In the beginning, there was the Real World. Then there were Survivor and The Apprentice. Of course, you can’t discount Fear Factor or The Bachelor. And finally... Strictly Come Dancing?

Few Americans know the foreign origins of their favorite reality television programs. Take Survivor, for example, which is actually based on a Swedish show called Expedition Robinson. Eager for easy ratings, networks troll for shows that have already achieved success overseas, and it was with this tried and true formula that Dancing With the Stars was imported from England’s gigantic BBC hit, Strictly Come Dancing, in June of 2005.

The show’s format is simple: paired couples of a professional dancer and a C- or D-list celebrity prepare a dance every week and perform on the show. By the next week, the lowest combined votes of the judges and the audience eliminate one couple from the competition. A musical artist usually performs, and there is some kind of live broadcast element.

Dancing With the Stars immediately blew up the Nielsen charts, racking up huge ratings. Growing in popularity with each season, the show has opened a Pandora’s box of dancing reality programs: So You Think You Can Dance (Fox), Dance War: Bruno vs. Carrie Ann (ABC), America’s Best Dance Crew (MTV), Your Mama Don’t Dance (Lifetime), Step It Up and Dance (Bravo), and even Dance on Sunset (Nickelodeon).

Each show has its own unique twist—Your Mama Don’t Dance, for example, pairs accomplished dancers with their parents. Dance on Sunset teaches dances to its young viewers while preparing contestants for competition. Dance War and America’s Best Dance Crew have a team-based approach, while So You Think You Can Dance and Step It Up and Dance highlight individuals with a solo dance-off.

Trying to tell the shows apart is as easy as checking the network on which they air. Your Mama Don’t Dance is on Lifetime, so the judges are less harsh, the focus is often on the family dynamic, and the moves aren’t all that racy. Airing America’s Best Dance Crew on MTV guarantees the opposite—with overly enthusiastic yelling and gyrations marking each performance, less traditional dance numbers are often the norm. The newest in the game, Step It Up and Dance, accords with the Bravo tradition of reality TV that seems to be about sex in every possible environment—particularly gay sex.
The focus of each show, however, remains the learning, dancing, and judging—and though none are as hugely popular as the original, these knock-off dancing shows still enjoy moderate success and decent ratings. Given the deluge of reality programming, though, what makes dancing such a success?

Take, for example, Skating With Celebrities, a one-season flop that aired on Fox in 2006 and employed Dancing with the Stars’ format translated onto the ice rink. In the end, the public cared much more about the scandals of Kristy Swanson’s affair with her skating partner than they did about watching. So what’s the difference?

Of course, dancing appeals to the common denominator, while ice-skating requires a much more specific skill set. And people couldn’t vote on Skating, an extremely important element of DWtS.

Moreover, Dancing With the Stars eschews the typical schadenfruede of reality television. Employing relatively good-natured stars and taking them out of their comfort zone, DWtS relies less on humiliating the stars and more on showing how hard they’re working. The excitement after a good performance is palpable, and what comes across is how much fun the pairs have, not how much they want to win.

It’s no secret that America wants to see talented people performing—DWtS routinely comes in immediately after powerhouse American Idol in the ratings. But demographics also play a huge role in this breakdown. While American Idol catches the younger, coveted 18-24 demographic, Dancing with the Stars skews older, and definitively female. This viewer base is maintained by the male celebrities who are routinely saved from elimination by audience voting, the more traditional dance routines, and the appearance of musical guests like Burt Bacharach and Rod Stewart.

Though DWtS has tried in recent seasons to appeal to a younger demographic with participants like Mario and musical guests like the Pussycat Dolls, the newer dance reality shows have been concocted specifically with 18-24-year-olds in mind. Playing off the success of DWtS, the influx of youth-aimed shows stands a decent chance in the ratings.

But Dancing With the Stars is unique in reality programming. Not only has it won the audience over, but it also has a sizeable amount of critical accolade to its name. While the newer dancing shows might get the audience’s vote, the lukewarm reception of the judges speaks to the fact that there’s nothing like the original—or a foreign import.