“Dancing With the Stars” (DWTS) is back for its 34th season, returning to the dance floor with a fresh new batch of celebrities and record-breaking viewership numbers!
On Tuesday Sept. 16. the premiere of the latest season saw a rise in votes by 163% compared to last season’s premiere, according to Variety.
There’s also been a significant surge in online chatter this season, with popular celebrities such as Robert Irwin, Alix Earl, and Andy Richter dominating the conversation.
“I feel the stars this year were chosen well,” says COMPASS sophomore Eva Garza, whose love for dance has her tuning in every episode.
On Oct. 14th, week five, the show surpassed 50 million votes, a first in the history of the competition, with Garza attributing this to social media.
Getting a closer look at the celebrities through social media and heavily marketing on apps like TikTok is “a smart choice” Garza remarked, and further added, “a 15 second clip can go a long way,” noting how internet virality leads to high viewership and voting numbers.
DWTS has been able to maintain a grasp on popular culture since its first season, and a lot of this comes down to the show’s core notion: anyone can dance.
Millikan dance teacher Jennifer Waters believes that watching from week to week and “being able to see that transformation as an audience member” from the celebrities and seeing their “relatable underdog stories” on screen is what really gets people to watch.
With enthusiasm from audiences and the numbers to match, this season of “Dancing With the Stars” is looking to be one of ABC’s most successful yet, and there’s still more to come. The show airs every Tuesday at 8pm ET/PT on Disney+ and ABC, so make sure to tune in to keep up with the competition.
Kaia Nguyen • Nov 18, 2025 at 11:15 am
As a person who doesn’t watch “Dancing with the Stars” but would consider watching it, I appreciate how the article provided various statistics and facts which helped me to visualize the sheer amount of popularity that this show gained over just this last season. Another thing that I enjoyed about this article was the fact that Daigle incorporated quotes from an interview with a real student on campus. This creates a sense of relatability, helping the reader to comprehend the appeal of the show via the perspective of someone similar to them; a student at Millikan High School. However, for readers who might not be familiar with the show, I would have liked to see more background information, depicting the structure of the show and how the competition works. Having this insight would have helped me and other readers alike, to visualize the show better. Overall this piece does a great job at expressing the newfound appeal of “Dancing with the Stars”.
Makellah Mahan • Nov 17, 2025 at 1:25 pm
On November 4, 2025, Nicole Daigle wrote an article titled “Return to Center Stage: Season 34 of “Dancing With the Stars””. As someone who personally does not keep up with the show, I felt as though this article did an excellent job at explaining the show as well as elaborating on its significance. The title caught my attention with the show reaching to the 34th season, which is extremely impressive. Considering that the show has been running for 34 seasons, one could expect that viewership has maintained or gone down, but as Daigle mentions, viewership participation has gone up 163%. I felt as though the author did an amazing job at keeping the audience engaged with a decent balance between experiences, data, and analysis. I enjoyed the part discussing the significance of marketing through social media. Something that simple often gets overlooked but as Daigle mentions internet virality increases voter participation, which is a major aspect of the show. Although I personally have little experience with the show “Dancing With the Stars”, this article does an excellent job at capturing the main idea and putting it into a bite-sized experience that encourages the audience to go watch the show.
Cassidy Ung • Nov 17, 2025 at 12:39 pm
Dear Corydon Editor,
On November 11, 2025, Nicole Daigle wrote an article titled “Returning to Center Stage: Season 34 of “Dancing With the Stars””. This article highlights how this show has skyrocketed in votes and views compared to the other 33 seasons caused by the social media attention it has been receiving. To add on, each episode is receiving more than 50 million views which is more views than ever before.
Along the same lines, Daigle utilizes the side of the viewers that watch the show and gets their opinions on why the show is so interesting and why the views have increased so much over the years. Daigle interviews Eva Garza, a sophomore in COMPASS that is also in dance here at Millikan that describes their marketing as “smart” as this show releases many of their clips on social media such as Tiktok grabbing more people’s attention. Along with remarking how many of the “stars” on the show are celebrities that many of the younger audiences enjoy watching such as Alix Earle and Robert Irwin. As she interviews Eva she allows us to get the real insight of why so many more people are watching “Dancing with the Stars” from seeing their favorite celebrities, as well as seeing clips on social media that grabs the audience’s attention.
On the whole, this excerpt was very enjoyable to read since I have also been seeing many videos on social media of this show but have yet to see it so I can relate to what was said within this article. Moreover, a suggestion I would have for this article is including some of the background information on the behind the scenes of the show and how that appeals to the audience as well. Overall, I really enjoyed getting a chance to hear the different perspectives on how the views have greatly increased in the past few seasons compared to this one too.
Sincerely,
Cassidy Ung