‘Dancing With the Stars’ Season 35 Premiere Draws 6.7 Million Viewers, Best Start in Six Years

Dancing With the Stars returned with its largest premiere audience in six years, giving ABC a strong start to the competition’s latest run. The Dancing With the Stars Season 35 ratings reached 6.7 million viewers for Tuesday’s September 15 premiere, according to Nielsen data reported Wednesday.

The audience represents a 24 percent increase from the Season 34 premiere, which drew 5.4 million viewers. Variety reports that the result is the show’s most-watched season opener since Season 29 premiered to 8.1 million viewers in 2020.

Dancing With the Stars Season 35 ratings climb year over year

The improvement extended beyond total viewers. Season 35’s opening episode posted a 1.48 rating among adults ages 18 to 49, up 40 percent from the 1.06 rating reported for last year’s premiere. That represents the competition’s strongest premiere performance in the demographic since 2017.

The Hollywood Reporter independently reported the six-year audience high, while Deadline also reported a 24 percent year-over-year increase for the opening night.

The numbers continue a period of renewed audience momentum for the long-running competition after Season 34 produced strong engagement across television and digital platforms.

Season 35 began with a two-night premiere

ABC structured the new season differently from a conventional single-night launch. The network scheduled the premiere across September 15 and 16, with the first night introducing performances from the male celebrities before the remaining competitors take the ballroom on night two.

ABC’s Season 35 announcement confirms a 16-celebrity cast and a live two-night premiere simulcast on ABC and Disney+, with episodes subsequently available through Hulu.

The cast includes Tatyana Ali, Tyler Cameron, Giada De Laurentiis, Jenna Dewan, Ezra Frech, Amber Glenn, Taylor Hanson, Maura Higgins, Conner Leavitt, Ciara Miller, Sarah Jane Nader, Jackson Olson, Guillermo Rodriguez, Harry Shum Jr., Julia Stiles and Connor Wood.

Alfonso Ribeiro and Julianne Hough return as co-hosts, while Carrie Ann Inaba, Bruno Tonioli and Derek Hough make up the judging panel.

The premiere delivered the season’s first elimination

Season 35 did not wait until the second week to begin sending contestants home. The opening night included the season’s first elimination after the initial group of celebrity performances, adding competitive stakes immediately to the two-night launch.

The second half of the premiere airs Wednesday, September 16, at 8 p.m. ET on ABC and Disney+. ABC has also scheduled a live DWTS After Party following the second night, hosted by Season 34 Mirrorball champion Robert Irwin.

The broader Season 35 rollout includes another companion program. The Dancing With the Stars Official Podcast returned for its second season with former contestant Andy Richter as host, extending coverage beyond the weekly live broadcast.

DWTS enters Season 35 with renewed momentum

The strong opening audience is particularly notable for a television franchise that has been on the air since 2005. Broadcast viewing habits have changed substantially during that period, while the show itself now operates across ABC, Disney+ and Hulu rather than depending exclusively on its traditional television audience.

Season 35 also follows a year in which Dancing With the Stars received its first Outstanding Reality Competition Program Emmy nomination in a decade. ABC previously said Season 34 generated roughly half a billion fan votes over the course of the competition.

The new ratings do not establish how Season 35 will perform across its full run, and subsequent episodes will provide a better measure of whether the premiere growth can be sustained. For now, however, the Dancing With the Stars Season 35 ratings give the series its largest opening television audience since 2020 and a substantial year-over-year increase entering the rest of the fall season.