How Dancing with the Stars Cha-Cha'd Its Way Back to America’s Heart
Let’s take it back now, y’all. To a time when Destiny’s Child just broke up and everyone was over-plucking their eyebrows — all really tragic stuff. Carrie Underwood won American Idol, YouTube launched and Dancing with the Stars aired for the first time.
Twenty-one years later, DWTS has amassed a massive following, loyal fan base and a deeply integrated show-to-viewer connection. The recent Season 35 premiere brought in its biggest audience in nine years, drawing nearly seven million viewers and doubling the number of votes. Fans even broke the voting website. It's that serious.
But a couple of years ago, DWTS was dancing dangerously close to irrelevance. Not a soft dip — a real audience decline that made its massive popularity today almost impossible to believe. But the show’s comeback wasn’t some lucky casting cycle. It was a playbook for what happens when a brand figures out how to make people care again.
Let’s go back to 2005 (and let’s not over-pluck our eyebrows on the way back).
The Initial Spark
Inspired by BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing, Dancing with the Stars was pitched to Conrad Green, who would later become the show's executive producer. A ballroom dance competition on primetime? Strange, but intriguing. Turns out, watching celebrities dance around a ballroom like fish out of water was pretty compelling. And that was part of the appeal: Celebrities were stepping way outside their comfort zones, risking their reputations in front of a panel of judges, a live audience and everyone in America.
The premiere of DWTS drew more than 13.5 million viewers and was the biggest summer debut for a reality show since Survivor, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Then came boxing legend Evander Holyfield, ballroom dancing in a barely buttoned shirt. America was hooked.
The show’s head judge, Len Goodman, told Holyfield, “The jive is a crisp, sharp dance, like a pickled onion. This was like a bowl of custard.”
The ridiculous critique had viewers stunned and thoroughly entertained.
If Holyfield can take on Dancing with the Stars, anyone can.
What Goes Up…
From there, the show became a household staple on TVs across America. Celebrities such as Kim Kardashian, Emmitt Smith, Gladys Knight and Zendaya took the dance floor as millions watched from home. The cast spanned generations, careers and levels of fame, bringing all kinds of viewers along with them. My grandma, mom and I all loved watching the show — that’s rare to find. Before Season 26 (don’t worry, I’ll get to that), DWTS drew over 10 million viewers per episode, proving its dominance on television.
DWTS knew not just what viewers wanted, but what kept them coming back. Social media looked a lot different then. Facebook, MySpace and chatrooms were where people gathered online, long before Reddit and the social platforms we have today. Access to celebrities was limited to tabloids and whatever work they put into the world. DWTS gave viewers something different: a chance to see their favorite celebrity outside of their usual roles. Because of DWTS, viewers learned how to dance, the different styles and just about everything else regarding ballroom dance.
Must Go Down…
But things shifted when DWTS announced Season 26, an all-athletes edition in spring 2018. It was the first season where both the premiere and finale fell below 10 million viewers. The all-athlete cast took away the celebrity appeal, while the lack of variety made it harder for viewers to find someone to root for. Then came the four-week season (compared to the normal 10-11 week format), leaving contestants little time to improve and audiences little time to get invested. Once American Idol returned to TV, it also cut into Dancing with the Stars' airtime, giving viewers even more reason to tune out.
And DWTS kept falling. Radio personality Bobby Bones won the following season, raising questions from fans about how a not-so-good dancer could win based on fan votes rather than skill. Then longtime host Tom Bergeron was fired, with Tyra Banks taking his place. She was not exactly a fan favorite. After originally airing on ABC, the show moved completely to streaming in 2022, cutting out a large portion of its traditional broadcast audience. Fan-favorite pros like Derek and Julianne Hough also left the show, while controversial contestants like Sean Spicer, Ryan Lochte and Olivia Jade joined the cast.
The problem was simple: Viewers stopped seeing themselves in the cast. The celebrities weren’t as familiar, especially to younger audiences, and the connection that once made the show so compelling started to disappear. After 13 years, Dancing with the Stars had officially lost the plot, and its audience.
