioli commute weekly between Hollywood and London to judge both the American and British versions of the show simultaneously. Harold Wheeler is the musical director. The announcements for the show's titles ("Live from Hollywood, This is "Dancing With the Stars") and introductions for the dances and judges' scores were recorded in the United Kingdom by Alan Dedicoat.

The first three seasons were not aired in the UK. BBC One aired Season 4 on Sunday afternoons from Sunday, July 15, 2007. On September 28, 2007, UKTV Gold began airing Season 5.

BBC America began to air Season 2 of the U.S. series on January 6, 2008, combining performance and results shows into 2-hour episodes. However, it was reported that many viewers of BBC America were unhappy with the decision, mainly due to the fact that the channel was showing repeats of an American-produced program, despite the BBC's involvement with the show.

The following are the dances performed by couples on Dancing with the Stars. In addition, each couple in the final round performs a dance of any style or combination of styles of their choosing, called "freestyle".

Seasonal rankings (based on average total viewers per episode) of Dancing With The Stars on ABC.

Note: Each U.S. network television season starts in late September and ends in late May, which coincides with the completion of Nielsen Ratings.

The show's first season is not ranked because it aired in the summer of 2005. If it had aired during the official 2004-2005 season and received the same numbers, it would have ranked #11, in place of Two and a Half Men.

The September 20, 2005 drew 10.9 million viewers, while the results show two nights later drew just over 10.4 million.

Dancing With The Stars was the most-watched Thursday night program on American Broadcasting Company since Who Wants to Be a Millionaire in 2000 and the most-watched Thursday 8 p.m. series on American Broadcasting Company since Mork & Mindy in 1979. In its second season, it attracted high viewing numbers similar to those of its timeslot competitor, CBS' Survivor: Panama.

The first part of the series' second season aired on February 23, 2006. The other programs airing opposite Dancing With The Stars (14.8 million viewers from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m.) were: the Figure skating at the 2006 Winter Olympics on NBC (17.7 million viewers from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m.), an episode of CBS' Survivor: Panama (14.8 million viewers from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m.), and a results show during the fifth season of FOX's American Idol (23.5 million viewers from 8 p.m. to 9:02 p.m.).

The premiere for the eight season of Dancing with the Stars drew the largest opening audience ever for the show with 22.8 million viewers.

Mel B.; front runner for season five, turned down the tour due to her commitment to the Spice Girl Reunion Tour. It was revealed that Cheryl Burke was unable to participate for the first few shows during the tour. It was thought that something had happened to her appendix, although that was not the case.

Mark Ballas is also on the tour as a professional dancer, but will have to sit out the show for a few weeks due to a groin injury in Los Angeles.

In seasons 1 and 2, only the overall ranking between competitors by the judges and the public was relevant. In season 3 and all subsequent seasons, the scoring system has made the exact scores relevant as well.

The scoring begins with the judges' marks. Each judge gives a 1 to 10 score, for a total score of 3 to 30 (the lowest individual score, however, was a 2 for Master P's Paso Doble in season 2, and the lowest total score for a dance was an 8). When multiple performances are scored, only the cumulative total counts. The contestants' "judges' shares" are calculated as the percentage of the total number of points awarded to all contestants that evening. (For example, if a team earned 20 points on a night when the judges awarded 200 points, their judges' share would be 20/200 = 10%.) This percentage is then added to the percentage of North American votes received by each contestant. The bottom two couples are identified in the results show, and the couple with the lowest combined total is eliminated. Season 8 added a "dance-off," in which contestants could re-do one of their dances, in an effort to improve their judges' score.

Public voting is conducted via a toll-free number, the ABC web site, and, most recently, text messages; contestants can vote during and immediately after each performance show. The maximum number of votes per voter per medium is equal to the number of couples performing that night, or five votes, whichever is larger.

Celebrities make $200,000 per season, no matter how far they advance in the competition. The winner also gets a bonus of $100,000, and the second- and third-place finishers get smaller bonuses.

