{"id":1540355,"date":"2025-12-16T07:06:31","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T07:06:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/pt\/?p=1540355"},"modified":"2025-12-16T07:06:31","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T07:06:31","slug":"how-dancing-with-the-stars-season-34-became-must-see-live-tv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/pt\/how-dancing-with-the-stars-season-34-became-must-see-live-tv\/","title":{"rendered":"How \u2018Dancing With the Stars\u2019 Season 34 Became Must-See Live TV"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\n\tOver the last decade, Ryan O\u2019Dowd has written some of the biggest live moments on television \u2014 including those from the past seven years of \u201cDick Clark\u2019s Rockin\u2019 New Year\u2019s Eve With Ryan Seacrest\u201d and awards shows like the CMAs, the Billboard Music Awards and the Emmys. And he\u2019s always loved the rush of live TV.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI love the immediacy of it,\u201d O\u2019Dowd, president of unscripted at BBC Studios<\/a>, says. \u201cI loved, as a writer, the ability to have something happen, to react to it, to think of what we could do that would entertain and engage literally within three minutes coming out of a commercial break. We\u2019d come up with the idea to pitch it to the host, have them be behind it, get it into the teleprompter, and have 40,000 people in an arena see it three minutes later.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThis year, the idea that \u201clive TV is back\u201d is bigger than ever, and he sees that every single week. Serving as an executive producer on \u201cDancing With the Stars<\/a>,\u201d the largest live entertainment television show of the year, O\u2019Dowd has a front seat to the massive ratings<\/a>, the millions of votes coming in between 8 and 10 p.m. Eastern every Tuesday night and, more than ever, the engagement on social media.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWithin the last few years in particular, with TikTok, that has become an engagement unlike anything I had ever seen,\u201d says O\u2019Dowd, who is keeping an eye on that engagement during every live show from inside the studio, and watches people join the official \u201cDancing\u201d account\u2019s TikTok Lives during commercial breaks.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s just an amazing continuation. It\u2019s a whole separate vehicle that, luckily, our pro dancers and the celebrities on the show have embraced, and they\u2019ve seen the power of being able to tell their story and connect comedically with their audience,\u201d he says. \u201cGoing into this season, Andy Richter didn\u2019t have much of a social media presence, to be honest, or he wasn\u2019t very active on social media. And then within a few weeks, he saw the power of being able to engage and leverage a devout following. The more he put out, the more he got back in terms of fandom. Next thing you know, you have a fan base with a name \u2018The Fandies,\u2019 and Johnny Knoxville was coming to support him in a bedazzled \u2018Vote for Andy\u2019 shirt that he bedazzled.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tRyan O\u2019Dowd, BBC Studios; Carrie Ann Inaba, Derek Hough and Bruno Tonioli<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tAt the time of publishing, Richter has more than 122K followers and 968K likes on TikTok, and he\u2019s on the lower end of the spectrum: His partner, Emma Slater, hit 1 million Instagram followers ahead of the finale. The most popular cast member on social media is Robert Irwin, with 9.7 million TikTok followers and nearly 9 million on Instagram.<\/p>\n

\n\tOne Instagram account, Pop Culture Data<\/a>, is followed by multiple execs who work on the show and tracks the contestant and pro follower counts by week, with Irwin at the top each time. (After week one, his combined Instagram and TikTok growth was +343,220. Danielle Fishel, Whitney Leavitt, Alix Earle and pro Daniella Karagach gained spots in the top five in the weeks that followed.)<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cTikTok has been a great vehicle for the show, and it serves the show, and the show serves TikTok. It\u2019s become a symbiotic relationship, that everybody wins,\u201d O\u2019Dowd says. Luckily, there\u2019s an excellent social media team in place \u2014 even though the pros and celebrities seemingly need much help in that arena. \u201cTheir talents go beyond what they\u2019re seeing on the dance floor. They come in every week, embracing it, asking, \u2018What are the videos and the content that we can put out that will tease what we\u2019re doing this week, that will engage an audience?\u2019 The best example is what Daniella and Dylan did with the air walk<\/a>. They\u2019re very smart, and it\u2019s going to start a conversation. It\u2019s a viral moment that people are gonna be talking about. I have seen 100 different videos of couples this past week recreating that. It\u2019s just the gift that keeps on giving, where they\u2019re able to choreograph something that gets people talking and then doing user-generated content that then keeps us in the zeitgeist 24\/7.