Dancing with the Stars Costa Rica is a Costa Rican dance reality show that premiered on August 24, 2014 on Televisora of Costa Rica. The show is the Costa Rican version of the British television series Strictly Come Dancing. The format of the program consists of couples formed by a celebrity with a professional dancer. Each couple performs predetermined dances and competes against the others for the judge's scores and the public's votes. The couple that receives the lowest combined score from the jury scores and the public votes is eliminated each week until one couple is crowned champion.
Costa Rica became the 49th country to adapt the format and the second in Central America after Panama. In February 2014, the BBC's purchase of the show's format from Teletica was announced.
A total of 60 celebrities have appeared in all 6 seasons of the show. For each season, celebrities are paired with a professional partner who instructs them in the different dances each week and competes alongside them in the televised competition. A total of 19 professional dancers have appeared alongside celebrities, some for just one season.
The show is hosted by Randall Vargas, alongside Shirley Álvarez, who is the co-host. Boris Sossa was a co-host in season 2. Mauricio Hoffamn was a co-host in season 3. Bismarck Méndez co-hosted season 4 and 5. Natalia Carvajal is the co-host in season 6 of the program.
The regular judges are David Martínez, who serves as the main judge, Flor Urbina and Álex Costa. Actor and singer César Meléndez (+) served as a judge in seasons 1 and 2 (2014-15).
The actor and comedian Álex Costa, who was the winner of season 1, joined, permanently, the panel of judges from season 3, due to the deterioration of health (and subsequent death) of Meléndez.
During a season 5 gala (2018), the prestigious Spanish dancer Isaac Rovira joined the team as a guest judge. In gala 4 of season 6 (2019), the winner of the fourth season (2017), the presenter Víctor Carvajal, served as third judge, due to the absence of Álex Costa.