Edyta Sliwinska is the only professional that has been on the show for every season. Cheryl Burke, Tony Dovolani, Karina Smirnoff, Kym Johnson, Julianne Hough, Derek Hough, Mark Ballas and Lacey Schwimmer have been on the show every season since their debut as professionals.

Lil' Romeo was the first person to withdraw, in Season 2. His father, Master P took his place in the competition, being partnered with Ashley DelGrosso.

Sara Evans in the third season was the second celebrity to withdraw from the competition, while in progress. She cited her divorce as the reason for leaving the competition. As a result, her professional partner, Tony Dovolani also became the first professional dancer to withdraw from the competition.

Another withdrawal occurred during the run-up to Season 4, on February 28 when Vincent Pastore withdrew from the competition after only one week of training. Pastore said he did not realize how much work was needed during a ten-week period, and that he was not up to the physical demands of the show. He was replaced on March 2 by actor John Ratzenberger who was partnered with Edyta Sliwinska.

Misty May-Treanor was forced to withdraw from Season 7 after tearing her Achilles tendon during rehearsals. The injury required surgery. Her partner Maksim Chmerkovskiy became the second professional to withdraw from the competition.

Season 8 was over before it even began for singer Jewel and Access Hollywood host Nancy O'Dell. Both were forced to pull out of competition prior to the premier due to injury, Jewel suffered from a fractured tibia in both legs while O'Dell has a torn meniscus that will require surgery. This is the first time a celebrity has been forced to pull out through injury before the season has started, Jewel was replaced with former The Girls Next Door star, and ex-girlfriend of Playboy founder Hugh Hefner, Holly Madison, and O'Dell was replaced with The Bachelor finalist Melissa Rycroft.

Professional-celebrity relationships. Over the seasons there have been four confirmed relationships between professional dancers and their celebrity partners. Mario Lopez and Karina Smirnoff (Season 3), Sabrina Bryan and Mark Ballas (Season 5), and Shannon Elizabeth and Derek Hough (Season 6) began dating during or after the show. Cheryl Burke dated Matthew Lawrence, brother of Season 3 contestant Joey Lawrence. Julianne Hough and Chuck Wicks (Season 8), began dating before Wicks' appearance.

Relationships between professionals. Pros Edyta Sliwinska and Alec Mazo are married, as are Jonathan Roberts and Anna Trebunskaya. Maksim Chmerkovskiy and Karina Smirnoff announced their engagement early in 2009.

In addition, Derek Hough and Julianne Hough are siblings, and Corky Ballas and Mark Ballas are father and son. Furthermore, the Houghs moved to London to train with Corky Ballas and his wife.

Relationships between contestants. Season 2's Lisa Rinna has been married to Season 3's Harry Hamlin since 1997, prior to either's appearance on the show. Had Jewel not been injured, she and her husband Ty Murray would have been the first celebrity couple to compete in the same season of the show.

On Season 5, Marie Osmond fainted on Week 5 after her performance. The show immediately went to commercial break. On Week 6, Jane Seymour was also absent on the results show due to food poisoning.

On Season 6, Kristi Yamaguchi injured her ankle on Week 4. This did not affect her performance or attendance. On Monday April 28, 2008 (Week 7), Cristián de la Fuente suffered a ruptured tendon in his left biceps muscle during his performance. The judges critiqued him according to his performance up to the injury. He was sent to the hospital immediately and missed the end of the show.

On August 24, 2008 (the day before she was named as a celebrity contestant), Kim Kardashian cut her foot on a piece of a broken mirror in her hotel room, which she spoke about to Robin Roberts, Sam Champion and Tom Bergeron on Good Morning America the next day. Doctors told her she could still dance in season 7.

On September 22, 2008, while rehearsing for that night's performance, Jeffrey Ross suffered a scratched cornea in his left eye. He wore a rhinestone-studded eye patch in jest of the injury.

On October 4, 2008, Misty May-Treanor had ruptured her Achilles tendon during rehearsal and was forced to withdraw from the competition, requiring surgery for her injury.

