DWTS TV Ratings | Pure Dancing with the Stars

No Indication To Believe Dancing With The Stars Won’t Be On Fall Schedule As Well As Spring

We touched a little on this subject the other day when Executive Producer Conrad Green talked about the dip in TV ratings and changing up Dancing With The Stars. Now the NY Post is reporting that producers are “talking” about only doing one show a year which would take place in the Spring. Though, the key word here is “TALKING”. This is not a done deal yet and I hope it’s not because, no matter what nay sayers and the media keep reporting with sensationalized headlining, etc., remember (as we have stressed to you over and over), Dancing With The Stars is still a Top 10 rated tv show. Also, all tv shows are down in numbers as Heidi has reported for several seasons now. Also note, that according to TV By The Numbers, the Dancing With The Stars All Stars was “Monday’s Most-Watched TV Program for 7 straight weeks in a row”. See,…it’s not all gloomy and doomy as many might think. Though that doesn’t mean there aren’t some changes needed….but, in my opinion, cutting the show to only one season a year isn’t the answer….not yet, anyway. Why not get to the root of the issues instead like crazy storyboarding, axing theme weeks, improving judging, etc.? It might help to get bigger names to sing and perform on the results shows too? Look for Heidi’s thoughts below as well….

ABC may be passing on the paso doble for a while.

“Dancing With the Stars” is talking about airing just once each year, in the spring, a production source tells The Post.

“They have to figure something out,” the insider says. “Maybe change the judges. The show needs a total makeover.”

After 15 editions since 2005, the once-top-rated talent show took a beating in the ratings during its “All-Star” season, which ended last month.

The finale drew 16.7 million viewers — a huge audience by most TV standards, but down almost three million from a year ago.

Total viewership for the past season was off by 20 percent.

Bringing back past champs Shawn Johnson, Emmitt Smith, Drew Lachey and the like seemed like “a great idea,” Disney CFO Jay Rasulo admitted this week at a financial conference in New York.

“Turns out people didn’t want to see people who could dance. They wanted people who couldn’t dance,” Rasulo said.

”We haven’t made a decision about fall yet,” an ABC spokeswoman said last night, “but we have no indication that it won’t be on the schedule.

You can read more at the NY Post.

Heidi: Answer me this…how is it that The Amazing Race and Survivor BOTH have two seasons a year (and are possibly more expensive to produce) and have the same or lower ratings than DWTS?? Both shows do about the same in the key demo as DWTS and they are about ten spots BELOW DWTS in total viewers?? For that matter, there are scripted dramas which are MUCH more expensive to produce that aren’t doing as well in total viewers OR the Key demo (namely Hawaii 5-0) – they’re doing 24 episodes a season; four more than DWTS does in a year. Frankly, I think it’s possible that some media (including other websites) read things around the internet and start to internalize it as fact. Then get hysterical. If DWTS goes to one season a year, it will be because the producers choose to as a means of creating more excitement for the show when it IS on. But I don’t see that happening just yet. I could be wrong. But, by all means – make some changes. Like, in terms of editing and judging. And “stars”.

Dancing With The Stars Executive Producer Conrad Green Discusses TV Ratings And New Season

The season-finale of Dancing With The Stars was down in viewers numbers by 20% from “year to year” according to an article at USA Today. Executive Producer Conrad Green has explained why he thinks this might be. All in all and even though it’s had some tough competition this seaspn, he still feels like the Dancing With The Stars all star season was a successful one. He also comments on the next season of Dancing With The Stars and how they are already in “conversations” on the new cast. More below and at the link. While we’re on the subject of the new season, also note that the premiere date has been set for March 18th, 2013.

“In retrospect, one thing that was lacking was a lot of discovery about the dancers,” says Green. “I think we underestimated how important it was to see people come fresh to the ballroom and see a story start from zero.”

Most seasons, the dancers entertainingly stumble through the beginning phases. This season, viewers watched impressive celebrity dancers — many had won their own seasons — who sometimes rivaled the pros in their own skills.

“People who watched the season really enjoyed it. The level of dancing was amazing, and it was great to see dancers come back,” says Green. “But I have heard from people that they feel like I’ve seen these people dance before. That might have been a reason our ratings took a dip slightly. But the experiment with the All-Star season was a successful one, by and large.”

