DANSE AVEC LES STARS

[17.52 - French Time] BBC Worldwide's format Dancing with the Stars arrives in France on Saturday, 12 February as Danse avec les Stars.

Called Strictly come Dancing in the UK (on BBC One since 2004) and Dancing with the Stars in the US (on ABC since 2005), the format features celebrities with professional dance partners competing in Ballroom and Latin dances in front of three judges. Danse avec les Stars arrives in France on TF1 on February 12, six years after the private network tried a similar concept/format called Celebrity Dancing.

The contestants are former model Adriana Karembeu, former football player David Ginola, stage actress Marthe Mercadier, singer M Pokora, Spanish actress Rossy de Palma, composer, jazz pianist and former reality TV judge André Manoukian, singer Sofia Essaïdi (who was a contestant in Celebrity Dancing), and comedian Jean-Marie Bigard.

The show is hosted by Sandrine Quétier and Vincent Cerutti. And the Gaullic counterparts of judges Craig Revel Horwood, Len Goodman and Bruno Tonioli (1) will be Salsa world champion Chris Marques, dancer and actress Alessandra Martines, and dancer and choreographer Jean-Marc Généreux. Remember that in Reality TV it's the judges who make the programme strictly worth watching.

(1) Goodman and Tonioli are in both Strictly and Dancing.

Update (February 13) - Premiere Review: http://tattard2.blogspot.com/2011/02/danse-avec-les-stars-tf1.html

http://www.tf1.fr/danse-avec-les-stars/news/l-emission-evenement-danse-avec-les-stars-arrive-sur-tf1-danse-6238412.html (In French)
http://www.toutelatele.com/article.php3?id_article=30379 (In French)
http://twitter.com/#!/tf1etvous (In French)