Dancing with the Stars (U.S. season 7)

Couples

The 13 celebrities and professional dancers who competed were:

Scoring chart

Red numbers indicate the couples with the lowest score for each week. Green numbers indicate the couples with the highest score for each week.      indicates the couple (or couples) eliminated that week.      indicates the returning couple was the last to be called safe (they may or may have not been in the bottom two).      indicates the returning couple that finished in the bottom two.      indicates the couple withdrew from the competition and did not dance that week.      indicates the couple that would have been eliminated had an elimination taken place.      indicates the winning couple.      indicates the runner-up couple.      indicates the third-place couple.

Week 1: Brooke Burke & Derek Hough received a ²³⁄₃₀ (the highest score of the night) for their cha-cha-cha and received a  ²⁶⁄₃₀ for their Quickstep. Cloris Leachman received a ¹⁶⁄₃₀ for her Foxtrot. While Rocco DiSpirito & Karina Smirnoff earned their Foxtrot a  ¹⁴⁄₃₀ and Jeffrey Ross & Edyta Śliwińska received a  ¹²⁄₃₀ (the lowest score of the night) for their cha-cha-cha. The September 23 episode featured competition and elimination on the same night. Each couple that was called safe performed a new routine. At the end of the episode, Jeffrey Ross was eliminated. Ted McGinley was eliminated on the results show the following night.

Week 2: Warren & Kym performed an encore for their Paso doble. Brooke & Derek held the top spot for the second consecutive week, while Cloris Leachman & Corky Ballas were at bottom of the judges' leader board with 15/30. Kim Kardashian & reigning champion Mark Ballas were eliminated.

Week 3: Brooke & Derek became the first couple to receive a 10 from any of the judges; in this case, it was awarded by Len Goodman. Cloris and Corky danced their wacky Jive leaving the judges speechless and landed at the bottom of the judges' leaderboard for the third consecutive week. Misty May-Treanor was forced to withdraw from the competition after rupturing her Achilles tendon during a training session. Because of her withdrawal, no elimination took place that week. However, it was announced on the results show that, of the remaining contestants, Rocco DiSpirito had the lowest combined total of scores and votes and would've been eliminated. Each couples combined total for that week was added to their total for the following week, in order to determine who would be eliminated next.

Week 4: Cloris & Corky received their highest score of the season,  ²²⁄₃₀ for their Tango, but they found themselves in the bottom two along with Rocco & Karina. However, Rocco DiSpirito was eliminated.

Week 5: Eight couples performed four new dances: the Hustle, the Salsa, the Jitterbug, and the West Coast Swing. Susan & Tony, and Warren & Kym performed the Hustle, Cloris & Corky, and Maurice & Cheryl performed the Salsa, Brooke & Derek, and Cody & Julianne performed the Jitterbug, and Lance & Lacey, and Toni & Alec performed the West Coast Swing. After the results show, Julianne Hough was rushed to the hospital because of severe stomach pain. She was later diagnosed with endometriosis. Toni Braxton was eliminated.

Week 6: For the first time since the start of the competition, Brooke & Derek were not in first place, narrowly losing out to Lance Bass & Lacey Schwimmer. Cloris & Corky received a  ¹⁵⁄₃₀ (the lowest score of week six). They were eliminated, but the audience giving them a standing ovation for the last six weeks.

Week 7: Brooke & Derek became the first couple to receive a perfect 30 from the judges, on their Foxtrot. Cody Linley danced with a substitute partner, Edyta Śliwińska, while Julianne Hough had surgery to remove her appendix. During Week 7, the show introduced Team Dancing and the score each team received was added to the score of their first dance of the evening. The producers named Warren and Susan captains, and had them randomly choose dances to perform. They were then allowed to choose teammates: the resulting teams were Team Cha-cha (Lucci, Linley, Bass, and their partners) and Team Paso doble (Sapp, Greene, Burke, and their partners). Susan Lucci was eliminated.

Week 8: During the Latin round, each celebrity was required to dance a 15-second solo, apart from his/her partner. Cody Linley danced with Edyta again this week, while Julianne recovered from her surgery. Warren Sapp & Kym Johnson earned their first 10 for their Tango and received the encore for the week. Maurice Greene was eliminated.

Week 9: Julianne Hough returned to the show to dance with Cody Linley. Brooke & Derek earned their jive a  ²¹⁄₃₀, their lowest score of the season, while Lance & Lacey earned their highest scores of the season for their Mambo a  ²⁸⁄₃₀ and the Jitterbug a  ²⁹⁄₃₀(10, 9, 10), giving them total of  ⁵⁷⁄₆₀ the highest score of week nine. Cody Linley came in last place and was eliminated.

Week 10: Burke received a score of  ²⁸⁄₃₀ for the Group Samba and earned a perfect  ³⁰⁄₃₀ for the Freestyle round. During the Tuesday night finale, the eliminated couples returned to the dance floor for their final performances including the unstoppable Cloris Leachman. Jeffrey Ross performed a stand-up comedy routine, in which he "roasted" the three finalists. Lance Bass & Lacey Schwimmer received third place, Warren Sapp & Kym Johnson received second place, Brooke Burke & Derek Hough became the champions of Dancing with the Stars season seven. This was Kym Johnson's second time finishing in second place, the first time being in season four with celebrity partner Joey Fatone.

Average score chart

This table only counts for dances scored on a traditional 30-points scale.

Highest & lowest scoring dances

The best and worst performances in each dance according to the judges' marks are as follows:

Ted McGinley, Misty May-Treanor & Kim Kardashian are the only celebrities to not land on this list

Weekly scores and songs

The following is a list of the dances and songs played. The song titles are followed by the artist who recorded the song.

Individual judges scores in charts below (given in parentheses) are listed in this order from left to right: Carrie Ann Inaba, Len Goodman, Bruno Tonioli.

Night A

Running order

Night B

Running order

The pro dance performed on night three of week one was to "Under Pressure" by Queen and David Bowie.

Week 2

Running order

Week 3

Running order

Week 4

Running order

Week 5

Running order

Week 6

Individual judges scores in charts below (given in parentheses) are listed in this order from left to right: Carrie Ann Inaba, Michael Flatley, Bruno Tonioli. Len Goodman is with Kenny Mayne and Jerry Rice.

Running order

Week 7

Running order

Week 8

Running order

Week 9

Running order

Week 10

Running order (Night 1)

Running order (night 2)

Dance chart

     Highest Scoring Dance      Lowest Scoring Dance      Withdrawn Dance (Not Performed/Scored)      Performed but not scored

* Misty May-Treanor and Maksim Chmerkovskiy could not perform an encore due to Misty still recovering from the Achilles tendon injury that had forced her to withdraw. Toni Braxton and Alec Mazo did not perform their encore due to Toni recuperating from a recent surgery.

Junior ballroom dancing competition

Names in bold are the winners of each round.

For the final round, Tony Dovolani helped Kirill & Hannah, Julianne Hough helped Mitchell & Maria, and Maksim Chmerkovskiy helped Craig & Samantha.

Macy's Stars of Dance

For the November 11 "Design a Dance" performance, viewers had voted in the weeks beforehand about what style dance they wanted (Jive), what song they wanted the dance to ("Great Balls of Fire"), and what professionals they wanted to do the dance. Also, Dancing with the Stars held an online contest where viewers could submit their drawings for outfits for the performance. Allen, Texas resident Kelly Kealy-Mayton won, and her designs were turned into the outfits for Derek and Julianne Hough, and she and her husband won a trip to the show.