‘DWTS’ Study Reveals Which Dance Types Most Often Lead to Elimination

Joey Graziadei and Jenna Johnson on 'Dancing with the Stars' Season 33
Eric McCandless/Disney

As Dancing With the Stars couples compete for that coveted Mirrorball Trophy, which dance types are most likely to spell elimination?

To find out, VegasInsider.com researchers cataloged more than 3,300 dances across everyDWTSseason so far, including the first five weeks of the ABC show’s ongoing 33rd season.

And after excluding dances that didn’t lead to any specific result — including group dances and routines during non-elimination weeks — the researchers had more than 2,600 dances as data.

The dance types that have led to the most eliminations

According to the research, the cha-cha-cha is the dance type that has led to the most DWTS eliminations so far — it’s been the undoing of 38 couples.

Ranking Dance Type Number of couples eliminated
1. Cha-cha-cha 38
2. Tango 33
3. Paso doble 31
4. Rumba 31
5. (tie) Foxtrot 28
5. (tie) Samba 28
7. Viennese waltz 27
8. Jive 22
9. Quickstep 21
10. Salsa 18
11. Argentine tango 17
12. Jazz 15
13. (tie) Waltz 10
13. (tie) Contemporary 10
15. Mambo 8

 

In Season 33, Joey Graziadei made it through a Week 1 cha-cha-cha, telling Collider, “I was actually initially very scared about going first, mainly just because I had never done it before, and I didn’t know what it was going to feel like just to be on that stage and be able to perform. Now looking back, especially after the last couple of weeks, I loved that we got to go first that night [with] one of my favorite performances that we’ve done so far.”

The dance types that have led the most couples to safety

On the flip side, the jive is the dance type that has give the most couples safe passage to subsequent weeks of the competition.

Ranking Dance Type Number of couples safe
1. (tie) Jive 197
1. (tie) Quickstep 197
3. Foxtrot 191
4. (tie) Paso doble 164
4. (tie) Rumba 164
6. Cha-cha-cha 157
7. Viennese waltz 153
8. Tango 141
9. Samba 139
10. Argentine tango 103
11. Salsa 95
12. Jazz 80
13. Waltz 65
14. Contemporary 63
15. Mambo 38

 

The most “dangerous” dances

After accounting for eliminations and bottom-two, bottom-three, and bottom-five results — and assigning negative points to each, proportionally — the researchers also identified the most “dangerous” dances on the show.

Ranking Dance type Negative points
1. Tango 178
2. Cha-cha-cha 170
3. Rumba 166
4. Samba 165
5. Paso doble 157

 

Future Dancing with the Stars contestants, beware!

Dancing With the Stars, Tuesdays, 8/7c, ABC