How Dancing with the Stars made all the right moves with Gen Z

As the record-setting Season 34 of Dancing with the Stars comes to a close in Tuesday night's finale, it’s clear that the show has officially fox-trotted, cha-cha’d and jived its way back onto the screens and into the hearts of more fans than ever before — thanks in part to vested interest from a new generation.

Now in its 20th year, the ballroom dancing competition show has seen its ratings climb with each episode this season and broken its record for most votes received multiple times. According to Variety, last week’s semi-final episode had the best performance among viewers aged 18-34 in a decade, and saw an all-time high of 55.9 million votes cast.

It has also managed to make its Tuesday night simulcast on both ABC and via Disney+ appointment television, becoming water cooler conversation in an otherwise fragmented media landscape.

"Dancing with the Stars has been a reality TV stalwart for some time," entertainment journalist Natalie Jarvey told CBC news. Over the course of its run, however, she said there was a point where "the novelty of the show wore off a little bit."

The reasons for the renewed interest are simple, perhaps even obvious, but nonetheless effective: star casting that features internet celebrities with high viral potential and a TikTok-driven social strategy fit for a generation that loves to watch people dance — not to mention watch TV — on their phone.

Up until 2022, Dancing with the Stars "didn't really worry itself too much with keeping up with trends," said New York Times reporter Shivani Gonzalez. In her article about last season, Gonzalez wrote that the show's audience had "a median age of 63.5 in 2022."

"That formula they had going on worked perfectly for them," she told CBC News.

But, as Gonzalez noted, the show began to evolve in 2022. For starters, that year there was a short-lived experiment where the show was only available to watch via streaming on Disney+. Dancing with the Stars returned to ABC the following year.

That year also saw the show pivot toward casting viral celebrities like dancer and TikTok superstar Charli D’Amelio, who ended up winning Season 31.

Gonzalez described the decision to cast D'Amelio as mutually beneficial for both the show and the TikToker, as it not only brought in younger viewers but also allowed the social media personality to legitimize herself as a performer — a trend she sees continuing with TikToker Alix Earle this season.

"I feel like [before 2022] you saw a lot of contestants who were like, 'I don't know what this show is and I don't know what I'm doing here.' Whereas now it feels a lot more like it's something really desirable," Gonzalez said.

Jarvey agreed, pointing out that the cast this season in particular covers a lot of different online niches with the inclusion of The Traitors winner Dylan Efron, Olympian Jordan Chiles and two stars from The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives.

"There's a whole constellation of people bringing their different disparate audiences from social media to the show, and I do think it's kind of created … a magic recipe for success," Jarvey said.

Given the popularity of dance trends on platforms like TikTok, Gonzalez said the decision to cast popular personalities from social media “reads very seamlessly.” The show has even leaned into the idea so far as to have a whole episode dedicated to songs and dances that have trended on TikTok.