“Dancing with the Stars” hit voting records during its 34th season and has seen a resurgence in popularity on broadcast television and on social media.
During the three-hour finale, conservationist Robert Irwin and his pro dancer partner, Witney Carson, were announced as the Len Goodman Mirrorball winners. The top three celebrity finalists—Irwin, Alix Earle, and Jordan Chiles—are all part of Gen Z, which is appealing to the new generation of fans being ushered in by the network. But could they sustain this new audience enough to bring back competitions twice a year?
A Record-Breaking Year for ‘DWTS’
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the finale episode delivered 9.24 million viewers, based on preliminary Nielsen ratings (which don’t include the company’s big data component). That’s a season high, topping the 7.22 million viewers for the previous week, and the largest same-day audience for a finale since November 2016, when 10.97 million people watched the final episode. Season 34 as a whole averaged a little under 6.5 million same-day viewers, the highest total since season 28 in 2019. Among adults 18-49, this season’s 1.34 rating is the best since a 1.37 for the fall 2017 edition.
Audience voting also hit all-time highs, with 72 million cast during the finale and almost 500 million over the course of the season. Social media interaction for the series has peaked as well.
‘DWTS’ Fans Divided on a Twice-Yearly Comeback
Though a lot of fans want to see the return of two seasons a year, the opinion remains divided online.
“DWTS need to go back and gives us two seasons per year again,” Reddit user Typical-Sandwich7353 posted on the thread for Dancing With The Stars.
One Reddit user replied, “for selfish reasons I would agree, but I feel like it would hurt the show. 2 shows a year plus tour is hard on the pros. Having one show a year is why the ratings have been high imo, and having 2 would would make it drop (after a while) because the audience would get tired of it. Getting so many celebs would be harder too.”
“If they do that (and I really hope they do), they should postpone touring for the pros’ sakes,” another user pointed out.
In another post from the same thread, user Both-Pomegranate4929 pointed out that Tom is all for bringing the results show back, referencing an interview he did with The Hollywood Reporter in which he said, “…the ratings have proven it’s time to bring back the results show. I always mourned the loss of that Tuesday show. I thought it made the voting more fair across the country, because the West Coast can’t vote now unless they’re watching on wherever the hell you’d watch it streamed live. The results show was great. It was like a variety show with an elimination at the end. I think the ratings now would really speak to it being time to bring that back.”
“At the very, very least give us a 2-night finale again PLEASE,” one user responded in the Reddit thread.
“YES PLEASE! I miss the results show,” another user replied, then went on to list the reasons why it would be beneficial. “The judges could actually speak long enough to give good critiques and explain their scores so everyone can calm…down lol. It’d make the voting feel more accurate. I still think it’s wild that most of west coast and people who can’t watch live have to vote without even watching the dances. Making people vote in a less than 2 hr span doesn’t feel super representative of all viewers. Maybe we’d get longer, not so cookie cutter packages back! Instead of 3837 ads taking up most of the time and rushing through the dances. We’d get more pro and troupe dance numbers, instead of a 2-3 5-10 seconds bumpers. The pros and troupes are grossly under utilized.”
“I would be so happy to get a results show back! Rather than cramming in all the couples + troupe dances + tour dances + pro dances + whatever else they need to cram in there, it could be spread out more. Rehearsal packages could be longer and more genuine. Give me back the results show!” wrote another user.
More fans responded with their opinions, sparking interesting debate all around:
“Yes !! The results show gave the pros an opportunity to dance more and get creative, they had great musicians performing every week. Behind the scenes looks. It would be a giant hit again if they brought it back.”
“I liked the results show, but there were definitely times when it was wayyyyy too long, and filled with a bunch of nonsense. But I’d be open to them bringing it back, it does seem like it would make voting more fair.”
Will the Twice-Yearly Format Return?
The last time the show hosted two seasons in one year was back in 2018, scaling back to an annual format starting with season 28. The reasoning behind this decision was to open the spring time slot for American Idol. According to Yahoo Entertainment, however, the real answer lies in the ratings dip following Bobby Bones‘ controversial win in season 27, where he continued to advance over others with perfect scores and winning with the lowest score on finale night.
Executive producers Conrad Green and Deena Katz shared their thoughts on this past season with TV Insider, which includes returning to a twice-yearly format and bringing back the results show.
“Tom Bergeron made a plea to ABC when he was on the show’s Birthday Week episode for the network to bring back the results show. Any thoughts on that? Or going back to twice a year?” TV Insider asked the producers, also referencing his THR interview.
“It’s sort of out of our hands,” Green admitted. “Being on twice a year is great for the show, but there’s a lot to be said for being on once a year. It just feels like a real event that everyone looks forward to. You don’t want to overstay your welcome.”
With that being said, Green stated that they would happily take on that challenge. But when it comes to the results show, he was unsure if it made sense in “the modern economics of the industry” like it used to.
“I do think moving the show to Tuesday nights has helped because there’s no competition from football. The social media drive of our stars, our celebrities, and our dancers has been really important in embracing the younger generation,” Green concluded.
In an interview with Variety, Ryan O’Dowd discussed how social media has affected the show. “Within the last few years in particular, with TikTok, that has become an engagement unlike anything I had ever seen,” O’Dowd said.
“TikTok has been a great vehicle for the show, and it serves the show, and the show serves TikTok. It’s become a symbiotic relationship, that everybody wins,” O’Dowd continued. “Their talents go beyond what they’re seeing on the dance floor. They come in every week, embracing it, asking, ‘What are the videos and the content that we can put out that will tease what we’re doing this week, that will engage an audience?’”
O’Dowd pointed out that the best example of this is what Daniella and Dylan did with the air walk that went viral on TikTok from their Argentine Tango to Bill Withers’ “Ain’t No Sunshine.”
“I have seen 100 different videos of couples this past week recreating that. It’s just the gift that keeps on giving, where they’re able to choreograph something that gets people talking and then doing user-generated content that then keeps us in the zeitgeist 24/7,” O’Dowd concluded.
This helped me a lot, appreciate it! (#845)