In October 2008, Susan Lucci had sprained her ankle while rehearsing for that night's performance. She explained that she slides underneath partner Tony Dovolani's legs in the routine, and she "didn't put her butt down in time" and rolled her ankle, thus spraining it. She still performed that night, her ankle wrapped. It was later announced that she had actually fractured two bones in her right foot.

On October 19, 2008, Brooke Burke was taken to the hospital after injuring her foot. She was performing the jitterbug with partner Derek Hough for camera blocking when she landed hard on her right foot while performing a front flip.

Lance Bass also fractured his toe. Maurice Greene hyper-extended his leg during a group Paso Doble rehearsal.

Jewel Kilcher and Nancy O'Dell were forced to withdraw from competing on Season 8, as Jewel fractured both her tibias and O'Dell tore her meniscus and required surgery.

Steve-O was injured during his dress rehearsal so he and his partner, Lacey Schwimmer, were unable to perform live. Instead, the judges critiqued his pre-recorded dress rehearsal performance.

Steve Wozniak suffered a crush injury in his right ankle due to his weight; his doctor told him that he could continue in the competition, as long as his foot was either braced, or wrapped. He also suffered a pulled hamstring while rehearsing for his samba.

Jerry Springer's partner, Kym Johnson hyperextended one of her legs but kept on performing.

Mark Ballas dislocated his shoulder on the Season Finale during his and Sabrina Bryan's encore dance. He was immediately sent to the hospital for the rest of the night.

Karina Smirnoff told dance partner Mario she had to get surgery for a neck injury she had suffered.

On April 1, 2008 (Week 3), Derek Hough injured his neck when practicing for a routine he and his sister, Julianne Hough, and their friend Mark Ballas were to perform to a live performance on that night's results show by Kylie Minogue of her hit song Can't Get You Out Of My Head. Derek appeared on the results show but Mark and Julianne danced the routine without him.

In Week 5, Derek Hough contracted food poisoning from a protein shake that he drank earlier on performance day.

Karina Smirnoff sprained her left ankle during rehearsals the morning of performance, September 22. She performed that night, ankle fully wrapped, with celebrity partner, Rocco DiSpirito.

Derek Hough blacked out after tripping and hitting his head on October 4, 2008. He was rushed to a hospital, and was cleared to continue with the competition.

Julianne Hough was rushed to the hospital after the October 21, 2008 results show with increasingly severe stomach pains. She was released the same night after it was determined that it was "just a bad stomach ache". However, she was ordered to sit out the group hip-hop dance rehearsals the next day as a precaution.

However, on the October 27 performance show, Hough announced that she had been diagnosed with Endometriosis and would be having surgery on October 28 for appendix removal. Hough's dance partner Cody Linley would remain in the competition, and be teamed with Edyta Sliwinska, who had been paired with comedian Jeffrey Ross. They had been eliminated in the season's first elimination. It was announced that this pairing was indefinite and would last as long as Hough needed to recover. It was announced on the November 11, 2008 results show that Julianne was returning the next week and returned to dance on that show with Derek in the fan-created "Stars of Dance".

The show celebrated its 100th episode on Tuesday, May 6, 2008. More than 30 former cast members and pros returned, with interviews with Stacy Keibler, Lisa Rinna, Jerry Springer, Vivica A. Fox, Joey Fatone, Kenny Mayne, Sabrina Bryan, and former winners Kelly Monaco, Drew Lachey, and Apolo Anton Ohno. Other appearances included the Season 6 cast, Jane Seymour, Ian Ziering, Mark Cuban, Wayne Newton, Leeza Gibbons, Harry Hamlin, Shandi Finnessey, Paula Abdul and Helio Castroneves. New routines were performed by Apolo Anton Ohno and Julianne Hough, Mel B. and Maksim Chmerkovskiy, and by Mario Lopez with the cast of A Chorus Line, in which he is currently starring on Broadway. The musical guest was country group Rascal Flatts.

