The Hottest Show on TV Is 20 Years Old

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It made perfect sense that Dancing With the Stars dedicated a whole night to Wicked recently, because the show is performing incredibly well this season. While most traditional TV shows are seeing big drops in viewers, Dancing With the Stars started its 34th season in September with its highest ratings since 2020—and it’s continued to gain viewers for five weeks straight, a feat no other fall show has achieved since 1991. What’s really surprising is who is watching: a huge increase in viewers from Gen Z and younger millennials, groups that were thought to have stopped watching regular TV.

While a cast featuring many social media stars, individuals known from the polygamist reality show ‘Sister Wives,’ and a charming late-night personality has attracted younger viewers, the real reason for Dancing with the Stars‘ success this fall goes back to a decision made by Disney in early 2023. Dana Walden, recently appointed co-chair of Disney Entertainment to oversee both streaming and traditional TV, unexpectedly changed course. Her predecessors had planned to move DWTS exclusively to the Disney+ streaming service, but Walden brought it back to ABC.

Instead of limiting distribution to a single platform, Walden successfully negotiated a deal with ABC’s local stations to bring the show back to traditional television while also streaming it live on Disney+ and making it available the next day on Hulu. This meant both new viewers, who don’t subscribe to cable, and longtime fans who watched on ABC could continue enjoying the show. Walden’s team avoided the common mistake of the early 2020s, where media companies sacrificed their traditional TV channels to compete with streaming services like Netflix. They realized they could reach a wider audience by using both television and streaming platforms.

Viewership and excitement for Dancing with the Stars (DWTS) have significantly increased, and ABC believes it exemplifies what modern broadcast television should be. According to Ari Goldman, a senior vice president at ABC Entertainment, the focus on linear ratings has missed the key point: younger audiences do want to watch shows like this. By making DWTS available live on Disney+, with next-day viewing on Hulu and Disney+, and also on ABC and ABC On Demand, ABC ensures anyone can watch it whenever and wherever they prefer.

And watch it they are:

I’ve been following Dancing with the Stars this season, and I’m really impressed with the numbers! About 6 million people are tuning in live each Tuesday on ABC and Disney+, which is a big jump – nearly 20% more than last year, and even more than in 2023. And that’s just those who watch when it airs! When you add in everyone who records it or streams it on Hulu or Disney+, the audience is already over 8 million each week. It seems like the numbers are still going up, so I’m excited to see how big it gets by the end of the season.

This season, Dancing with the Stars is seeing significant growth, particularly among younger viewers. The show is averaging a 1.35 rating with adults under 35, which is more than double what it was a year ago and over three times its average at this point last season. Viewership among adults under 50 is also up, increasing by 70% compared to last year. This positive trend isn’t new; the show experienced similar increases in viewership last fall as well.

Nielsen same-day ratings among Gen-Z viewers (adults 18–34)

Dancing With the Stars is currently the most popular reality show on television, beating both The Voice and Survivor in overall viewership and among adults under 50. This is a significant shift from 2021, when Dancing With the Stars last aired traditionally on TV. Four years ago, The Voice and Survivor had more viewers in the key 18-49 age group, but now Dancing With the Stars is nearly four times as big as The Voice and twice as big as Survivor. Industry researcher Goldman calls this change “one of the most remarkable transformations” he’s ever seen.

The growing number of Gen-Z viewers is changing who watches Dancing With the Stars on both ABC and streaming platforms like Disney+ and Hulu. Now, 15% of ABC viewers are under 35, a significant increase from 9% last year. Unlike many other long-running reality shows that are attracting older audiences, DWTS has actually gotten younger – the median viewer age has dropped by two years since 2023. According to Goldman, Dancing With the Stars used to be ABC’s oldest-skewing show, but it’s now one of the network’s youngest.

Streaming is attracting a much younger audience for Dancing with the Stars. Disney reports the average age of digital viewers has fallen dramatically – by eight years, from 45 to 37 – in a single season. Those who watch the livestream on Disney+ every Tuesday are even younger, with a median age of just 28, according to Goldman.

