38-city tour kicks off in December

The folks behind "Dancing with the Stars" are betting that the millions who watch the show on television might want to see it in person as well.

To that end, a 38-city "Dancing with the Stars" tour is scheduled to kick off in San Diego on Dec. 19. The tour will feature six current and former contestants from the ABC hit, paired with some of the professional dancers seen on the show. Tickets for most dates go on sale Nov. 4.

The "Dancing" road show is following in the footsteps of two other reality show-turned-live event extravaganzas. "American Idol" has proven to be almost as successful a tour as it is a TV show, selling out venues nationwide for each of the past few summers. Another FOX show, "So You Think You Can Dance," also took its finalists on tour this year; its final live shows are scheduled for this weekend.

Season two winners Drew Lachey and Cheryl Burke head the list of stars on the "Dancing" tour. They'll be joined by Joey Lawrence and Edyta Sliwinska, who are still alive in this season's competition; fellow season three contestants Willa Ford and Maksim Chmerkovskiy and Harry Hamlin and Ashly DelGrosso; season two's Lisa Rinna (Hamlin's wife) and Louis Van Amstel; and the mix-and-match couple of Joey McIntyre and Kym Johnson.

Former New Kid on the Block McIntyre, dancing with DelGrosso, finished third in the show's first go-round. Johnson was paired with Jerry Springer until their elimination this week.

There's a potentially big audience for the tour: "Dancing with the Stars" is averaging 19.5 million viewers this season for its Tuesday performance shows, while the Wednesday-night eliminations draw better than 17 million per week.

More information on the "Dancing with the Stars" tour can be found here.