IRISHFILMTV.COM

Prepare the scoring paddles, put the tanning booth on standby and get ready to shimmy from the couch because DANCING WITH THE STARS is returning for its ninth season with enough razzle-dazzle to light up Ireland’s dreariest winter nights. The show that transformed Sunday evenings into glittering spectacles of sequins, spray tans and surprisingly competent pirouettes is back, and this time there’s a major shake-up at the judging table that has fans buzzing with anticipation.

Two-time STRICTLY COME DANCING champion Oti Mabuse has swept onto the panel as head judge, succeeding Loraine Barry who stepped down last September after eight years of score-holding glory. If you somehow missed Mabuse hoisting the glitterball trophy on the BBC’s flagship dance competition with celebrity partners Kelvin Fletcher and Bill Bailey in 2019 and 2020, you might have caught her dispensing verdicts on DANCING ON ICE, offering witty observations as a panellist on THE MASKED DANCER, or roughing it as a campmate on I’M A CELEBRITY…GET ME OUT OF HERE! She joins returning judges Brian Redmond, Arthur Gourounlian and Karen Byrne, creating a panel that promises equal parts technical expertise and entertainment value. Her sister Motsi Mabuse also judges on STRICTLY, making the Mabuse family something of a dance dynasty.

Behind the microphone, Laura Fox steps in to co-present alongside Jennifer Zamparelli, filling the sparkly shoes of regular co-host Doireann Garrihy who’s on maternity leave. It’s a temporary arrangement but one that keeps the show’s energy bubbling as contestants stumble through their first rehearsals and eventually glide across the floor with something approaching grace.

Since launching in 2017 as the replacement for THE VOICE OF IRELAND, DANCING WITH THE STARS has become one of RTÉ’s most reliable Sunday night draws, even while working with a fraction of the budget that bankrolls STRICTLY COME DANCING, the parent format that spawned this international television phenomenon. Produced for RTÉ by ShinAwiL as part of the broadcaster’s statutory commitment to commission content from Ireland’s independent production sector, the show has proven that you don’t need British Broadcasting Corporation money to create something genuinely beloved.

What makes DANCING WITH THE STARS more than just another reality competition is its democratic soul wrapped in rhinestones. The judges’ marks represent only half the battle, with viewers wielding equal power to determine which celebrities waltz confidently into the next week and which must foxtrot sadly home. In the final, the judges step aside entirely and the public vote alone crowns the champion, creating genuine suspense that keeps phones buzzing and group chats aflame with partisan passion. It’s simultaneously a dance competition measuring technical prowess and a popularity contest rewarding personality, creating a delicious tension between merit and likability that fuels water-cooler debates nationwide.

But perhaps most importantly for its multigenerational audience sprawled across couches from Cork to Donegal, DANCING WITH THE STARS brings a touch of sparkly, unapologetic fun to Ireland’s drab winter nights when darkness falls before the workday ends and rain seems like a permanent atmospheric condition. It’s escapism in its purest form, a weekly reminder that life doesn’t always have to be serious, that celebrities willing to make fools of themselves in pursuit of a trophy deserve our affection, and that watching someone finally nail a routine they’ve butchered for three consecutive weeks can genuinely lift the spirits. As the ninth season approaches, the formula remains intact: take some famous faces, pair them with professional dancers, add judges who know a fleckeral from a botched lift, let the public weigh in, and watch Ireland fall in love all over again with the simple magic of people learning to dance.