“Dancing With the Stars” celebrated its 20th anniversary with a ratings bang, with its live-plus-same-day viewership totaling 6.67 million viewers, TheWrap can reveal exclusively. Not only did the episode see a 6% rise over the previous week, it also ranks as the ABC show’s best performance for the episode before the semifinals in six years.
The ratings growth comes in the midst of a carriage dispute between Disney and YouTube TV, which has made ABC and other Disney-owned programming unavailable on the service since Oct. 30. The dispute, which shows no signs of resolving quite yet, has inevitably impacted ratings across ABC — including “Dancing With the Stars,” whose week-over-week growth was interrupted, but is still up 20.6% from the season premiere.
“We’re seeing robust interest in the season,” ABC SVP of content strategy and scheduling Ari Goldman told TheWrap of the ballroom dancing show’s momentum in its 34th season. “We’re really pleased with what we’re seeing on the linear stations and, of course, the livestream on Disney+.”
Disney+’s livestream notably hit an all-time high for the show’s 20th birthday party episode, with hours streamed seeing a 65% increase from the premiere per internal data. Fan voting also hit a new high for the series with 55.4 million votes, rising over the show’s previous high on “Halloween Night.”
“Dancing With the Stars,” which is produced by BBC Studios in front of a live studio audience, Season 34 kicked off on Sept. 16 with the strongest premiere performance the show has seen in five years with 5.53 million viewers, and grew steadily the following weeks, hitting 6.63 million viewers for “Wicked” night — a nearly 11% increase from the prior week — and 6.74 million viewers for Halloween night, the season’s most-watched episode so far. Viewership slid down slightly the next two weeks — 6.34 million for Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Night and back up 6.67 million for Tuesday’s 20th birthday celebration — likely due to the carriage dispute.
With two weeks left in the season, “Dancing With the Stars” is averaging 6.06 million viewers across ABC and Disney+, according to viewing information through Nov. 4. That’s up 14% from last season’s average viewership of 5.3 million, which also marked significant ratings gains for the series after finding new fandom among Gen Z viewers through TikTok and other social media platforms.
“The momentum is undeniable,” Goldman added, noting that factors for the boost include “meeting our audiences where they are, whether through the ABC affiliates, through the Disney+ livestream, through the amazing social media strategy on the show” as well as this season’s strong casting. “The show is just firing on all cylinders this season.”
Given what Goldman identifies as the “year-to-year erosion” in linear viewership — as audiences continue to shift their viewing habits from linear to streaming — he noted it’s “virtually unheard of” to see this level of growth in the current TV landscape. “The fact that the show is up on the linear platforms year-to-year, compared to a decline for most shows across the board, and up dramatically on streaming has been music to our ears. You’re not seeing this type of a year-to-year linear story outside of ABC Tuesday,” he said, noting the success of the Katilin Olson-led procedural “High Potential.”
Season 34 features contestants like TikTok star Alix Earle, social media sensation Robert Irwin and not one but two “Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” stars, who are helping bring younger viewers back to linear TV through “Dancing With the Stars.” Goldman noted that while the show was among its oldest-skewing on ABC a decade ago, it’s now the second youngest show on linear. For its Disney+ livestream, the median age is around 28.
“We’ve really found this ability to reinvigorate the show through the distribution strategy,” Goldman said, pointing to Disney+, which was the sole home for the show in 2023 before shifting to both ABC and Disney+ for the last two seasons.
As for the breakdown between ABC and Disney+, Goldman noted that the “vast majority” of overall viewing remains on ABC. But there’s a “very strong composition” coming from Disney+ among adults between the ages of 18-49, especially in the 18-34 demo.
During Tuesday’s episode, former host Tom Bergeron — who returned for one night only as a special guest judge — made a plea to ABC given the season’s ratings success to bring back the results show, referring to the two-episode per week format that was retired back in 2013, when the show began airing one two-hour telecast weekly. While Goldman said nothing is ever off the table, he noted the weekly telecast creates an opportunity for appointment TV viewing that has created gains for the show while other linear reality programming struggles from declining ratings.
“What I think has made sense for us with ‘Dancing with the Stars’ has been focusing our efforts on once a week, once a year, making this really feel like an event that viewers must create appointment-viewing around,” he said. “We’ve been really trying to make this as big an event as possible each week.”
With the finale just around the corner on Nov. 25, Goldman noted he’s “bullish” on what viewership might look like for the season closer as families gather before Thanksgiving. “All signs are pointing toward a big story in a couple weeks,” he said.
In other ratings news…
NBC News scores largest weekly audience since February
With some viewers are lacking access to ABC News amid the Disney-YouTube TV carriage dispute, they might have switched the channel to NBC News for its evening wrap-up program, which ended the week of Nov. 3 with 6.67 million total viewers, its largest audience since February, and 929,000 viewers in the 25-54 demo.
“Nightly News” finished the week as the No. 1 evening newscast in both the adults 25-54 and adults 18-49 , marking its largest advantage over “ABC World News Tonight” in over a year. In fact, “Nightly News” outpaced “World News Tonight” from Tuesday-Friday in the 25-54 demo.
Michelle Obama boosts “Sherri” to season-high rating
Former First Lady Michelle Obama’s first appearance on “Sherri” boosted the Nov. 6 episode to a season-high rating of 560,000 homes in metered markets, TheWrap can reveal exclusively. The episode also scored 105,000 viewers among women 25-54 — up 34% over the previous week and 20% when compared to the same day last year. “Sherri” closed out October with a 5.24% share of the daytime audience behind only “Kelly & Mark” with 8.32%.
Judge Judy’s “Hot Bench” scores ratings wins
Fresh off winning its first Daytime Emmy for outstanding legal/courtroom program, “Hot Bench” ranks as the No. 1 court show still in original production with an average viewership of 2.24 million total viewers this season. After getting added runs on OWN and Dabl, “Hot Bench” ranks as syndication’s fastest-growing court show, up by 10% in homes, 12% among total viewers, 35% among women 18-49, 25% among women 25-54, 16% among adults 18-49 and 15% among adults 25-54. The show recently scored its largest viewership in 93 weeks with an average 2.40 million views for the week of Oct. 20.
“It’s already been an extraordinary season for ‘Hot Bench,’” EP David Theodosopoulos said in a statement. “Our judges and production team bring authenticity, energy, and heart to every case, and it’s incredibly rewarding to see that reflected in the show’s continued momentum — from our loyal viewers to our first Daytime Emmy win last month.”