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIt helps, O\u2019Dowd notes, that there\u2019s a \u201chealthy competition\u201d among the entire cast. \u201cWhen you get those viral moments, all of them go back to the drawing board, wanting to choreograph and create their own viral moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAs always, with more viewers \u2014 Prince week became the most-watched semifinals<\/a> in seven years \u2014 comes more opinions. This season, Carrie Ann Inaba has been getting the brunt of the negative feedback<\/a> for her judging. Elsewhere, contestants and pros alike have spoken up about online bullying that comes along with being on a competition show.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cTo Carrie Ann\u2019s credit, there are times that she\u2019s the last to speak. She has plenty of positive things to say, but she\u2019s looking at the totality of X number of seconds allotted to the judges, and if Bruno Tonioli and Derek Hough have already touched on the positive attributes of the dance they just saw, and she knows that there is one slight misstep, she\u2019s going to \u2014 for the good of the show \u2014 talk about that,\u201d says O\u2019Dowd. \u201cEverything can\u2019t always be positive across the board. Part of what viewers, I think, want is the ability to understand what each of these dancers needs to do to get better.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tPlus the pros, celebrities and audiences appreciate real feedback, he says \u2014\u00a0and don\u2019t want to hear only praise week after week. \u201cIt diminishes the moments when someone is truly deserving of emphatic praise across the board. So you need a diversity of opinion. You need to point out when something is great and conversely, when something could be better.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tAlfonso Ribeiro, Julianne Hough, Whitney Leavitt and Mark Ballas<\/span><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDisney<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tSemifinals saw the most shocking elimination of the season, with Whitney Leavitt being eliminated despite being one of the best celebrity dancers in the group. But, people aren\u2019t just voting on the merits of the dancing, O\u2019Dowd says as a reminder. On Season 3 of \u201cThe Secret Lives of Mormon Wives,\u201d which premiered on Nov. 13, Leavitt admitted she only came back to the Hulu show for a shot at \u201cDancing With the Stars\u201d \u2014 and some viewers didn\u2019t like that type of honesty.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cObviously, she has \u2018Secret Lives of Mormon Wives<\/a>\u2018 that just came out that previous week on Hulu. And I\u2019d be lying if I said that I didn\u2019t think that played a role,\u201d he says. \u201cOur job is to really just give her a platform and an opportunity to display her dance to the best of her abilities, and to allow her to reach an audience that can vote based on what they\u2019ve seen that night.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cShe was clear with her intention,\u201d O\u2019Dowd continues. \u201cWe should be celebrating someone who\u2019s been very clear with what their intentions and motivations are, and who has, in some ways, realized the dream that she had and the goal that she had. So why see it for anything other than her just chasing her dream \u2014 which is something we all should aspire to?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAfter such a successful season, the pressure is on for Season 35 next fall, and the conversations around casting have already begun with Deena Katz, who\u2019s been part of the show since day one.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cShe is always two steps ahead in terms of people who we not even know today. She has a finger on the pulse, knowing that, come September of next year, these people are going to be big, which is exactly what you did with Robert Irwin,\u201d says O\u2019Dowd. \u201cThere\u2019s an admitted pressure to match, if not exceed, the type of cast that we\u2019ve delivered this season. We all have already begun speaking about who those names are and what we can do. We\u2019ve also, very deliberately, held a couple spots until the last few weeks, to be able to book somebody that nobody really knew prior to that exact moment, and to be able to be nimble and act immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe casting process will likely be a bit different next year, since Season 34 has become such a juggernaut, and has changed the perception of the show.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cMany years ago, when we were in a bit of a lull, it wasn\u2019t as sexy of a proposition to come on \u2018Dancing.\u2019 There was this notion that it\u2019s kind of the last chapter of your career. What I\u2019m personally very proud of is that now we\u2019ve built the brand to be a place where this can be a launching pad for so many new opportunities post-\u2018Dancing,’\u201d says O\u2019Dowd. \u201cI can\u2019t tell you how many talent on the show this season whose reps have said to ABC they are blown away by the amount of opportunities that have presented themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSo, what will change going forward? When Tom Bergeron came back<\/a> into the ballroom, he mentioned that he\u2019d like to see the return of the results show; \u201cDancing With the Stars\u201d previously aired two nights a week, one night for dances, the second for the elimination.