Green also points to increased competition from NBC’s popular The Voice, which for the first time overlapped both DWTS nights and even shared L.A. taping space.

“It’s very tough direct competition for a show that fights for the same type of audience,” says Green. “Bearing in mind the audience we’re still getting and what they are getting, it speaks volumes about both shows.”

Green hasn’t ruled out doing another All-Star season in the future (“never say never”). But in the spring, it will be a return to new dancers.

“We’re already having conversations,” said Green. “Next season will be a new start and a new cast who haven’t danced before. People will have a chance to get re-engaged.”

Conrad forgot to mention how Dancing With The Stars had competition with Monday night football as well.

Heidi is an expert in this area. Let’s see what she thinks….

Heidi: Heh – in a way, Conrad is right…but all shows are down over all, so it’s not like they’ve fallen completely out of favor. (Don’t pimp me too much, Vogue – I haven’t done an indepth study this season. )Of course, depending on how you read it, he sounds like he’s agreeing with me (again) – you’ve seen these people before, for sure. The natural extension from that comment is “…and some of them have already won.” Of course, over all, your audience might just be on to you, Conrad – why watch a show where the judges are just acting ridiculous. Do you think that those of us on this website are the only ones that don’t understand how Kirstie Alley or a Bristol Palin scores only a point lower than Melissa, Apolo or Shawn in any given week?? Perhaps your ratings would be up if half or most of your audience didn’t scream “WTF???” when the scores are handed out after every dance. They hear how CAI is so sweet and kind to Kirstie, only to turn around and pick on Apolo’s chemistry with Karina and give him a score that is uncomfortable close to Kirstie’s when it is clear to EVERYONE that Apolo is ten times the dancer. Dude….get yo head out yo azzzz. More on this subject in a few days when I have time to write extensively on how he could fix this show. :-)

Dancing with the Stars Season 14, Week 5 – Ratings Watch

Another post in the on-going saga on the DWTS ratings for season 14. If you want to read previous posts on this topic, you can find them in the following locations:

DWTS Ratings Watch
DWTS 14, Week 1 – Ratings Watch
DWTS 14, Week 2 – Ratings Watch

I skipped a couple weeks, so there is a bit more information in this post than normal. As you will see, DWTS was continuing the slight downward trend but then bumped upward slightly. This is normal, but a bit earlier than past seasons. The results show, on the other hand, seems a lot more erratic – for that reason, I’m going to graph it as well so we can see how it compares to previous seasons. The only difference now is that American Idol finally mustered enough viewers (or DWTS dipped enough) for it to take second place while DWTS moves into third place. As you will see, they are BARELY beating DWTS and their results show isn’t beating DWTS Results show all the time – the two shows are fighting each other for dominance.

Here are the Nielsens for weeks corresponding to weeks 3, 4 and 5 of DWTS. All ratings were obtained from Zap2It (if you want to see how DWTS is doing in the Demo, click the link).

Week 3

Week 4

Week 5

Side note: Am I the only one that is happy as HELL to see Once Upon a Time in the Top 20?? OMG, I love that show. I should start a blog to try to figure it out.

Anyway, the point of these posts has always been to provide context so when you see articles about “tumbling ratings” you KNOW that the ratings for all shows are down and that DWTS is still a top FIVE show. Here’s the graph for the season to date, Season 14 compared to other spring seasons:

The question now is, will this season mimic Season 10 or Season 6?? Brief trend upward followed by a continued slide as the weather gets warmed up OR will it continue upward. I can’t guess, but I’ll be watching with interest. What about the results show? Well, here’s the graph:

See, there is nothing consistent about the results show ratings EXCEPT the spike at the end of the season to see who wins. Clearly, figuring out the wild up and down numbers in total viewers would require a lot more research than I’m willing to invest. I would IMAGINE that it is some bizarre combination of what else is on to watch, the celebs on the show, the weather…who knows. What I do find interesting is that the results show ratings haven’t slid downward at the same rate as the performance shows – this isn’t the lowest rated spring season of results show…it’s somewhat in the middle. So, I guess that suggests to me that there is a “bottom” to the ratings of BOTH shows. At least for right now. I also seem to recall (and this is JUST recall – I haven’t gone back to check) that in terms of weekly RANK, the results show has actually moved UP. Both Season 12 and Season 14 seem to be averaging a higher rank than spring seasons before them.

