Collins Signs Deal to Dance with the Stars

Collins Signs Deal to Dance with the Stars

NEW YORK, Feb. 22 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Collins, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, has announced a deal today with ABC Entertainment and BBC Worldwide to publish a tie-in book based on the runaway ABC hit reality show, "Dancing With the Stars."

DANCING WITH THE STARS Fitness Book will be published this fall and will reveal for the first time how some of the stars and dancers got into the best shape of their lives. Included will be healthy recipes and simple dance moves as well as never before seen pictures and quotes from the stars and their partners.

The "Dancing With the Stars" finale show last fall was seen by over 27 million viewers and currently ranks among the Top 5 most-watched shows on all of television, and was television's No. 1 unscripted program for the fourth quarter 2006.

"I count this show as one of my personal favorites and the team at Collins is excited to pair with the team at 'Dancing With the Stars' to make this book a bestseller," says Joe Tessitore, Collins President.

"We're tremendously excited to work with BBC Worldwide and HarperCollins to expand the 'Dancing With the Stars' brand beyond the television," said Bruce Gersh, senior vice president, Business Development, ABC Entertainment and ABC Television Studio. "This publishing venture represents just one way we hope to utilize the unique power and popularity of the series to effectively extend off-screen the dancing fervor that has captivated millions of viewers on ABC."

"The 'Dancing With the Stars' brand holds enormous potential and has a great association with consumers combining entertainment with fun and fitness. As with the network show and most recently the nationwide live tour, we are sure this book will be a fantastic success" commented Paul Telegdy SVP Programming & Production BBC Worldwide.

"Dancing With the Stars" is a BBC Worldwide property and the network show is produced by BBC Worldwide Productions USA for ABC.

About "Dancing With the Stars"

Hosted by Tom Bergeron ("America's Funniest Home Videos") and Samantha Harris ("E! Entertainment"), an exciting fourth season of "Dancing With the Stars" returns to ABC March 19 (8:00-10:00 p.m., ET) with ten new celebrities vying for a chance to be crowned champion of "Dancing With the Stars." Produced by BBC Worldwide, Conrad Green and Richard Hopkins serve as executive producers and Izzie Pick serves as co-executive producer. Rob Wade and Matilda Zoltowski are supervising producers. Alex Rudzinski directs.

About ABC

ABC Entertainment offers quality, award-winning programming that includes many of the most widely viewed series, specials and movies. Entertainment on ABC crosses various programming genres with hit series like "Grey's Anatomy," "Dancing With the Stars," "Lost," "Ugly Betty," "Desperate Housewives," "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," "Brothers & Sisters" and "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" in late-night. ABC Entertainment is part of the ABC Television Network, and is managed by Disney-ABC Television Group, a division of The Walt Disney Company. Please visit ABC at http://www.abc.com/.

About BBC Worldwide

BBC Worldwide Limited is the main commercial arm and a wholly owned subsidiary of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). The company exists to maximize the value of the BBC's assets for the benefit of the license payer and invest in public service programming in return for rights. BBC Worldwide Productions USA, was the first international local production base to be established by BBC Worldwide's Content & Production division, headed by Wayne Garvie. The business has achieved great success since its inception in 2005. It will shortly begin its fourth production of ratings smash "Dancing With the Stars" for ABC, whilst simultaneously producing "Grease: You're The One That I Want" for NBC. The business has also been successful in gaining pilot commissions for three of its scripted pilots: "Viva Laughlin" (CBS), "The Thick of It" (ABC) and "I'm With Stupid" (NBC). http://www.bbcworldwide.com/

About HarperCollins Publishers

HarperCollins, one of the largest English-language publishers in the world, is a subsidiary of News Corporation (NYSE:NWS)(NYSE:NWS.A). Headquartered in New York, HarperCollins has publishing groups around the world including the HarperCollins General Books Group, HarperCollins Children's Books Group, Zondervan, HarperCollins UK, HarperCollins Canada, HarperCollins Australia/New Zealand and HarperCollins India. HarperCollins is a broad-based publisher with strengths in literary and commercial fiction, business books, children's books, cookbooks, mystery, romance, reference, religious and spiritual books. With nearly 200 years of history HarperCollins has published some of the world's foremost authors and has won numerous awards including the Nobel Prize, the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award, the Newbery Medal and the Caldecott. Consistently at the forefront of innovation and technological advancement, HarperCollins is the first publisher to digitize its content and create a global digital warehouse to protect the rights of its authors, meet consumer demand and generate additional business opportunities. You can visit HarperCollins Publishers on the Internet at http://www.harpercollins.com/.

Source: HarperCollins Publishers

CONTACT: Paul Olsewski, +1-212-207-7173

Web site: http://www.harpercollins.com/

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