‘Dancing With The Stars’ Spoilers: Season 26 Debut Gets Athletes Off To Intense Start, First Eliminations Loom

It’s all about the athletes this spring on Season 26 of Dancing with the Stars and viewers will get their first shot at the mini-season Monday night. Ten couples will start out this round of DWTS and, for the first time ever, all of the contestants come from the sports field. This competition is a short one that will only last for four weeks and Dancing with the Stars spoilers detail that the competition will be intense from the very first show. What can viewers expect?

ABC reveals that Week 1 will challenge the athletes with a Viennese waltz, a foxtrot, the salsa, or the cha cha. During most Dancing with the Stars seasons, the contestants get a pass the first week with no eliminations and everybody moving on to the second show. Unfortunately, DWTS spoilers have revealed that this time around will be different and fans will need to jump into voting mode immediately.

Online voting will open at the beginning of Monday’s show and the initial round will end shortly after the last pair performs. Dancing with the Stars spoilers detail that those votes, combined with the judges’ scores for those debut dances, will lead to immediate eliminations. It sounds as if there will be two pairs cut this first week, paring the field down to eight couples before everybody can turn their focus to Week 2.

What is each of the pairs dancing Monday night during the DWTS premiere? Dancing with the Stars spoilers indicate that three contestants will dance the cha cha while another three will do the salsa. Three pairs are set to do the foxtrot as well, which means just one has been tasked with the Viennese waltz this time around.

Adam Rippon and Jenna Johnson will cha cha to RuPaul’s “Sissy That Walk” while Josh Norman and Sharna Burgess will use the Bruno Mars song “Finesse” for theirs. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Lindsay Arnold will also cha cha during the Dancing with the Stars premiere and they’ll be using the Stevie Wonder classic “Signed, Sealed, Delivered (I’m Yours).”

When it comes to the foxtrot, DWTS fans will be watching Jennie Finch Daigle and Keo Motsepe dance to Carrie Underwood’s “All-American Girl” and Johnny Damon and Emma Slater will hit the dance floor with John Fogerty’s “Centerfield” supporting their moves. The third foxtrot comes from Tonya Harding and Sasha Farber, who are using the Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey song “When You Believe” to back up their performance.

The sole Viennese waltz will be done to Avicii’s song “Feeling Good,” performed by Jamie Anderson and Artem Chigvintsev. As for the salsa, Dancing with the Stars spoilers share that Whitney Myer’s “Them Girls” is the pick for Arike Ogunbowale and Gleb Savchenko’s debut. Chris Mazdzer and Witney Carson have chosen Ricky Martin and Pitbull’s “Mr. Put It Down” for their salsa and Mirai Nagasu and Alan Bersten will dance the salsa to Meghan Trainor’s “No Excuses.”

Usually, dancing last in an episode gives a pair an advantage, but that probably isn’t the case during this Season 26 premiere. As PureDWTS notes, landing in this spot for Week 1 in DWTS: Athletes puts a pair at a disadvantage due to the immediate live voting and looming eliminations. Dancing with the Stars spoilers have not yet revealed the dance order for Week 1, but viewers will want to be prepared to vote heartily if their favorite pair ends up in that 10th spot.

Who will win Season 26 of DWTS? How will viewers react to an all-athlete season of contestants? This should be a fun season to watch and things will be intense from the first performance on since Dancing with the Stars: Athletes is only four weeks long and everybody is intent on snagging the mirror-ball trophy for themselves. The DWTS action begins with a two-hour premiere on Monday, April 30, at 8 p.m. Eastern, and it sounds as if viewers have a lot to look forward to as these athletes hit the dance floor.