Remember ‘Dancing With the Stars’ Season 1 Winner Kelly Monaco? See All the Show’s Past Champions Then and Now!
Get ready for quite the blast from the past!
Dancing With the Stars has been airing on ABC for an impressive 24 seasons — so, DWTS fans, how many past winners from the show can you recall?
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Season 1 of the hit dance competition ended in July 2005 and actress Kelly Monaco was named the first-ever Mirror Ball Trophy winner with her partner Alec Mazo. “It feels great, I’m going to Disneyland! I never thought [I would win]… every week we were competing against ourselves, we tried to do better than we did before,” Kelly told host Tom Bergeron at the time.
Kelly and Alec on Season 1 of DWTS. (Photo Credit: Getty Images)
“All my life I’ve been the underdog… I’ve never won anything in my life and this is great, it’s great!” Kelly added.
In 2012, Kelly made a triumphant return to the DWTS ballroom for a chance to win a second Mirror Ball Trophy in Season 15 but finished in third.
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Over the past 24 seasons, other notable Dancing With the Stars winners have included Olympian Apolo Anton Ohno, actress Brooke Burke, singer Donny Osmond, Dirty Dancing star Jennifer Grey, country star Kellie Pickler, and actor Alfonso Ribeiro, just to name a few!
In a recent interview, Season 19 winner Alfonso dished on what he believes it takes to take home the Mirror Ball Trophy on DWTS.
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“The show is about a journey, it’s about improvement, and personality. There’s a lot of manipulating going on with the producers, about what weeks you’re doing which dances, and are you doing your best dances early or are you saving them for later,” he said. “There’s a lot that goes into pulling out a win on the show versus being the best.”
Check out the gallery to see all the past DWTS winners then and now!
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