Breaking records 33 seasons into a series isn’t an easy task. But it’s one “Dancing With the Stars” has done three times this season. And on Nov. 12, the reality competition series will hit 500 episodes.
Since its 2005 debut, the series has featured 51 professional dancers and 394 stars and taken home 21 Emmys. Still, it’s hitting new milestones. During Season 33, the show has broken voting records three times, with the latest episode seeing more than 19 million votes. It’s the No. 1 entertainment program on broadcast in adults 18-49 with a 0.69 rating in Live+Same Day. The show has grown significantly in Live+35, with this season’s premiere currently at 8.1 million viewers and a 1.54 rating, up over 60% in total viewers and over 100% in the key demo compared to its Live+Same Day performance.
“What was magic about the show in its heyday is back,” says Rob Mills, executive vice president of unscripted and alternative entertainment at Walt Disney Television. “The lesson we learned this season is the same one we learned the first season, which is what the magic in the show is: the cast. Get people in, then give people a reason to stay … You have to look for either the people everyone’s going to know and want to see, or the person who, two weeks from now, you were going to understand why we picked them.”
Casting, a task overseen by co-executive producer Deena Katz, is all about finding a balance between celebrities who will bring in viewers and celebrities who really want to do the show and have a story. In Season 32, Barry Williams was the perfect example of the latter. At 69, he’d always wanted to compete on the series and audiences fell in love with him. This season, an example of the former was controversial cast member, convicted felon Anna Delvey. The socialite was the first to be eliminated and, when she was asked what she’d take away from the show, she responded, “nothing.”
“I think you want 90% of people who want to be there. I want to say we went to Danny Amendola in the past, around right after he won the Super Bowl, and he probably wasn’t ready. I think if he said yes then, when he wasn’t ready, he wouldn’t be as good. Now, he wants to do it to win this. You want to be invested, to see how much it means for them,” says Mills. “But yes, you need those people like Anna Delvey. In Season 2, it was must-see TV watching Master P, who refused to even wear ballroom shoes and was being yelled at by Len Goodman for not taking the whole thing more seriously.”
Mills agrees the Delvey “nothing” answer was a viral moment — but the most viral moment goes to that incredible leg left between Amendola and Witney Carson, which has been recreated on TikTok thousands of times since. “It’s definitely a balance,” he adds.
TikTok has impacted the series in many ways, and could be part of the reason for the show’s renewed popularity.
“Both the brilliant cast that Deena puts together, and our dancers, are very plugged into social media. I think the rise of TikTok is a very comfortable fit with this show, because you can get these viral moments that happen,” showrunner Conrad Green tells Variety. “Gen Z is probably starting to encounter the show when their parents were loving it in the early 2000s.”
Katz adds, “There’s a very fine line of reaching out so that Gen Z watches it, that we’re in their zeitgeist, but also making sure that we’re still giving what our core audience wants. A lot of shows go one way or another. You want the core audience who has been there forever is still getting exactly what they want, and yet, modernizing it for everyone else to watch as well.”
The goal is to make people care. “You have to have people at the core that people are going to root for and want to see. If we didn’t have personalities that everybody can start rooting for, it wouldn’t work,” she says. “But the idea is, you watch for these people, or you watch for Anna Delvey, but then you end up falling in love with other people, and that sustains you throughout the season.”
“Dancing With the Stars” has gone through numerous changes throughout the years, especially lately. Ahead of Season 29, Tyra Banks took over for longtime hosts Tom Bergeron and Erin Andrews. Two seasons later, for Season 31, the show moved from ABC to Disney+, becoming the first live show on the streamer. Banks was also joined by a co-host, previous winner Alfonso Ribeiro. For Season 32, the show moved back to ABC, and Banks was replaced by Julianne Hough.
“I think it helped going to Disney+. A big audience did follow us there and we did engage with people who were more used to streaming. Therefore, when we came back to ABC, we’re finally reaching our audience wherever they are, because the way people watch TV has changed so much. I do think that definitely gave the younger audience a sample,” says Green. “Going off to Disney+ almost served as a bit of a reboot, because, when the show came back, there were two new hosts for people who hadn’t watched it on Disney+: Alfonso and Julianne.”