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cMy personal opinion is, while there is one school of thought that when you\u2019re at the height of the brand, you should chase more hours, that actually, you\u2019d be sacrificing the longevity of the series, and you would be diminishing the value of the main show,\u201d O\u2019Dowd says. \u201cI think why we\u2019re getting the viewership and the engagement that we\u2019re getting right now is that on every Tuesday night, from 8-10, you\u2019re going to see multiple performances, you\u2019re able to engage live on social media, and at the conclusion of that two hours, you\u2019re gonna get to see someone, based on the performances you just witnessed, go home. There\u2019s a resolution to everything that just happened in that given episode.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBut there\u2019s still an opportunity for more. \u201cI think what we would prefer to do is to find \u2018Dancing With the Stars\u2019-adjacent vehicles to harness the leverage, the interest in the brand, but not diminish the main show. I really believe that the main show being a two-hour show \u2014\u00a0we get a beginning, middle and end and a resolution \u2014 is why we have the engagement that we do.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFrom 2006 to 2018, \u201cDancing\u201d aired two seasons a year \u2014\u00a0one in the fall, one in the spring. But O\u2019Dowd feels similarly skeptical about the possibility of bringing back a second cycle. \u201cI think the build-up and the intrigue of who we\u2019re gonna cast on the show leading into the fall is so much more heightened when you\u2019ve had a bit of a breathing room,\u201d he says. \u201cI think a second cycle, which we\u2019ve done before, you\u2019re chasing a short-term gain at the expense of the longevity of the series.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tPlus, the \u201cDWTS: Live\u201d tour<\/a> runs from January to May, giving fans a way to stay in the \u201cDancing With the Stars\u201d bubble. Not only are fans around the country able to have meet-and-greets with the professional dancers and celebrities, but the word continues to spread on social media from the tour.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe joke about how 10 years ago, we had to make sure the tour was safe for walkers. Now, we have college students lining up \u2014 thousands of them buying merch,\u201d he says. \u201cWe have the tour buses come out, and hundreds of people are lining up outside the barricades of people wanting to get a photo with our pros before the tour bus takes off for the next city.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tPrevious champions Rumer Willis and Kaitlyn Bristowe returned for the 20th anniversary show.<\/span><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDisney<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tOf course, another way to expand the popularity of \u201cDWTS\u201d would be to do an all-stars season, especially because many viewers feel that some runner-ups and third-place celebs should have won the mirrorball.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe\u2019ve talked about it; we\u2019ll continue to talk about it. We\u2019re not closing the door on it,\u201d he says. \u201cThe allure of the show is, who are the people we\u2019re going to cast that you\u2019ve never seen before? We had an element of it in the 20th birthday episode, of course, where we brought back previous winners, and that was great. But I think the beauty of the show is getting to see new people each and every cycle, some of whom you may never have even heard of prior.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tO\u2019Dowd and BBC Studios Los Angeles produce a great deal of television, working with top talent \u2014 from Joel McHale on \u201c1% Club\u201d and Jane Lynch on \u201cCelebrity Weakest Lunch.\u201d They\u2019ve created \u201cLife Before Zero\u201d for Nat Geo and \u201cOutlast\u201d for Netflix,\u201d and are bringing back \u201cLadies of London\u201d to Bravo.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019m proud of what we\u2019ve been able to do to grow the business to a place where we\u2019re having a show in pretty much every genre within unscripted, and that breadth allows us to do much more,\u201d O\u2019Dowd says.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd the success of \u201cDancing With the Stars\u201d has only taught him how to succeed further in every genre.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cCreating shows that bring people together has never been more important. What we\u2019ve always strived to do, but are making even more conservative efforts to do as a result of this season of \u2018Dancing,\u2019 is to create shows that are part of the conversation, that engage an audience on social media and get people talking \u2014 that allows for a younger audience without alienating a core older audience, if it\u2019s pre-existing format,\u201d O\u2019Dowd says. \u201cBut I think the biggest thing is that live TV community has never been stronger and it\u2019s about doing things that bring people together.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe finale of \u201cDancing With the Stars\u201d airs Tuesday, Nov. 25 at 8 p.m. ET. on ABC and Disney+. It will stream the next day on Hulu.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source variety.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n