Dancing With The Stars gained its biggest premiere audience in six years, drawing 6.67 million live plus same-day viewers for the Season 35 opener on ABC and Disney+. That preliminary Nielsen figure marks a 24% rise over the Season 34 premiere and signals a clear rebound for the long-running competition series.
The show also strengthened among the advertiser-coveted demo, jumping 40% among adults 18-49 to a 1.48 rating, its best performance in the age group in nearly a decade. ABC’s telecast was the top entertainment program across all television in the adults 18-49 bracket since the network’s Oscar broadcast.
Disney highlighted the program’s youth appeal, reporting a 2.53 rating among women 18-34, the strongest premiere delivery for the series in 13 years. Those gains follow a season in which Dancing With The Stars became a strategic asset for Disney, with Season 34 ending as the show’s best finale audience in nearly ten years.
The Season 35 kickoff was structured as a two-night premiere because the cast is one of the largest the series has booked. Monday night featured only the male celebrities and their professional partners; the women will perform on Wednesday night, and each premiere night carries its own elimination. Disney has not released official vote tallies because the female competitors have not yet appeared, and Nielsen’s Big Data + Panel numbers, which typically refine preliminary totals, are expected later in the week.
Monday’s broadcast encountered heavy online engagement: voting systems briefly failed and host Alfonso Ribeiro reported the program experienced record-breaking text vote volumes toward the end of the episode. Several high-profile cast members, including Maura Higgins, Ciara Miller, and Julia Stiles, will not appear until Wednesday, leaving open the possibility that the second night could post even stronger numbers.
Dancing With The Stars is produced by BBC Studios. More complete ratings and audience breakdowns will be available when Nielsen’s Big Data + Panel updates are released and after the second night of the premiere airs.
