‘Dancing With the Stars’ team on 500 episodes, record-breaking viewership

Breaking records in 33 seasons in a series is no easy task. But it is one that “Dancing With the Stars” did three times this season. And on November 12, the reality competition series will hit 500 episodes.

Since its debut in 2005, the series has featured 51 professional dancers, 394 stars and taken home 21 Emmys. Yet new milestones are being reached. During season 33, the show broke voting records three times, with the final episode receiving over 19 million votes. It is the #1 entertainment program broadcast to 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 reaching 8.1 million viewers and a 1.54 rating, up over 60% in total viewers and over 100% in main demo compared to the Live+Same Day performance.

“What was magical about the show in its heyday is back,” said 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 in the first season, and that’s what the magic is in the show: the cast. Bring people in and give people a reason to stay… You have to look for the people that everyone is going to know and want to see, or the person that in two weeks you would understand why we picked them.”

Casting, a task overseen by co-executive producer Deena Katz, is all about finding a balance between celebrities who 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 the age of 69, he always wanted to participate in the series and the audience fell in love with him. This season exemplified the former’s controversial cast member, convicted felon Anna Delvey. The socialite was the first to be eliminated and when asked what she would take away from the show, she replied: ‘nothing’.

“I think you want 90% of the people to want to be there. I want to say that we’ve been to see Danny Amendola in the past right after he won the Super Bowl and he probably wasn’t ready yet. I think if he said yes then, if 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 to them,” Mills says. “But yes, you need people like Anna Delvey. In Season 2, it was must-see TV watching Master P, who refused to even wear ballroom shoes and was berated by Len Goodman for not taking the whole thing more seriously.

Mills agrees that Delvey’s “nothing” response was a viral moment — but the most The viral moment is going there incredible stage between Amendola and Witney Carsonwhich has since been recreated thousands of times on TikTok. “It’s definitely a balance,” he adds.

TikTok has influenced the series in many ways and could be part of the reason for the show’s newfound popularity.

“Both the brilliant cast that Deena puts together and our dancers are very connected to social media. I think the rise of TikTok fits this show really well because you can get these viral moments,” says showrunner Conrad Green. Variety. “Gen Z probably started being exposed to the show when their parents loved it in the early 2000s.”

Katz adds, “There’s a very fine line of reaching out so that Gen Z is looking at 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 that has always been there to still get exactly what they want, yet modernize it so everyone else can watch it too.

The goal is to provide care to people. “You have to have people at the core that people are going to advocate for and want to see. If we didn’t have personalities that everyone could choose, it wouldn’t work,” she says. “But the idea is, you pay attention to these people, or you pay attention to Anna Delvey, but you end up falling in love with other people, and that lasts the whole season.”

“Dancing With the Stars” has undergone numerous changes over the years, especially recently. Prior to 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, former winner Alfonso Ribeiro. For season 32, the show moved back to ABC, and Banks was replaced by Julianne Hough.

“I think it helped to go to Disney+. A large audience followed us there and we came into contact with people who were more used to streaming. That’s why when we came back to ABC, we’re finally reaching our audiences wherever they are, because the way people watch TV has changed so much. I think this has definitely set an example for the younger audience,” says Green. “Going to Disney+ almost meant a reboot because when the show came back, there were two new hosts for people who hadn’t seen it on Disney+: Alfonso and Julianne.”

Plus, the live audience was back in the ballroom post-COVID. “When it came back, it was a completely different show than the one that came before it. I think it really helped,” he says of the Disney+ season. “It freshened up the show.”

But “DWTS” only stayed on Disney+ for one season. “The surgery may not have been a success, but the patient lived,” Mills says. That season, in which influencer Charli D’Amelio took home the mirrorball trophy, not only lowered the average age category. D’Amelio’s casting was “very important” according to Green, as 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 people in their twenties didn’t watch network television, [they] I have invested and am now watching on ABC,” Katz added. “What’s happened now, because of TikTok, because of the way we’re on everyone’s feeds, I notice that these 20-somethings are having watch parties. We have another appointment with TV.”

On Tuesday evening, the six remaining couples will perform routines in honor of top performances from the past 32 seasons. Additionally, 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 over the years will make an appearance.

“Celebrating a 500th episode is a rare feat in television these days. 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, breaking the all-time fan voting record and setting viral trends on social media has been fueled by whole new generations,” said Ryan O’Dowd, executive vice president of entertainment and music at BBC Studios. “It’s been an epic journey since we first launched our partnership with Disney to bring the ‘Dancing with the Stars’ format to the US, and we couldn’t be more excited to be working with the incredible team at Disney who shares our vision as we work together to take this beloved and iconic brand to new heights.”

How will that success continue?

“The one thing I would really like for us to challenge ourselves is, how can we do things that keep us competitive but not take ourselves so seriously?” says Mills. “It’s about making sure you still have a league that you’re invested in and that you’re still rooted in these stories. But I’d like to keep pushing the boundaries into the more bizarre aspects of this.

One way he did that this season was by pushing for Hair Metal Night, with guest judge Gene Simmons. Simmons suffered some backlash after his judgment seemed to be based more on the women he found attractive than their dancing. So while he may not return, the theme might!

“I like a controversy that you would call a beautiful controversy. On all our shows, apathy is the enemy. I loved the fact that people had some kind of feeling for Gene Simmons,” Mills laughs. “That said, I would like to explore her metal episodes next year, and perhaps we will look for another guest judge. But I love that people were upset about Gene.

While the judges – Derek Hough, Bruno Tonioli and Carrie Ann Inaba – mesh seamlessly, some fans are also upset about Inaba’s scores this season, questioning whether she rates each couple on the same scale and whether there is some sort of stabilizer entered for different routines.

“Judging is not as easy as it seems. The most important stabilizer is the viewer’s voice. Voting saves you every day of the week. Voting is not just about popularity, it is purposeful. The audience involvement is a necessary adjustment to the fact that it is just a jury score,” says Green. “It also means that the audience at home can highlight things like someone who has more dance experience, or reward someone who is learning from scratch.”

He adds that there isn’t “that much difference between an 8 and a 9,” and that when a celebrity is highlighted, it often ends up paying off in huge numbers of votes. “That is much more important than the difference between one point on the jury’s rankings and where you end up.”

According to Katz, “The public really has the power. The audience will always win.”

Even with couples being eliminated every week, the number of viewer votes continues to rise – but why is that? Well, it could be a sign of the times.

“It’s a very positive show. That has always been the case. It was ambitiously positive and at a time when the country feels so divided, it’s really nice to have something where you can see what everyone has in common. You see people striving to do something positive and work together,” says Green. “I think it’s comforting to be able to spend time in a week reminding ourselves of how America works, not how it doesn’t work. Culturally, it’s a comforting show, and it reminds you of the positive things we can all do.”

“Dancing With the Stars” airs on ABC and streams on Disney+ on Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET. It will be available to stream on Hulu the next day.