One of the sassiest hits of the summer television season has finally hit the airwaves. Dance Your Ass Off premiered Monday night on the Oxygen network and was met with instant fan attraction.
The premise is simple – take one part Dancing With the Stars, one part Biggest Loser, add a Tony-award winning host, and just a dash of a $100,000 prize and you’ve got the recipe for a hit weight loss reality show. Twelve contestants were selected to do what many have done on DWTS, dance the weight off. They’ll also pair their training with fitness and nutrition guidance from the likes of Biggest Loser’s Dr. Huizenga.
Host Marissa Jaret Winokur, from “Hairspray,” said “you don’t have to starve yourself and be miserable to lose weight.” This is a principle that has made Biggest Loser’s weight loss program so approachable to millions. If you make healthy changes while doing what you love, then you’ll no doubt see your goals met.
Check out this premiere recap, then read below to learn more about Dance Your Ass Off.
Meet the Judges
- Mayte Garcia is a professional dancer previously married to Prince.
- Lisa Ann Walter was in the movie “Shall We Dance.”
- Danny Teeson is a nicer-than-usual Brit. He’s a former member of “Queer Eye for the Straight Girl” and has been an “American Idol” choreographer.
How the Competition Works
As Marissa explained to the contestants during the DYAO premiere, the contest will work like this; Contestants will have daily dance rehearsals as well as twice daily workouts. Each week, they’ll go on stage to literally dance their asses off for the judges.
Each contestant will receive a score 1 to 10 based on their dancing performance. (In the premiere, no one went below a five and no one achieved a 10.) That score would be added to the weight loss percentage for that week. The two contestants with the lowest scores would then have a dance-off.
While they’re all working toward the $100,000 cash prize for the best dancer/biggest weight loss, the ultimate prize is “No more feeling bad about yourselves. It’s time to feel good,” says Marissa.
Premiere Recap
Each contestant met with the doctors to learn just how badly their weight had affected their health. No doubt they received some surprising news. But everyone’s putting their best dance shoe forward to reverse those changes. (A similar medical examination is conducted at the beginning of Biggest Loser and by the end most of those contestants have completely reversed their health issues.) The contestants also met their professional dance partners, and some of the matches seem more meant to be than others.
Then, it was time to tear up the dance floor. As is to be expected, some stood out as stellar dancers, like Pinky and Karla, while others might have two left feet, like Angela.
In the end, it was Angela who bid farewell while Karla stole the show with both moves and weight loss as the week’s leader.
With a combined starting weight of nearly 3,000 pounds, these contestants certainly have their work cut out for them this season. Be sure to tune-in each Monday this summer to Oxygen’s Dance Your Ass Off to not miss a beat of this exciting new weight loss show.