Plus, the live audience was back in the ballroom after COVID. “When it came back, it was quite a different show to the one that preceded it. I think it really helped,” he says of the Disney+ season. “It refreshed the show.”
But, “DWTS” only remained on Disney+ for one season. “The operation maybe wasn’t a success, but the patient lived,” says Mills. That season, during which influencer Charli D’Amelio took home the mirrorball trophy, not only lowered the median age range. D’Amelio’s casting was “very important,” according to Green, since she has both a huge following and a passion for dance. “When you see the quality of what she did, I think those people stayed and watched the next season.”
“Young 20s weren’t watching network television, [they] got invested and now watch on ABC,” Katz adds. “What’s happened now, because of TikTok, because of how we are on everybody’s feeds, I’ve finding these 20-somethings are having watch parties. We’re appointment TV again.”
On Tuesday night, the six remaining pairs will perform routines that honor top performances from the past 32 seasons. Plus, the opening number, choreographed by Pasha Pashkov and Daniella Karagach, will honor the song that opened the first episode of Season 1. Many fan favorites from through the years are set to make appearances.
“Celebrating a 500th episode is a rare achievement in television today. Over the past 19 years, ‘Dancing with the Stars’ has built an unparalleled legacy of bringing feel-good magic to millions as a pop culture powerhouse that’s stronger than ever, shattering all-time fan voting records and sparking viral social media trends with whole new generations,” says BBC Studios executive vice president of entertainment and music, Ryan O’Dowd. “It’s been an epic journey since we first launched our partnership with Disney to bring the ‘Dancing with the Stars’ format to the U.S., and we couldn’t be more thrilled to partner with the incredible team at Disney who share our vision as we work together to take this beloved and iconic brand to new heights.”
So, how does that success continue?
“The one thing I would really love for us to challenge ourselves on is how can we do things that keep the competition, but doesn’t take ourselves as seriously?” says Mills. “It’s about making sure you still have a competition you’re invested in and you’re still rooted in these stories. But I would love to keep pushing the envelope to the more outlandish aspects of this.”
One way he did that this season was by pushing for Hair Metal Night, with guest judge Gene Simmons. Simmons received a bit of backlash after his judging appeared to be based more on which women he found attractive rather than their dances. So, while he may not return, the theme could!
“I love a controversy that you would call a nice controversy. With any of our shows, apathy is the enemy. The fact that people felt some sort of feeling about Gene Simmons, I thought was great,” Mills laughs. “That being said, I would love to explore doing hair metal episodes next year, and maybe we will look for a different guest judge. But I love the fact people were riled up about Gene.”
While the table of judges — Derek Hough, Bruno Tonioli and Carrie Ann Inaba — gels seamlessly, some fans have also been riled up about Inaba’s scoring this season, asking if she’s judging each pair on the same scale and whether there should be some type of stabilizer put into place for different routines.
“Judging isn’t as easy as it appears. The most important stabilizer is the viewer’s vote. Voting will save you every day of the week. Voting isn’t just about popularity, it’s deliberate. The audience’s involvement is a necessary adjustment to it just being a judges’ score show,” says Green. “It also means the audience at home can address things like someone having more dance experience or reward someone who’s learning from zero.”
He adds that there’s not “that much of a difference between an 8 and a 9,” and ultimately, when a celebrity is underscored, it often pays off by massive amounts of votes. “That’s much more important than the difference between one point on the judges leaderboard, and where you end up.”
According to Katz, “The audience really does have the power. The audience will always win.”
Even with pairs being eliminated each week, the number of viewers’ votes continues to rise — but why is that? Well, it could be a sign of the times.
“It’s a very positive show. It always has been. It’s been aspirational positive and at a time when the country feels so divided, it’s really nice to be able to have something where you can see what everyone has in common. You can see people aspiring to do something positive and work together,” says Green. “I think it’s reassuring to be able to spend time in a week reminding yourself how America works, not how it doesn’t work. Culturally, it’s a reassuring show, and it reminds you of the positive things that we can all do.”
“Dancing With the Stars” airs on ABC and streams on Disney+ on Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET. It is available to stream the next day on Hulu.