Dancing With The Stars Moving To Disney+ After 16 Years On ABC

Hold on to your dancing shoes and glitter! After an impressive 30 seasons on ABC, Disney, the parent company of both ABC and Disney+, announced that the long-running reality hit “Dancing With the Stars” will move from its broadcast home to the streaming service. 

The competition series recently received pickups for seasons 31 and 32, and will premiere exclusively in the U.S. and Canada this Fall. This will make “Dancing with the Stars” the first live series to debut on the streaming service. It will also be the first live streaming reality show in the U.S., marking another milestone for direct-to-consumer platforms and a cultural shift of where viewers go to view content.

Still going strong after 16 years

While season 30 of the show didn’t reach the ratings it had in past seasons (it was down 18% in viewers last season from 7.3 million to just a little south of 6 million), it still was rated among the top 5 unscripted series with the all important demographic of adults 18-49. 

The season finale of “Dancing with the Stars” was programmed the same evening against “The Voice,” and it captured the night’s highest demo rating. The show earned a 0.8 rating in the 18-49 demo and 5.41 million viewers. During the final numbers, it jumped to a 0.9 demo rating and 5.64 million viewers. The ratings bump and overall performance demonstrated that “Dancing with the Stars” can still capture an audience advertisers love after 16 years on the air.

At the height of its ratings, “Dancing with the Stars” was one of the most watched shows on linear television. It is currently hosted by Tyra Banks and was previously hosted by Tom Bergeron and Erin Andrews.

More original content for Disney+

The decision to move one of ABC’s biggest live television series to Disney+ underscores the company’s commitment to bolstering it’s digital portfolio of original content for subscribers. Disney has stated that it plans to reach approximately 230 million to 260 million subscribers by 2024. The move may help Disney boost its stalling subscriber growth.

Some of Disney’s biggest films debuted on Disney+ since its launch, which worked well for the company during the past two years when people were spending the majority of their time at home.

Micechat recently reported that Marvel shows that once were exhibited on Netflix are finally making their way to Disney+, which will increase content for subscribers. These titles include “Daredevil,” “Jessica Jones,” “Luke Cage,” “The Punisher,” and more. The shows also include parental controls to prevent younger viewers from watching brutal fight scenes. 

The new season of “Dancing” will premiere around the same time Disney+ introduces an ad-supported tier with a lower price point than its current ad-free plan, available at $7.99 a month or $79.99 annually.

A shift in programming

Walt Disney Chairman of Entertainment Dana Walden stated in a press release that moving the dance show to Disney+ will allow for ABC to continue to create and expand more unscripted series.

“’Dancing with the Stars’ has been a beloved staple on ABC for 30 seasons and brought so much joy to millions of viewers,” said Walden. “As we’re significantly expanding our unscripted slate at ABC, this is a great opportunity to introduce this show to a whole new generation of fans on Disney+. We’re so grateful to our incredible partners at BBC Studios and look forward to continuing our relationship with them on this spectacular series, which will continue to be overseen by Rob Mills and the talented Walt Disney Television Alternative team.”

Although unscripted series have been doing well on most networks, scripted programming hasn’t seen the ratings it once had in primetime.

Variety stated that the move of the show Disney+ is a serious blow to both ABC and broadcast networks in general, which have depended on these shows in recent years to deliver programming to live audiences. Due to the success of streamers, like HBO Max and Netflix, broadcast ratings for scripted programming on linear television continues to soften. The lack of tighter standards and practices on streamers has also allowed creators to develop shows with more freedom and less limits.

Should “Dancing with the Stars” prove to be successful on Disney+, it may open the door for even more shows to be shifted over to streaming, leaving the networks with less options to fill their programming.

Information on past seasons that aired on network television being available on Disney+ haven’t been announced. You can view clips and highlights from past seasons on the show’s official YouTube channel.