Season eight of Dancing with the Stars premiered on Monday, March 9, 2009, on the ABC network. The show generally followed the format of previous seasons, with thirteen couples, although there were some changes, including two new dances, the Argentine tango and Lindy Hop, and an occasional dance-off between the bottom two couples, in order to determine who would be eliminated. Olympic gymnast Shawn Johnson and Mark Ballas were crowned the champions, while Gilles Marini and Cheryl Burke finished in second place, and Melissa Rycroft and Tony Dovolani finished third.