‘Dancing With the Stars’: See Who Has Best Odds of Winning

Dancing With the Stars returns with a brand new season Monday evening, and with some of the biggest athletes of recent years taking to the ballroom floor, who will take home the coveted Mirrorball trophy?

The competitors have yet to be seen on the dance floor, but there are some solid odds behind Olympic skater Mirai Nagasu and partner Alan Bersten as the winners of Season 26, according to SportsBettingDime.com.

Nagasu’s odds are 7-2 higher than her competitor Adam Rippon, who will be dancing alongside Jenna Johnson with 4-1 odds. Meanwhile, Tonya Harding isn’t thought to perform as well as her fellow skaters, with the betting website pinning her and parter Sasha Farber’s odds at being the first couple eliminated at 74-1.

“Despite the success of the movie I, Tonya, we can’t imagine Tonya Harding coming off as a sympathetic figure, especially since Nancy Kerrigan did so well when she was on the show,” SportsBettingDime.com oddsmaker Kaela Napier said in a statement to Newsweek Monday.

“Mirai Nagasu and Adam Rippon are our clear favorites even though figure skaters have only won a few times in the past. They have a distinct advantage and always do well.”

The only other competitor the odds-makers at SportsBettingDime.com put in the first round of elimination is basketball legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who paired alongside Lindsay Arnold, was given 38-1 odds.

On the contrary, GoldDerby.com predicts Abdul-Jabbar is the likeliest to go home first, with odds of 27-20, citing his age and height as factors for early elimination, also noting that basketball players typically don’t perform well on the series.

GoldDerby.com placed Harding as the fourth contestant to get sent home with 15-2 odds, whereas college basketball player Arike Ogunbowale is predicted to leave after Abdul-Jabbar at odds of 9-2.

Athletes have done incredibly well on the show in previous seasons, so it will be interesting to see how they all play against each other.

Kristi Yamaguchi won Season 6, Apolo Anton Ohno in Season 4, Shawn Johnson in Season 8 and Laurie Hernandez took home the Mirrorball trophy in Season 23.

But the reality dance show has also garnered criticism for being rigged.

“[Maksim Chmerkovskiy] later told me that he had argued with the judges because he had been told we were going to be eliminated,” Hope Solo, star soccer player who competed in Season 13, wrote in her memoir. “There was some secret memo going around that said who would be ousted each week.”

But the show’s stars have denied that anything is planned in the elimination process.

“You know, I don’t think the show is rigged. I mean, we’ve gone over and over [it], like people ask us that all the time,” pro dancer Peta Murgatroyd told Fox News in April 2017. “I don’t know. Maybe Nancy Kerrigan is America’s sweetheart. Once you’re out, you’re out.”

Dancing With the Stars Season 26 premieres Monday, April 30 at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.

Photo credit: ABC