Ahead of the start of the 35th season of Dancing With The Stars, The Action Network has analyzed 34 seasons and 20 years' worth of data to find out which dance types have led to the most eliminations in the competition and, on the other hand, which dances have led to the most progressions to the next round.
The Most Eliminated Dance Types
According to an analysis of 2,800+ dance numbers spanning 20 years, 34 seasons and 500+ episodes, the most eliminated dance type is Cha-cha-cha, which has led to 41 eliminations, followed by Tango with 33 eliminations and Paso Doble with 32 eliminations.
The “Safest” Dance Types
On the other hand, the safest dance type, meaning the dance type that has led to progression to the next round most often, is Quickstep with 206 progressions to the next round. The second safest dance is Jive with 205 progressions, followed by Foxtrot which has led contestants to safety 200 times across the last 34 seasons.
Negative Points Ranking
When also taking into account bottom two, bottom three and bottom five placements in addition to eliminations (and assigning proportionate points for each of them), the top 3 most “dangerous” dances to perform are: Cha-cha-cha (182 negative points), Tango (178 negative points) and Samba (169 negative points), respectively.
The following values were assigned and subsequently summed up: bottom 5 – 1 point, bottom 3 – 2 points, bottom 2 – 3 points, elimination – 4 points.
You can see the top 15 dance types with the most negative points, the most eliminated and the “safest” dance types in the interactive graphic below:
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Methodology
- The latest analysis update: September 2026
- The analysis spans 34 seasons of DWTS (starting with 2005 through 2025)
- In total, 2,800+ dances were analyzed, but only 2,600+ of those dances led to elimination, progression to the next round, or a bottom 2, 3, or 5 placement; dances that did NOT lead to any specific result (such as group dances or dances in weeks where nobody was eliminated) were not analyzed
- The following categories of results were part of the analysis: elimination, safety, bottom 2, bottom 3, bottom 5, immunity, withdrawal, fifth place, fourth place, third place, runners-up and winners
- In case of negative points, the following values were assigned and subsequently summed up: bottom 5 – 1 point, bottom 3 – 2 points, bottom 2 – 3 points, elimination – 4 points
- In instances where two dance types were part of one dance number, they were each counted once separately (for example, if the dance type of a given couple was Cha-cha-cha & Foxtrot and they got eliminated, both Cha-cha-cha and Foxtrot were counted as one elimination each)
- The data was collected from the Wikipedia pages of DWTS