A DVD titled Dancing With The Stars: Cardio Dance was released on April 3, 2007 featuring Kym Johnson, Maksim Chmerkovskiy and Ashly DelGrosso. The program contains cardiovascular workouts adapted from Cha-cha, paso doble, samba, and jive dance routines.

A second DVD Dancing with the Stars: Latin Cardio Dance was released on September 13, 2008 featuring Maksim Chmerkovskiy and Cheryl Burke. The program contains cardiovascular workouts adapted from Cha-cha, Merengue, Samba and Mambo dance routines.

A companion book written by Guy Phillips was released in the early fall of 2007 entitled, Dancing with the Stars: Jive, Samba and Tango Your Way Into The Best Shape Of Your Life . The book has behind the scenes photos and stories from the show as well as fitness routines modeled by Alec Mazo and Edyta Sliwinska. The book also features many promotional images from the first four seasons and the tour as well as original costume designs, lists of performed songs during a dance, and a complete list of every song and dance routine performed since the first season of the show.

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Live with Regis and Kelly

Live with Regis and Kelly is a syndicated American television talk show, hosted by Regis Philbin and Kelly Ripa. Before 2000, the show was known as, Live with Regis and Kathie Lee, with Kathie Lee Gifford co-hosting with Philbin. After Gifford left, it was Live with Regis, with only Philbin hosting before Ripa was added in 2001.

The program has aired for 26 years in its home market of New York City in its current format, and 21 years nationwide.

It was announced on January 16, 2007, that Live with Regis and Kelly has been renewed through the 2010-2011 season. The show began broadcasting in high definition with the January 5, 2009 episode.

The show began in 1983 as The Morning Show, a local New York program on WABC-TV with Philbin and Cyndy Garvey as co-hosts. They were previously co-hosts on A.M. Los Angeles, a similar program on KABC-TV in Los Angeles. Ann Abernathy took over Garvey's co-hosting position in 1984. Gifford, then known as Kathie Lee Johnson from her first marriage, replaced Abernathy on June 24, 1985, and the show—which had held its own against Phil Donahue's show in the local market—took off.

On September 5, 1988, Buena Vista Television began syndicating the show nationwide. (In 1996, BVTV's parent company Disney would acquire ABC, WABC's parent company.) The title was changed to Live with Regis and Kathie Lee. Viewers embraced the show, making it a popular staple of daytime TV. On February 29, 2000, Gifford decided to leave the show to pursue her singing career, and spend more time with her family. Her last show was on July 28, 2000.

After Gifford's departure, Philbin continued with the show and began a search for another co-host. The show was renamed Live with Regis, as Philbin hosted alone, with his wife Joy Philbin or with varying guest hosts including everybody from the cast of Survivor to The Daily Show's Jon Stewart. During this time, Philbin won the Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Talk Show Host, and was also hosting ABC's enormously popular Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. During "auditions" for co-hosts, Kelly Ripa became a favorite and front-runner, especially after a segment on the first episode on which she was a guest host on November 1, 2000. Psychic Char Margolis correctly predicted that Ripa was pregnant; Ripa had only told a small circle of friends about the pregnancy, and not ABC (as she was an actress on All My Children at the time) or the public.

Ripa was named the permanent co-host on February 5, 2001, and began her duties that day. Since Ripa took over, the show's ratings have increased to much higher levels, according to E!. Kathie Lee Gifford returned as a special co-host alongside Regis and Kelly on September 14, 2007, to celebrate Live’s 20 years in national syndication.

The show is still owned and produced by WABC-TV, and shares the same studio as WABC's venerable Eyewitness News broadcast. Not seen in the nationally syndicated show is a WABC Eyewitness News update, which is produced from its newsroom, as are all of its updates during Good Morning America due to the shared studio situation. In the beginning of the 2007-2008 television season WABC-TV has confirmed that Eyewitness News will once again acquire all of the current studio (TV13 and TV14), and Live with Regis and Kelly will move to the set used for the unsuccessful The Tony Danza Show located in the same building, or in the nearby vicinity. Construction on both sets began in the summer of 2007, and the new sets should have their debut in 2009.

