Dancing with the Stars – Season 18 Voting Numbers & NEW Elimination Rules

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Season 18 of Dancing with the Stars premieres tonight on ABC. I’ll be on hand starting at 8PM Eastern for the festivities but two points of interest to pass along to you guys before the season begins…

1. Even though I will of course put the voting numbers in each couple’s post tonight, here is the full list of numbers that will remain the same for the entire season. So, if you want to program your favorite duo’s number into your phone, you can do so. Remember, voting also extends online to ABC.COM/Facebook. The phone voting only remains open for an hour following the show while online voting is open through Tuesday morning. Here are the numbers for all twelve couples (it also seems to be the performance order for tonight, though that is subject to change pending final camera blocking and rehearsals):

NeNe Leakes and Tony Dovolani — 1-800-868-3401 (1-800-VOTE4-01)
James Maslow and Peta Murgatroyd — 1-800-868-3402 (1-800-VOTE4-02)
Danica McKellar and Val Chmerkovskiy — 1-800-868-3403 (1-800-VOTE4-03)
Sean Avery and Karina Smirnoff — 1-800-868-3404 (1-800-VOTE4-04)
Billy Dee Williams and Emma Slater — 1-800-868-3405 (1-800-VOTE4-05)
Meryl Davis and Maksim Chmerkovskiy — 1-800-868-3406 (1-800-VOTE4-06)
Candace Cameron Bure and Mark Ballas — 1-800-868-3407 (1-800-VOTE4-07)
Cody Simpson and Witney Carson — 1-800-868-3408 (1-800-VOTE4-08)
Drew Carey and Cheryl Burke — 1-800-868-3409 (1-800-VOTE4-09)
Amy Purdy and Derek Hough — 1-800-868-3410 (1-800-VOTE4-10)
Diana Nyad and Henry Byalikov — 1-800-868-3411 (1-800-VOTE4-11)
Charlie White and Sharna Burgess — 1-800-868-3412 (1-800-VOTE4-12)

2. The producers have been struggling during the off-season to come up with a better way of dealing with eliminations. When the show was reduced to only one night a week last season, the voting rules shifted a bit. It was a combination of viewer votes from the previous week added to the scores from the judges during the current week that determined who got the boot. Some argued that because of that, couples who may have been in danger were saved thanks to the judges scores. On the opposite end, couples who ended up scoring low one week but high a previous week found themselves in trouble. It was difficult to come up with a way to fix the issue. So, here’s what Conrad Green and his team came up with…

This season, the couples will perform (for example, tonight). The judges will score them and the audience will vote as usual. Next Monday night, the producers will already know who the eliminated couple is, even though they will still dance. So all eliminations will be based on the PREVIOUS weeks vote totals, taking nothing into account from the current week. Essentially, one couple will practice all week and dance on Monday night even though they are going to be eliminated at the end of the show. And there is nothing they can really do about it. Talk about dead couple dancing, huh?

In many ways, this is the same system the show has used when we had an actual result show on Tuesday nights. The eliminations were based on Monday’s performances. And now, eliminations will be based on the previous week, as opposed to a combination of both weeks. Now, if this method had been in place last season, would Bill Engvall have lasted as long as he did and would better dancers like Elizabeth Berkley been saved from a shock boot? Who knows. At the end of the day, people are going to vote for who they want and the demographics of this show are so different than what they used to be, it doesn’t surprise me anymore when certain celebrities stay on while others are booted.

I do dig the idea that you need to bring it each week because you can’t depend on the judges to high (or low) score you the following week, which could have potentially saved or eliminated you last season. Remember when Tom announced that pending tonight’s dancing, a girl would be eliminated during one week last season? Or when he told certain couples they were safe after the judges gave them scores? Yeah, that was because the judges scores were high enough for that week to keep them safe. Now, the power shifts more to the viewers.

This new system though will do no favors to weak dancers or those who are relatively unknown or outside of the show’s demographic. If a couple doesn’t end up killing their routines and earning high scores, they will desperately need their fans to vote like crazy because they can’t depend on the judges scoring them better the following week. This is why, unless they are stellar, I can see someone like a James Maslow or a Sean Avery getting the boot way before a Billy Dee Williams or Drew Carey.

What do you guys think of the new voting system? Do you like the idea of the elimination being based on the previous week, with more power to the people as opposed to the judges? Do you feel bad that each week, a couple will basically be dancing for no reason, since their elimination has already been determined? Sound off below and make sure to join me tonight as we kick off what is sure to be an exciting (and I bet controversial) season.