MUMBAI: US broadcaster ABC has announced that its summer hit the reality show Dancing with the Stars will return for a second season on 5 January 2006.

The dance show will replace the action oriented Alias which will take a broadcast hiatus due to Jennifer Garner's maternity leave and which is scheduled to return later next year. ABC Entertainment executive VP alternative programming, specials and late-night Andrea Wong said, "We are so grateful viewers embraced this show. With a new cast of stars and the addition of the results show, we will be delivering to them a season that has even more drama, more dancing and more glitter."

The second season of the show will feature a new lineup of celebrities, who will showcase their dancing skills. With an average audience of 16.8 million viewers ABC says that Dancing with the Stars concluded its six-week summer run as the most-watched summer series on any network in the last five years - since the inaugural season of CBS' Survivor during Summer 2000.

ABC further says that the show ranked a number one during in its time slot among total viewers and adults 18-49, qualifying as the top TV show of the evening on each of its telecasts on both Nielsen measures. Dancing with the Stars improved its time period, boosting ABC's performance in the hour by 12.2 million viewers (16.8 million vs. 4.6 million) and by 168% in Adults 18-49 (5.1/15 vs. 1.9/6) over the same weeks the previous summer.

Dancing with the Stars is the US version of the international smash hit series Strictly Come Dancing. This version is produced in America by BBC Worldwide.