The Rebirth of the DWTS
Then, something big happened in 2023. And no, I’m not talking about the Eras Tour. Season 32 of DWTS aired, and it brought the show back to life.
The Return to Comfort
In 2023, the show returned to ABC while remaining available to stream live. Tyra Banks departed, and Julianne Hough (a legendary DWTS alum) took her spot alongside Alfonso Ribeiro, a former winner. Conrad Green also returned as producer when the show made its way back to network TV. The cast returned to the DWTS formula, bringing together a mix of celebrities like Jason Mraz (famous singer), Barry Williams (Brady Bunch, anyone?) and Harry Jowsey (reality TV star… just yikes). The original DWTS magic was starting to come back, and fans began to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Connecting on Digital
Dancing with the Stars isn’t just a show anymore, it’s an entire brand ecosystem. DWTS goes live on Tiktok and Instagram during the show, capturing real-time content that keeps fans engaged beyond the broadcast. There’s a DWTS podcast hosted by former fan-favorite contestant Andy Richter, while the show’s social media accounts are constantly serving up behind-the-scenes content, contestant and pro interviews and full footage of the weekly dances. The strategy goes even further: DWTS now requires the cast to be active on TikTok to encourage viewers to vote. According to executive producer Conrad Green, it’s all part of an intentional strategy to reach younger audiences with the goal to “flood the zone with content.”
Many DWTS pros and contestants stay active on social media beyond the call-to-action videos encouraging the fans to vote. Many long-term pros like Val Chmerkovskiy and Jenna Johnson have become content creators in their own right, sharing day-in-the-life videos and behind-the-scenes content that give fans a look beyond the ballroom. Meanwhile, pros like Rylee Arnold and Ezra Sosa bring Gen Z energy to the dance floor, attracting younger audiences who want to watch people their own age compete.
Take this trailer DWTS posted the day of episode three of this current season: A full-blown production to promote the episode’s theme, viral hits night.
After watching that, I was inclined to tune in (I already was going to watch anyway, but you get the point).
The Power of Gen Z
DWTS knew the only way to remain relevant was to appeal to the next generation. While I’m sure my grandma would love to keep DWTS relevant herself, she — and the show — know it’s time to pass the torch. DWTS went full force into Gen Z focused social media marketing. Themed nights like Taylor Swift Night and Wicked Night, started drawing in a younger audience.
DWTS caught onto Gen Z’s obsession with celebrities they already knew and loved, and leaned fully in. The show now casts contestants from Love Island, The Bachelor franchise, The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives and The Traitors, to name a few. And those contestants don’t just bring their dancing shoes. They bring their fan bases with them, introducing DWTS to a whole new generation of viewers.
Many TikTok influencers have competed as well, like Charli D’Amelio and Alix Earle (heard of them?). Younger viewers started to feel a sense of familiarity with the show that had been missing for years. Now, they could watch people they already followed take on the ballroom. By 2026, DWTS had its "highest share of young audience since the Friends finale in 2004."
What Marketers Can Learn
The first life lesson we learned in kindergarten: When you get knocked down, you get back up. DWTS is a pretty great example of that. The show remembered what made people love it in the first place, while finally making room for a new generation. Because sometimes, keeping a brand alive means honoring what people loved about it to begin with and finding a new, authentic way to invite more people in.
We’ve all watched a brand we love lose the plot. Brands build trust through consistency. The second a brand chases a trend at the expense of what made it special, it’s not innovating. It’s eroding the very thing that made people loyal in the first place. DWTS learned that the hard way. Most brands do.
But this is what marketers can learn: It’s ok to evolve. It’s ok to want to expand beyond what you started with. The key is remembering what got you there in the first place. For DWTS, it was the fans. For a couple of years, the show forgot that. Now, they’re what keeps it alive.
The comeback formula isn’t complicated: Know your roots, but don’t be afraid to let new blood run the show.
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