Dance Your Ass Off Returns!

Oxygen is bringing back its popular weight-loss show, Dance Your Ass Off, for a second season in 2010.

“We loved watching as contestants danced off nearly 500 pounds,” says Amy Introcaso-Davis, Senior Vice President of Original Programming and Development for Oxygen Media.
The show, which premiered earlier this year, paired a dozen professional dancers with overweight contestants, who competed to dance off the most weight.

Ruben Permel of Las Vegas ultimately won the competition when he shed 73 lbs. “On the show, we learned choreography, a routine. Now I can go social dancing. I can do the fox trot, I can do the salsa, I can do a swing dance with a complete stranger,” he told PEOPLE. “It’s kind of cliché to say, ‘Oh [the show] changed my life,’ but actually it did.”

The show’s second season will be produced by Magical Elves, the production company responsible for Bravo’s Top Chef. “We hope to inspire the entire country to eat healthy and get off the couch and dance!” says Introcaso-Davis.

No word on whether Marissa Jaret Winokur, who hosted the first season of the show, will be back for season 2. –Elaine Aradillas