‘Dancing With The Stars’ Season 26 Episode 1 Betting Odds

Written by Jim Murphy

–This is the 26th season for ABC’s reality show.

–Season 26 is a special 4 week competition featuring a field of athletes.

–’Dancing With The Stars’ Episode 1 will air on April 30, 2018.

The 26th season of ABC’s reality franchise ‘Dancing with the Stars’ begins on April 30, 2018 and with the producers releasing the full roster of contestants we’re ready to put up some prices. By now it seems redundant to explain the format of ‘DWTS’ since it’s been copied by so many reality shows since. Each celebrity contestant is paired with a professional dancer. They then prepare and perform dances every week. ‘DWTS’ is scored using a combination of judge’s scoring and audience voting. Three judges rate each performance on a 1 to 10 scale and the team with the lowest combination of scoring and audience vote gets eliminated. The process continues until there is a winner.

That sounds simple enough, but this season will be unlike any other in the long history of ‘DWTS’. For one thing, the entire contestant field is comprised of current or former athletes. That notwithstanding, they run the gamut from legit legends (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) to infamous ‘heels’ (Tonya Harding) to young upstarts like Olympic figure skaters Mirai Nagasu, Adam Rippon and Notre Dame basketball star Arike Ogunbowale. Athletes have historically performed well on ‘DWTS’ so it makes sense to have a field full of ’em for once.

Making less sense–this ‘season’ of ‘DWTS’ will be only four weeks long with double eliminations promised every week. That not only makes it hard to set odds on but really defeats the purpose of the show. A good component of the entertainment value is watching a guy like Terrell Owens or Drew Scott round into form after a rocky start. In season 25, the two favorites–Lindsey Stirling and Jordan Fisher–were as well qualified as any in recent memory. Even so, neither scored a ’10’ until Week 4 (J-Fish nabbed two in that week). Even though it was Week 4 it was the fifth hour meaning that we might not see a ’10’ all season long.

Here are the opening odds for Season 26 of ‘Dancing With The Stars’ along with odds for Episode 1. You can check out a full field rundown explaining my rationale for these numbers at the link below:

‘DANCING WITH THE STARS’ SEASON 26–HANDICAPPING THE FIELD

DANCING WITH THE STARS SEASON 26 BETTING ODDS

TO WIN DANCING WITH THE STARS SEASON 26

Mirai Nagasu: +250
Adam Rippon: +350
Josh Norman: +500
Jennie Finch: +700
Arike Ogunbowale: +700
Jamie Anderson: +900
Johnny Damon: +1200
Chris Mazdzer: +1200
Tonya Harding: +2500
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: +2500

DANCING WITH THE STARS SEASON 26 WEEK 1 BETTING ODDS

WHO WILL BE ELIMINATED IN WEEK 1?

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: +300
Tonya Harding: +350
Johnny Damon: +500
Chris Mazdzer: +500
Jamie Anderson: +700
Jennie Finch: +700
Arike Ogunbowale: +700
Josh Norman: +1000
Adam Rippon: +1000
Mirai Nagasu: +1000
No One Eliminated in Week 1: +1500

JUDGES’ HIGHEST SCORE

Mirai Nagasu: +250
Adam Rippon: +250
Josh Norman: +500
Jennie Finch: +750
Arike Ogunbowale: +750
Jamie Anderson: +1200
Johnny Damon: +1500
Chris Mazdzer: +1500
Tonya Harding: +2500
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: +2500

JUDGES’ LOWEST SCORE

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: +300
Tonya Harding: +350
Johnny Damon: +500
Chris Mazdzer: +750
Jamie Anderson: +750
Jennie Finch: +750
Arike Ogunbowale: +1350
Josh Norman: +1350
Adam Rippon: +1500
Mirai Nagasu: +1500

NUMBER OF ’10’ SCORES TO BE AWARDED IN WEEK 1

0: -2750
1-4: +450
5-9: +1000
10+: +5000