Schmaltz meets mediocrity and what do you get? A hit

Everything you know about fame is wrong: such is the lesson imparted by “Dancing With the Stars,” the improbable ABC success story that began its sixth season last week. In this universe, B- and C-listers are elevated to water cooler chat fodder -- who knew there were pleasures to be found in Stacy Keibler, the leggy World Wrestling Entertainment diva, nailing the finer points of the samba? -- and professional ballroom dancers are granted access to Los Angeles’ hottest nightspots and tracked by TMZ.

Maksim Chmerkovskiy’s favorite dance? “The horizontal mambo.”

Sadly, Chmerkovskiy has opted out of Season 6, though he was in truth too beautiful for this variety show, which thrills in the ridiculous. “DWTS” is as close as television gets to a Las Vegas song-and-dance revue. It is unrelentingly tacky and doesn’t aspire to much beyond that, though the studio audience does dress up, as they would for a real ballroom competition. At its best, “DWTS” shows the transformation of an amateur into something greater. But even then, technique matters, and it is difficult to watch someone do something almost well.

Unlike on “American Idol” or “So You Think You Can Dance?” where those who underperform are routinely ridiculed, the stars here need not have particularly thick skin. The judges can be firm, but they are also sometimes ridiculous -- Bruno Tonioli is especially unpleasant, like an excitable monkey -- but everyone knows that should a contestant fail to master the fox trot, the planet will not be thrust off its axis. And in some cases -- recall Master P’s disastrous and yet somehow redemptive run in Season 2 -- even woeful inadequacy is celebrated. Here, there is no shame in being Sanjaya.

“DWTS,” which is adapted from England’s “Strictly Come Dancing,” arrives at the intersection of two TV phenomena -- dance competitions (“Randy Jackson Presents America’s Best Dance Crew” on MTV, “Step It Up and Dance” on Bravo, “America’s Ballroom Challenge” on PBS) and celebrities yanked out of their comfort zones (“The Celebrity Apprentice” on NBC, “Skating With Celebrities” on Fox, the underwatched “Ty Murray’s Celebrity Bull Riding Challenge” on CMT and, of course, the classic “Battle of the Network Stars.”)

It has become reliably popular since its 2005 debut, routinely drawing upward of 20 million viewers and spawning three national tours. For an event in which imperfection is practically written into its DNA, its continued success is astonishing, a validation of the show’s come-what-may attitude.

That belief in carefully crafted happenstance is on display once more this season, with a true motley crew lineup. As in previous years, there are athletes (the Miami Dolphins’ Jason Taylor, tennis’ Monica Seles), onetime recluses (Priscilla Presley, Steve Guttenberg), schlubs (Adam Carolla, Penn Jillette), and someone who is physically disadvantaged (Marlee Matlin, who is deaf). Of these, Taylor completed a handsome fox trot, Matlin proved to be more rhythmically inclined than at least half of her competitors, Carolla proved he was hardly the fratty Kenny Mayne, and Presley displayed a ballroom-ready sense of drama, both physical and emotional, that could only have been acquired from a lifetime spent ducking the spotlight. “I don’t want to be treated delicately,” she told her partner, Louis Van Amstel, within minutes of meeting him. “I need you to be tough with me. It’s good for me.”

And it worked -- Presley tied for the second-highest score from the judges. (No couple was eliminated last week; two will be eliminated this week.) She was behind only Olympic gold medalist Kristi Yamaguchi, who, although more comfortable on blades, proved to be a natural in heels.

But only in the first season of “DWTS” did a female celebrity, Kelly Monaco, win the competition. In each of the last two, an athlete (Olympic speedskater Apolo Anton Ohno, Indy race car driver Helio Castroneves) bested a former pop group member (Joey Fatone of ‘N Sync, Mel B of the Spice Girls) in the finale.

It is probably not a coincidence that Ohno and Castroneves shared a partner, Julianne Hough. The two previous winners, Drew Lachey and Emmitt Smith, were partnered with Cheryl Burke. Burke and Hough are young, beautiful and exuberant dancers, and that may have mattered far more than the specific skills of the celebrities -- Lachey had fantastic footwork, but Castroneves was a goof.

When the female amateurs are off their mark, though, their partners can do less to rescue them -- the work of the skilled male lead is quieter and more anchoring. Last week, even though magician Jillette’s heavy-footed cha-cha stomp seemed like the behavior of a drunken uncle at a wedding, it was less jarring than watching Seles fox trot while holding her arms as if she were in mid-weight lift. Over five seasons, male contestants have been forgiven for lack of fluidity, but the women by and large have not.

“Dancing With the Stars” may do Herculean work in upending preconceptions about celebrity. But gender? Not so much.