Philbin announced on March 12, 2007, that he would undergo heart bypass surgery the following Wednesday after experiencing symptoms of heart disease. Guest co-host, Jimmy Kimmel, hosted alongside Ripa during Philbin's absence. He returned to his hosting duties on April 26, 2007, 6 weeks and 1 day after his surgery.

On the night of May 27, 2007, a fire occurred near the news studio of WABC-TV, adjacent to Live with Regis and Kelly's set. Although both studios were affected by smoke and water damage, damage to Live's set was minimal. The flooding in Live's control room was enough to require the show to temporarily relocate. Beginning with the show's May 29, 2007 broadcast (the previous day's show was already recorded due to the Memorial Day holiday), the show moved to the set of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, located near and on the same street as the Live studio.

Live, as implied in its name, is broadcast live weekdays at 9 a.m. ET, except for some markets (e.g. Portland, Oregon airs at 11 a.m.), special editions, or reruns. (Instead of true reruns, Live will usually air previously aired celebrity guest and other non-"host chat" segments and record a new "host chat" segment to accommodate ongoing trivia contests.) It is aired throughout the United States and Canada usually at 9 a.m or 10 a.m. local time; this implies that many East Coast affiliates receive the live feed of the show.

The show features bantering between Regis and Kelly, phone-in contests, and celebrity guests. It is produced by Michael Gelman. The first 15 to 22 minutes, known as "host chat", is known for being improvised, often involving Gelman somehow. Other foils for the co-hosts have included WABC-TV program director Art Moore, who supervises Live, former WABC-TV weatherman and current Good Morning America weatherman Sam Champion, and other program staffers. Following the host chat, the daily "Travel Trivia" contest (a contest in the form of Dialing for Dollars) takes place, with a home viewer having to answer a question about the previous day's show in order to win a vacation prize package for him/herself (with the spin of a huge wheel) and a prize for a lucky audience member (as chosen by Kelly's line "Please pick a number between 1 and" the day's attendance in the audience). Following the contest, the rest of the show is filled with guests, mostly celebrity interviews, during the final minutes of the show "Regis & Kelly's Inbox" is featured -- selected viewer e-mail is read (usually noting something from the host chat). Sometimes on days where there are rerun segments or there is a substitute cohost a demonstration, performance or food segment airs in lieu of this segment. On shows that are not live, the "host chat" segment is often truncated to less than 5 minutes, followed by a new travel trivia segment, and a series of recut interviews with recent guests.

Tony Pigg has been the show's announcer since its conception.

The new theme song, composed by Gabriel Saientz, made its debut on January 5, 2009, the day "Live" started broadcasting in high definition. Slight changes were made to the set to celebrate the show's HD debut, such as new furniture and flooring.

Live has consistently been rated among the top three syndicated daytime talk shows in the US, behind The Oprah Winfrey Show and Dr. Phil.

The Live series has fared so well that it inspired similarly formatted talk shows. Some have been successful (The View), while others have had limited or no success (The Tony Danza Show, Living It Up! With Ali & Jack). The now canceled British television series, Today with Des and Mel, was based on Live.

On the day after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Live was on the air for an extended time with Philbin and Ripa discussing the attacks. The opening credits featured a still image of an American flag and the World Trade Center. The daily dialogue talked about how people in New York City were struggling with the attacks, and how people were mourning the many deaths of loved ones.

Most episodes of Live will feature both named co-hosts. But when either co-host needs a break, or has duties that prevent him or her from hosting the show, a celebrity guest will fill in as the other host, usually (but not always) of the same gender as the missing host.

Lisa Rinna and Valerie Bertinelli, two women always mentioned by Regis as potential substitutes for Kelly.

Wheel of Fortune host Pat Sajak, CNN anchor Anderson Cooper, Survivor host Jeff Probst, Bryant Gumbel, NASCAR driver Jeff Gordon, and Kelly's husband Mark Consuelos are frequent substitutes for Philbin. Joy Philbin, Regis' wife, is a frequent substitute for Kelly.

The show has been parodied for its banter and the personalities of its co-hosts.

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