Have viewers finally had their fill of "Dancing With the Stars"? Or maybe the show just doesn’t have enough star power this time around.
ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars” opened to its worst season-premiere numbers in series history last night, slumping 34% from its premiere a year ago in adults 18-49, TVbytheNumbers.com reports.
NBC won the night, with its two-hour “The Voice” the top show of the night in the 18-49 demo.
For prime time overall, NBC finished with a 3.8 average rating in 18-49, ahead of ABC (3.1 average), CBS (3.1) and Fox (1.8). ABC was No. 1 in total viewers with 16.3 million, topping NBC (10.1 million), CBS (9.5 million) and Fox (5.4 million).
“Dancing With the Stars” had a 3.5 average in the 18-49 demo from 8-10 p.m., down from a 5.3 for last year’s season premiere. Head-to-head, it was beaten by “The Voice” with a 4.5, even with that show slipping 13% from a week ago.
CBS had mixed results for its comedies, with “How I Met Your Mother” down 6% from its previous original episode with a 3.4 in adults 18-49 and “2 Broke Girls” down 11% to a 3.4. Both series tied season lows. But “Two and a Half Men” was up 6% to a 3.8 average and “Mike & Molly” rose 10% to a 3.2.
On Fox, “Alcatraz” hit a series low with a 1.5 rating in 18-49.
The 10 p.m. hour was almost a three-way dead heat, with CBS’s “Hawaii Five-0” taking a narrow win in viewers 18-49 with a 2.5 average rating, ahead of ABC’s “Castle” at 2.4 and NBC’s “Smash” at 2.3.
You are right about the need for actual stars, but that’s how it’s been for a few years now — overly preoccupied with ratings, I’m afraid. But on the serious side, it’s really the three overly-repetitious judges who are boring us to death with the same old, same old performances, year after year. Even “So You Think You Can Dance” has shaken things up over the years. Please see what you can do to get rid of those three boring, predictable judges.
I don’t get this media spin on the current DWTS roster — it has more real “stars” than any season in recent memory. Just because they aren’t hot now doesn’t negate their past celebrity. Gladys Knight is a legend; Gavin DeGraw is currently hot on the charts; everyone in the cast can claim a current or past achievement in the entertainment or sports field. There are no D-list reality stars, political lightning rods or fake tabloid-only celebrities in the bunch.
I don’t get how people think the show is supposed to have current TV/movie stars in order for it to be “proper” — you will never get current TV stars, because they can’t take the 4 months off to commit to the show.
As for the ratings, there was nothing surprising in last night’s numbers. DWTS has always skewed older, so it rarely wins the younger demos. But it had almost twice as many total viewers as any other show. You can keep bleating that only 18-49 matters, but it’s not a law, and it’s not completely true. DWTS has nothing to worry about right now.