Dance War: Bruno vs. Carrie Ann was an American reality TV show dance competition featuring choreographers Bruno Tonioli and Carrie Ann Inaba, two of the four Dancing with the Stars judges. Drew Lachey, Dancing with the Stars season two champion, hosted the show.
The show, based on United Kingdom BBC Television series DanceX, was aired on ABC in the United States. Season one concluded on February 18, 2008. The show was canceled.
Dance War was considered a flop by most ratings' pundits, noting that the ratings showed a steady decline from week 1 through week 7.
Description
The show's format was based on BBC's Dance X, which also starred Bruno Tonioli. Season one of Dance War premiered on January 7, 2008, on ABC and concluded with a two-hour finale on February 18, 2008.
The two stars of this show, Bruno Tonioli and Carrie Ann, chose and trained two rival teams of singing/dancing amateur performers that competed against each other. The winning team at the end of the season was rewarded a recording deal with Hollywood Records.
After the audition show, Dance War went live with the top 14 contestants. They were divided into two teams of six (three males and three females) with two contestants cut from the competition. In future shows, the two teams competed in various dance styles. Viewers voted for their favorite team. The captain of the losing team, Bruno or Carrie Ann, had to pick one of their team members to leave the show.
Auditions
Week 1: Auditions
In the first show the fourteen finalists were chosen. They are (in alphabetical order):
After the final 14 were introduced they performed "Let's Get Loud" by Jennifer Lopez.
Week 2
In the second show, all the men sang "Hold On! I'm a Comin'" by Sam and Dave. Then the men were divided into two groups. The first group performed "Hard To Handle" by the Black Crowes and the second group performed "Larger Than Life" by the Backstreet Boys. After seeing all the men perform again, Carrie Ann Inaba and Bruno Tonioli chose who was going to be in their respective dance groups. With Carrie Ann starting first they each choose two men, these went as follows:
Then it was the turn of the women. All of the women sang "Bad Girls" by Donna Summer. The women then were divided into two groups, the first group performed "The Beat Goes On" by Sonny and Cher. The second group performed "Lady Marmalade" in the voice of Christina Aguilera, Mýa, Pink, and Lil' Kim. Bruno got the chance to pick first with each of them picking two women:
After choosing their men and women, the remaining six dancers had to sing again for the chance to be in either Carrie Ann's or Bruno's dancing group. The men sang "The End Of The Road" by Boyz II Men and the women sang "Survivor" by Destiny's Child. Bruno was the first to choose, and he chose Phillip and Charity to be in his group. While Carrie Ann was second to choose, and she chose to have Marqis (Qis) and Alyssa in her dance group. This meant that Maxx and Corina were out of the competition. The final two groups were as follows (in alphabetical order):
Week 3
The theme of the show for week 3 was "Pop Music". Each group performed individually twice, with the men taking lead vocals in the first round and the women singing lead in the final round. At the end of the show the public was asked to vote for which group they preferred.
The opening number "Spice Up Your Life" by the Spice Girls was performed by all members. In the first round Team Bruno performed "A Little Less Conversation" by Elvis vs JXL and Team Carrie Ann performed "Run It" by Chris Brown. In the second round Team Bruno performed "SOS" by Rihanna and Team Carrie Ann performed "Call Me" by Blondie. The closing number "Don't Stop Me Now" by Queen was performed by all members.
Week 4
This week the two teams performed songs from Motown and R&B. The opening number performed together by both groups was "Land of a Thousand Dances" by Wilson Pickett. Each team performed twice with Team Bruno performing "Caught Up" by Usher and "Think" by Aretha Franklin. Team Carrie Ann performed "Papa Was A Rollin' Stone" by the Temptations and "Upside Down" by Diana Ross.
After each team had performed twice, the host, Drew Lachey, announced the results from last week's voting. The winner of the voting from week 3 was Team Carrie Ann. Bruno was asked to choose four team members to keep on his team. He picked Lacey, Phillip, Tony, and Zach. Kelsey and Charity had to perform one final time by singing "Don't Leave Me This Way" by Thelma Houston. Bruno then elected to keep Kelsey. Charity is the first team member to be sent home. The teams at the end of week 4 are as follows: