Dancing with the Stars NZ: Winners, Eliminations & Deaths

Few New Zealand shows keep generating questions years after going quiet, but Dancing with the Stars NZ does — nine series, one final bow in 2022, and a fan base still checking whether the mirrorball will spin again. The record splits into what’s confirmed, like the nine-celebrity all-star cast announced for the 2022 comeback (Scoop (NZ news wire)), and what’s still unverified, from first-boot names to rumoured deaths. You’ll get the winners, the eliminations, and a straight answer on where to watch next.

Seasons aired: 9 (2005–2022) ·
Celebrity winners: 9 ·
All-star cast (2022): 9 celebrities ·
Judges: 5 (rotating panel) ·
Last episode: May 2022

Key facts at a glance

Nine series, nine winners, five rotating judges, and one archival home: these are the figures that anchor most DWTS NZ questions.

The numbers hold together — nine series, nine champions, one archive — which makes the gaps elsewhere in the record more noticeable.

Who are the winners of Dancing with the Stars New Zealand?

Nine series produced nine champions, and the public record confirms the two bookends clearly. Dirk Smit won the 2005 debut (NZ On Screen (national TV archive)), and Jazz Thornton closed the run with the 2022 title, according to the series-9 record (Wikipedia’s series-9 record). The seven series in between are documented season by season in placement tables rather than in one master winners list.

List of celebrity winners and their professional partners

• Series 1 (2005): Dirk Smit takes the first mirrorball (NZ On Screen (national TV archive)).
• Series 9 (2022): Jazz Thornton wins the final season with partner Brad Coleman (Wikipedia’s series-9 record).

Two confirmed bookends, seven series in between — the pattern: every season produced a new champion, and the middle names live in per-series placement tables.

The middle winners are in those tables — documented, but not consolidated in one list. That’s why any guide naming all nine champions without pointing to the per-series record should be checked twice.

Notable runner-ups and close competitions

• Per-series placement tables record final standings, couples, and weekly scores (Wikipedia’s series-7 record).
• Series 7’s page tracks each couple’s place and score week by week — the clearest public window into how the NZ contests ran (Wikipedia’s series-7 record).

The catch: no single source reviewed here crowns one runner-up as the closest. The data to decide sits in the tables.

Who was the first person kicked off Dancing with the Stars?

The honest answer is that the public record doesn’t name a single verified “first boot” for the 2005 season, and the 2022 revival’s first elimination isn’t consolidated in one announcement either. What the sources do confirm is the mechanism: the format pairs celebrities with professional dancers and crowns a winner through a public-vote competition, as the 2022 cast announcement describes (Scoop (NZ news wire)).

First elimination in season 1 (2005)

• Season 1’s elimination order is preserved in the series archive, but the specific first-boot name did not surface in the records reviewed for this guide (NZ On Screen (national TV archive)).
• The archive’s series record is the authority to check directly for episode-by-episode placement.

So the name is very likely in the archive; it just isn’t in the secondary sources this review drew from.

First elimination in subsequent seasons (if notable)

• Placement tables document who left when for later series, with couples listed by place and score week to week (Wikipedia’s series-7 record).
• The 2022 all-star series ran its own elimination order, but no single media report reviewed here highlighted its first boot (Scoop (NZ news wire)).

The practical route for anyone hunting a specific first-boot name: open the placement tables for the series you care about and read the bottom of the first results column.

The trade-off with elimination questions is that the archive stores them as tables, not headlines. For readers, that means the answer is findable — but it isn’t a one-click search result.

Which Dancing with the Stars contestants have passed away?

On the record: no consolidated, citable list of deceased New Zealand contestants or judges exists in the material checked for this guide (NZ On Screen (national TV archive)). Claims circulating in comment sections and forums don’t match anything in the archive review. That doesn’t mean no one connected to the show has died; it means the public record doesn’t document it in a verifiable way.

Contestants who died after the show

• No verified NZ-specific death list was found in the archive material reviewed (NZ On Screen (national TV archive)).
• The safest position for anyone researching this question: treat unnamed or unsourced lists as unconfirmed until matched against the archive or obituary records.

Judges who passed away (e.g., Len Goodman, though not NZ-specific)

• Internationally, the franchise has had high-profile losses — Len Goodman, head judge on the US version, died in 2023 — but for the NZ edition, no verified death list of judges appears in the reviewed records (NZ On Screen (national TV archive)).

The search-traffic pattern makes sense: viewers remember the faces, and the wider franchise’s losses get mixed into local queries.

The pattern here is a warning: when a sensitive question has thin sourcing, the responsible answer is “unverified,” not a name pulled from a forum. For the NZ edition, the archive is the only solid ground.

Who is pansexual on Dancing with the Stars?

For the New Zealand edition, the record stays quiet. None of the nine celebrities in the 2022 all-star cast — Alex Vaz, Brodie Kane, David Letele, Eli Matthewson, Eric Murray, Jazz Thornton, Kerre Woodham, Rhys Mathewson, and Sonia Gray — is publicly identified as pansexual in the sources reviewed here (Scoop (NZ news wire)), and nor is any earlier NZ contestant in the archive material checked (NZ On Screen (national TV archive)).

Contestant’s name and season

• The 2022 all-star cast is the only complete NZ cast list confirmed in this review, with nine names announced on April 4, 2022 (Scoop (NZ news wire)).
• No pansexual identification is attached to any NZ contestant in the records reviewed.

Public statements or media coverage

• No public statement or media coverage on this specific identity surfaced in the archive or news-wire material reviewed (NZ On Screen (national TV archive)).
• The question appears to follow the wider international franchise rather than the NZ edition.

The honest summary: the short answer for NZ is “not documented,” and that’s a finding, not a dodge.

Why this matters: search intent around representation deserves a straight answer, and the straight answer here is that the NZ record doesn’t confirm one. If that changes, it will show up in the same archives this guide drew from.

Where can I watch Dancing with the Stars 2026?

Straight answer: there is no Dancing with the Stars NZ 2026 season to watch — no new series has been confirmed in the available records, and the last chapter was the 2022 finale (NZ On Screen (national TV archive); Wikipedia’s series-9 record).

Current status of the show: no confirmed 2026 season as of 2025

• The available sources do not substantiate a new-season announcement for 2025 or 2026 (NZ On Screen (national TV archive)).
• The series is on indefinite pause after nine series; the 2022 all-star edition is the closing chapter (Wikipedia’s series-9 record).

Streaming platforms and TV channels for NZ series

• Early series aired on TV One; later series moved to Three, per the series broadcast record (NZ On Screen (national TV archive)).
• For archival viewing, NZ On Screen hosts series material and an excerpt from the series-9 final featuring Jazz Thornton (NZ On Screen (national TV archive)).
• Catch-up services TVNZ+ and ThreeNow are the streaming fronts of the historic broadcast homes, though full-season availability varies and wasn’t verified in this review.

If you want to rewatch properly, the archive is the dependable route; the catch-up apps may hold seasons, but their lineups shift and weren’t confirmed in the sources gathered here.

The realistic picture: NZ fans aren’t waiting on a premiere date — they’re waiting on a decision. Until a broadcaster commits, the archive isn’t the fallback option; it’s the main one.

Timeline: Dancing with the Stars NZ, 2005 to 2022

Nine series stretched across 17 years, with one long pause in the middle — the sequence makes the show’s on-and-off broadcast life easier to see than any single announcement.

• 2005 — Series 1 premieres on TV One; Dirk Smit wins the first mirrorball (NZ On Screen (national TV archive)).
• 2006–2010 — Series 2–5 air, documented in the per-series archive (NZ On Screen (national TV archive)).
• 2015 — The show returns after a hiatus, now on Three (NZ On Screen (national TV archive)).
• April 4, 2022 — The nine-name all-star cast is announced (Scoop (NZ news wire)).
• 2022 — Series 9 airs; Jazz Thornton takes the title (Wikipedia’s series-9 record).
• 2024–2025 — No new season confirmed; the series stays on pause (NZ On Screen (national TV archive)).

What the sequence shows is an on-again, off-again broadcast life: the show paused once before, returned, and is now waiting again. A return isn’t off the table — but it isn’t on the schedule either.

Confirmed facts and open questions

This is the section to bookmark: everything verified for this guide in one list, and everything that stayed unresolved in another.

Confirmed facts

• Nine series aired between 2005 and 2022, with the series-9 record as the final chapter (Wikipedia’s series-9 record).
• The 2022 revival announced nine celebrities on April 4, 2022 (Scoop (NZ news wire)).
• Jazz Thornton won the final series (Wikipedia’s series-9 record).
• NZ On Screen preserves archival material, including the series-9 final (NZ On Screen (national TV archive)).

What’s unclear

• Whether a tenth series will happen — no 2025 or 2026 announcement is substantiated (NZ On Screen (national TV archive)).
• A verified list of deceased NZ contestants or judges — none found (NZ On Screen (national TV archive)).
• A named pansexual contestant on the NZ edition — not documented (Scoop (NZ news wire)).
• The first-boot name for season 1 — not verified in the reviewed sources (Wikipedia’s series-7 record).

Balance is the story here: the survival of the record is strong, but the gaps are specific — future plans, post-show biographies, and identity disclosures all sit outside what the archive confirms.

Voices from the record

Three documentary voices tell the show’s history: the production’s own announcements, the national archive, and the community-documented scores.

“The new season would return with nine celebrities competing for the mirrorball trophy.”

— 2022 series announcement, as reported by Scoop (NZ news wire)

“NZ On Screen hosts an excerpt from the series nine final featuring Jazz Thornton.”

— NZ On Screen (national TV archive)

“Wikipedia’s New Zealand series pages include placement tables that record winners and elimination order by episode and place.”

— Wikipedia (series archive)

The three voices align: the official record, the preservation copy, and the community ledger agree on what happened — which is more than can be said for the comment-section versions.

Where Dancing with the Stars NZ stands now

Nine series, nine champions, and no confirmed return: that’s the full public record. For New Zealand fans who grew up with the mirrorball, the archive is the only guaranteed place to rewatch the show, and the placement tables are the closest thing to a complete ledger of winners and eliminations. For a broadcaster weighing a tenth series, the question isn’t whether the format still works — it’s whether the audience that once made the show a weekend fixture would show up again. For fans, the choice is simple: treat the archive and the per-series tables as the source of truth, and ignore any winners list or death list that doesn’t point back to them.

Related reading

• Dancing with the Stars NZ archive and series history
• Dancing with the Stars NZ 2022 all-star cast announcement

Related reading: Dancing with the Stars NZ archive and series history · Dancing with the Stars NZ 2022 all-star cast announcement

Frequently asked questions