The numbers are especially striking considering that Netflix and other streaming services have spent years encouraging viewers to binge-watch shows at their own pace, instead of watching weekly at a set time. According to Goldman, for many viewers in their 20s and 30s, Dancing With the Stars may be the first time they’ve shared a live TV viewing experience with others. This suggests a strong desire for watching shows together. Advertisers are paying attention too: last week’s Wicked night on DWTS, featuring stars from the upcoming movie and its director, was part of a paid partnership with Universal Pictures. They used the Disney show as a central part of their marketing campaign for Wicked: For Good, which comes out in November.

Making Dancing with the Stars available on Disney+ has been key to the show’s recent ratings increase, but it’s not the only reason for its success. When the show returned to ABC in 2023, it moved to Tuesday nights after many years on Mondays. Although changing a show’s time slot can be risky, ABC’s decision proved beneficial. Dancing with the Stars no longer competed directly with two hours of The Voice or with football games on ESPN, and it avoided being bumped from local stations due to game broadcasts. According to one ABC executive, the move to Tuesday, with its reduced competition, has been a major factor in the show’s strong performance.

Goldman also points out that even with smart distribution strategies, the show itself needed to be good enough to attract viewers, especially Gen-Z. As he explains, simply making content available isn’t enough – the quality of the show is what truly counts.

According to Goldman, the success of Dancing with the Stars is due to a smart refresh led by executive producer Conrad Green, casting director Deena Katz, and Disney’s Rob Mills. They essentially relaunched the show in 2022 with its debut on Disney+, and notably, Green returned as showrunner after almost ten years. Goldman explains that the team has successfully adapted to today’s social media landscape and understood what attracts younger audiences to dance content. While the show has always been good at attracting famous faces, they’re now actively focusing on appealing to a younger demographic and the kinds of videos they enjoy online.

This season, “Dancing with the Stars” has clearly focused on attracting younger viewers, particularly Gen-Z. This is evident in themed nights centered around popular TikTok trends and the movie “Wicked,” as well as the inclusion of many social media influencers and reality TV stars like Whitney Leavitt and Jen Affleck (from Hulu’s “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives”) in the cast. This strategy extends beyond what’s seen on screen. According to a recent Vulture report, Andy Richter’s longevity on the show is partly due to his active presence on TikTok, where he and his partner, Emma Slater, promote the show and themselves, giving fans a sneak peek at upcoming performances. Show executives, including Green, believe this approach has helped boost ratings. He explained to the New York Times last year that the show and TikTok now have a mutually beneficial relationship – they promote each other.

One of the most rewarding aspects of audience growth for Goldman is that it hasn’t negatively impacted ABC’s local stations. These stations pay Disney a significant amount of money annually to broadcast ABC shows, but Disney’s focus on streaming since 2019 has created some conflict, as resources have shifted away from traditional broadcasting. That’s why it took some discussion to simulcast Dancing With the Stars on both ABC and Disney+ – Walden and her team needed the stations to agree to share the exclusive live broadcast window, similar to what NBC did with Saturday Night Live on Peacock in 2021.

Station owners may have initially been concerned about losing viewers to streaming, but Goldman argues that Dancing with the Stars‘ success shows that both traditional TV and streaming can work together. He insists that adding the show to Disney+ isn’t harming local stations at all, and in fact, it seems to be increasing viewership overall. They’re even seeing a boost in younger viewers tuning into the ABC stations, separate from those watching on Disney+. It appears the show’s popularity on streaming is actually benefiting traditional TV as well.

Given the show’s recent success, it’s natural to wonder if Disney and ABC are considering ways to grow the franchise. After all, the show used to air two seasons each year and even two nights a week. The original UK show, Strictly Come Dancing, still follows that format with both performance and results shows airing twice a week. However, according to Goldman, there are no current plans for expansion. He says they’re happy with how well the single annual season is performing. While he admits he’s considered increasing airings—similar to how Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? was widely broadcast—he believes limiting Dancing to a single fall season makes it feel like a special event. It’s become must-see TV every Tuesday.

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2025-10-30 20:56