Kelly Monaco Reflects On DWTS Victory 20 Years After Being Crowned Its First Winner
It has been 20 years since former General Hospital star Kelly Monaco (ex-Sam) was crowned the winner of the inaugural season of ABC’s Dancing with the Stars, and Entertainment Weekly took a look back on the momentous occasion with an oral history conducted with some of the key players in the show’s landmark debut outing. Kelly Monaco spoke with the outlet about being approached to compete, how the experience shifted the way soap fans saw her and what it felt like to win.
Dance It Out
“I had a letter in my mailbox in my dressing room at General Hospital,” Monaco recalled of her first overture from DWTS. “I remember bringing [the request to join the show’s first season cast] home and getting feedback from family, friends, and so forth, and they were like, ‘You can’t do a reality show. Actors don’t do a reality show.’ I had never heard of ballroom dancing before. I had no idea what I was getting myself into. But I was just like, ‘F— it. I’ll try anything once.’ That’s how I’ve always rolled in life. If an opportunity comes, I’ll try it.”
Needless to say, given that Monaco went on to be the first celebrity to earn that coveted Mirror Ball trophy, her gamble paid off. But she had no idea that it would, so she wasn’t publicizing her involvement in the new project. She explained, “The first season was only six episodes. It was a test run, and I was like, ‘I’m not going to tell anyone I’m doing it and hopefully I get voted off first and no one will ever see it.’ ”
After a poor performance in the debut episode, Monaco continued, “I was horrified by the comments from the judges, and I got the lowest score, I think, ever in the history of Dancing with the Stars.” But this marked a turning point in the actress’s commitment to giving everything she had to mastering the challenge the show presented. “I was like, ‘Okay, it’s on. We’re going in and we’re doing this.’ Then I took it seriously, and I was all in at that point.”
After getting those first low marks, Monaco was also the underdog, and she worked hard. “I improved weekly,” she pointed out to EW. “I think people related to me in that I went from duck feet to being able to spin. I have ruptured eardrums, equilibrium problems, and for me to even be able to do that without falling flat on my face was a journey in itself. I was so proud every week that I made it a week further.”
And made it through the memorable week where she experienced a major on-air wardrobe malfunction with one of her skimpy costumes. Monaco shared that her pro dance partner, Alec Mazo, had “prepared me for every obstacle,” including something going wrong with her outfit — but when it happened on live television, she recalled, “I’m like, ‘Okay, well, I’ll just hold my dress up while I dance.’ ” In the end, she noted, “I was able to persevere and get through the dance with a standing ovation.”
Monaco’s grace under pressure struck a chord with viewers of the show, as well. “After that, the audience related to me,” she mused. “This gave the audience a chance to see the real me in a circumstance where you can either fall flat or rise above.”
Rise above she did — but nothing could have prepared her for winning. “It was mind blowing,” she said of hearing her name called as the victor. “It was one of the best feelings in the world.”
In 2023, Monaco shared with Soap Opera Digest that she felt her time on DWTS was critical to endearing her to GH viewers, as well. “I feel like the turning point for me with the audience — for me not to get hate from the audience — was after I did Dancing With The Stars two or three years in,” she mused. “People saw me, Kelly, and got to know me, and they were able to differentiate between me and the character. I swear to you, from the first airing of Dancing With The Stars, almost overnight, it was a switch in support, because then I wasn’t Sam, the person who broke up Sonny and Carly, the person who slept with Jax — they actually saw me as, ‘Oh, that’s Kelly over here, and that’s the character she plays over there.’ Breaking the fourth wall, sometimes that works out badly for people, but for me, it worked in my favor, and I think I was able to gain some respect from the audience and they didn’t think I was, like, this trashy whore who was sleeping with her stepfather [laughs].”
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