This is not your mother’s Mirrorball!
Grace Turner, Contributing Writer
Bringing the dance floor to the dorm room, Dancing with the Stars has gripped a new generation and is not letting go.
Dancing with the Stars is a reality TV show that premieres live on Tuesday nights on ABC and Disney+, also streaming on Hulu the next day.
The show pairs famous celebrities such as actors, athletes, musicians and influencers with professional dancers who compete every week with assigned dance styles to please the judges.
Viewers, watching live, vote from their couch at home and contestants with the lowest total scores between the judges and the viewers each week face elimination. The season finale concludes with the awarding of the Mirrorball trophy, now the Len Goodman Mirrorball, for the final pair standing.
Dancing with the Stars has been on the air for over 20 years, first premiering in June 2005. According to an analysis from Medium.com, the show has produced over 500 episodes across 33 seasons, hosting a total of 394 different celebrity contestants.
Despite all this, the average viewers per season was on the decline.
Medium reports, “Dancing with Stars saw its highest average number of viewers during the season finales of season two and season three.”
What was once a dazzling dance floor competition quickly began being kept afloat primarily by mothers and grandmothers looking for a casual watch. A study from the New York Times observed the median age of viewers was at 63.5 in 2022.
All of this has changed however, with “Dancing with the Stars” beginning a dramatic rise in viewership during the show’s 33rd season. This rise happened particularly in viewers between the ages of 18 and 49.
This rise in viewership has continued into the show’s current 34th season. For the first time in the show’s history the audience watching the day it airs has grown for three consecutive weeks after the season premier.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, Dancing with the Stars is on pace to be the first broadcast series, outside of sports, to average a same day 1.0 rating or better among adults 18 to 49 in five years. The show is calculated to be 16% ahead of last season’s same day viewership average with 5.88 million viewers on the Disney night episode and 6.63 million viewers on the Wicked night.
What accounts for the show’s recent spike in popularity? Many are attributing the sudden rise to the show’s increased presence on social media, primarily TikTok and Instagram.
In season 33, Dancing with the Stars brought on professional dancer Ezra Sosa. Already having a following himself, Sosa quickly took to social media to promote the show and his influence has impacted many.
Young people soon began encountering and interacting with the show again, recreating dance moves, commenting on “showmances,” and reposting clips of live mistakes made between the hosts and judges.
With an uptrend in popularity the show began to capitalize on its audience. DWTS is leaning into the viral moments, making sure to cast stars at their social peak along with nostalgic favorites and featuring themes that play into the culture such as TikTok night and the Wicked night partnering with the upcoming movie. These strategies and more have been noted by US Weekly and Glamour.
As the show reaches young adult viewers across the country, the North Greenville University campus is no exception. Students are joining in the cultural phenomenon by hosting dorm watch parties, following the stars on social media and building community through shared interest in the show.
Senior Bailey Davidson is the SLT over the JR Howard and Cline dorms. Every week she invites the girls in the dorm to join together and watch the show live in the common room.
Davidson also recognizes the interest and uses the show as a feature of the dorm events she plans for her residents.
“This has created opportunities for me to interact with people that I typically do not see often, to see them consistently, and build relationships with them,” said Davidson.
Morgan Benson is a sophomore and consistent participant in the DWTS watch parties. She has been tuned into the show for the past two seasons.
“DWTS has helped me meet more people,” Benson said.
Watch parties are also being held weekly in Unit C and the Plaster Free Enterprise Building.
Senior Sadie Beaumont, a resident of Unit C, says, “I think things like that are a great way to bring people together.”
Beaumont, like many others, also engages with the show and its greater community on social media. “I love seeing all the different opinions and watching people in the comments agree with each other,” she says.
The current season of Dancing with the Stars boasts many popular faces such as stars from “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives,” Jen Affleck and Whittney Leavitt and more classic characters with Danielle Fishel known for playing Topanga in “Boy Meets World.” However, on the NGU campus the fan favorite vote goes to conservationist Robert Irwin. From social media to society impact, the ballroom is certainly back.
