Dancing With The Stars season 23 was an entertaining one, but which celebrities took part and who was crowned the winner? Now airing its twenty-eighth season, Dancing With The Stars premiered back in 2005 and is still going strong over a decade later. Borrowing its concept from the BBC series Strictly Come Dancing, the show sees a group of celebrities of varying terpsichorean talents paired with professional dancers who teach them routines to perform for judges’ points and audience votes.
As with most seasons of Dancing With The Stars, season 23 featured routines structured around certain themes. Some of the themes were familiar like the show’s popular Halloween Night and its tried-and-tested TV Night, which sees contestants dance to TV show theme songs. Season 23 also featured the first-ever Cirque du Soleil themed dance-off which saw members of the circus troupe performing alongside the dancers.
Celebrities from a range of backgrounds including sports, television, music, and politics took part in Dancing With The Stars season 23 which aired in late 2016. Over the course of eleven weeks, the celebrities strutted their stuff on the dance floor giving viewers an array of dance routines that ranged from the disastrous to the dazzling. Here are all the contestants that competed in season 23, in the order they were eliminated from the show through to the winner.
Jake T. Austin
Rick Perry
Babyface
Vanilla Ice
Amber Rose
Maureen McCormick
Ryan Lochte
Marilu Henner
Terra Jolé
Jana Kramer
Calvin Johnson Jr.
James Hinchcliffe
Laurie Hernandez
The Fosters and Wizards Of Waverly Place actor Jake T. Austin was the first celebrity to be booted out of the contest and was swiftly followed by Donald Trump’s current Secretary of Energy Rick Perry who was knocked out in week 2. Although he managed to stay in the contest until week 8, controversial Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte’s appearance wasn’t without incident and his first judge critique was interrupted by protesters, who rushed the stage in protest of his behavior during the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
Former One Tree Hill star and country singer Jana Kramer and retired NFL player Calvin Johnson Jr. made it to the finals alongside Olympic gold medalist Laurie Hernandez and race car driver James Hinchcliffe. Laurie Hernandez’s gymnastic skills served her well and she was crowned winner of Dancing With The Stars season 23 alongside her dance partner Valentin Chmerkovskiy, after dazzling judges with a foxtrot-Argentine tango fusion routine to the tune of Myon’s “We Are The Ones”. Then aged just 16, Laurie Hernandez was the youngest winner in the show’s history.