There is a rather striking difference between the two graphs…the performance graph has Seasons 6 through 12 grouped together and relatively consistent trend…not so with the results show. I tend to think that people are less likely to watch the results if they’ve got a better choice…or if a great musical act is on. Perhaps DWTS should quit drawing it out for a whole hour? I’m conflicted.

Dancing with the Stars Season 14, Week 2 – Ratings Watch

Another week, another post on the on-going ratings saga. As I predicted last week, DWTS is sticking to the pattern and is down slightly from the premiere – but it’s still the number two show for the week in total viewers, and number 9 in the key demographic. I got all my Nielsen information from Zap2It, as usual.

If you click that link you will see that while DWTS gets beat in the key demo by the Voice, American Idol and a few others, part of the reason for it falling from number 6 to number 9 (3.5 to 3.2) is two very large basketball games. It definitely holds its own. The key demo is the 18-49 year olds which advertisers covet. The higher you are in the key demo, the more money you can earn for commercial time during your show. Hence – the continued appearance of Disney kids and beefcake in the DWTS cast each season. Anyway, DWTS had a 3.2 share in the key demo this week versus a 5.3 for AI and a 4.5 for the Voice. The sky still isn’t falling as that difference between AI and DWTS equates to roughly 2.7 million viewers. Sounds like a lot…but when the total viewers number is over 17 million? Not so much. Yeah, yeah, yeah…the advertisers look at the key demo as being more important. Whatever. The point of these posts are to provide context to those who just say “DWTS ratings are down” while neglecting to mention that TV is down as a whole AND to show that while the ratings are down, DWTS ain’t going nowhere anytime soon. Not when they are ranked number 2 over all and number 9 in the demo.

Take a gander at the Top 25 shows on Television, Week ending April 1 (corresponding to DWTS Week 2):

AI is nipping at DWTS heels, but the real surprise is the Voice falling rather precipitously from 16 million viewers before DWTS started to not quite 12 million viewers now. I have a feeling they may tinker a bit with the battle rounds next time around. Anyway, next week will be the real test when the Voice moves to live shows where people can vote. Interestingly, the DWTS results show is ranking rather high right now. The total viewers at 15.6 may be a similar number to the old “normal”, which means it’s holding viewership better than the performance show is. Weird. I’ll have to write on that next week and see if that’s true or not.

Lastly, my little graph showing DWTS ratings this season compared to seasons past. Not to much to say about that….without looking at the chart above, it lacks context by itself.

Dancing with the Stars Season 14, Week 1 – Ratings Watch

You remember when I threatened a weekly look at the DWTS ratings to counter the chicken littles’ of DWTS reporting?? The ratings are falling the ratings are falling!! Well, this is it. In case you missed my first post on this subject, you can find it here —> DWTS Ratings Watch

As I’ve said, every week of every season someone cries “the ratings are down” and then they give a whole host of reasons ranging from their favorite pro being absent, to their favorite celeb (often someone I’ve never heard of) not being included, to the current cast being filled with no one and being “unexciting”. Well, being a numbers nerd, it was a very simple thing to look at the ratings and reach the obvious conclusion. Look at these ratings from last week (Zap2it):

Dancing with the Stars – Ratings Watch

As a blogger, I get a lot of my ideas for things to write on twitter or other websites. Often, my ideas are a result of reading things that I know just aren’t true, either in my gut or by knowledge of facts. This series is no different. When I’m not playing Devil’s Advocate, I’m attempting to debunk some crazy hyperbole that I’ve read out on the web. Just call me contrary. It’s my way. Anyway, one of the things that I read on a semi-regular basis is a phrase similar to: “Well, DWTS’ ratings just aren’t that good anymore” or “the rating are way down”. The former is, well – wrong. Or at the very least, seriously in need of CONTEXT. The latter? Well, that would be a bit of hyperbole. They are on a downward trend, compared to previous seasons…but when you are maintaining your top ten status (which certainly means that most TV is down as a whole), does it really matter?? Let’s face it – there are a lot of different ways to watch TV programs these days and I ain’t talking DVR. Not only is there On Demand, but there is the web.

But I digress. Let’s look at the average seasonal ratings for all seasons of DWTS up to this point.