While some longrunning competition series have been victims of linear decline and evolving audience tastes, “Dancing With the Stars” has been thriving as it embarks on its landmark Season 35.
The ABC ballroom dancing show has not only improved upon its total audience — with the Season 34 finale becoming the most-watched closer in nine years — but, even more impressively, “Dancing With the Stars” scored its strongest performance in the 18-34 demo in 14 years, standing as the largest share in the demo for any broadcast entertainment series since the “Friends” finale in 2004.
For Ryan O’Dowd, unscripted chief for “Dancing With the Stars” producer BBC Studios, this stems from an effort to draw in younger audiences by casting buzzy names — including Season 34’s Alix Earle, Robert Irwin, Dylan Efron and two stars from “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” — to selecting the right music, themes and even the set design.
“The success that we had last season was remarkable. We are all unbelievably proud of it, but in some ways, it becomes stressful to think of how we can match that, if not take it to the next level,” O’Dowd told TheWrap’s Office With a View. “We’ve really leaned into what has been the DNA and the recipe for success in the last couple of seasons, and how do we preserve our core audience while also bringing in new viewers?”
After social media star Earle proved to be a success last season, “Dancing With the Stars” will aim to replicate that success as it welcomes podcaster and comedian Connor Wood to Season 35, whom the internet is already buzzing about but might be a new face to older viewers. But it’s not all young influencers and reality stars making up the celebrity recruits, as Season 35 will also see millennial and Gen X favorites like Jenna Dewan, Julia Stiles, Taylor Hanson and Tatyana Ali.
“The key for us has always been how do we cast people that the core audience is familiar with, but how do we also introduce them to new talent who they otherwise would have been unfamiliar with, but once they tune in to the premiere, they realize they love this person,” O’Dowd said.
And while the iron was hot on “Dancing With the Stars,” BBC Studios and ABC launched spinoff series “Dancing With the Stars: The Next Pro” which offered its winner a spot on upcoming Season 35 as a pro paired with a celebrity contestant. Given the “natural and inherent competition” to become a pro developing behind-the-scenes, O’Dowd and the producers said it was an “opportune time” to capture the high-stakes battle.
“There have been so many conversations and fans clamoring for a second cycle of the show, which of course we did years ago, [and] this seemed as if it would be a great way to serve the audience that was not detracting from the intrigue and the value of the main show, but was a vehicle that the brand could live on in the ‘off season’ and still keep fans invested,” he said.
“The Next Pro,” which is hosted by Season 34 champion Irwin, had ABC’s strongest summer series debut across genres in six years, and its winner, Adele Zaikman, will make her debut on Season 35 with partner and “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” star Conner Leavitt.
Below, O’Dowd unpacks his outlook on the unscripted marketplace, why BBC Studios’ unscripted series have been doing numbers on broadcast and shares his advice for those entering the industry.
TheWrap: With the rating success, what is the goal for “The Next Pro”?
O’Dowd: The goal is to have the show continue annually. It’s a good problem to have to have great professional dancers at the caliber where they’re deserving of being a pro on the main show, and obviously in success, we may have 30 pros in a few years on the main show if we do our chops right. But we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.
Has it also inspired any discussions for other spinoffs or franchise expansions?
We are constantly looking at how we serve the audience, and the success of the brand has been tremendous. We’re also mindful of not oversaturating the market and seizing this opportunity to chase the success and overdo it, honestly. Strategically, “The Next Pro” filled a void in the calendar that … was an extension of the brand, but was not detrimental to the main show. We continue to talk to ABC [to] keep the ecosystem alive, and those remain ongoing conversations. But we’re very mindful of not doing anything to detract from the success and the intrigue of those two shows.
It’s been an interesting time for unscripted. Where would you say we are now and what’s your vision for where the studio is heading?
It’s a tough time, but I try to view everything with a glass half-full mentality. I genuinely believe the demand for content remains the same — if not greater — than it ever has. We have three series right now on Fox, and there was a time years ago when people questioned, you know, is there a viewing audience on broadcast anymore? Well, the numbers speak for themselves.
I think IP is really important today, and I think budget and being mindful of cost is more important today than it ever has been, so I’m genuinely optimistic about where the business is headed. I think the demand is out there, and it’s our job to make sure we can make shows that are connecting with an audience and make them at a cost that makes sense for the networks.
You work with several broadcasters and streamers. What are you seeing about what has been of interest and how are you shifting pitches due to these interests?
Things that engage vehicles that engage audience and create conversation. I referenced IP a minute ago — that is always going to be helpful when a format has been produced internationally and had success. It gives the buyers here a bit more confidence that if it can work in Norway, for instance, then it it has a better shot of working here, and you have the benefit of the learnings of what worked and what didn’t work, so you’re a bit ahead of the game here.
Our show with Netflix, “Outlast,” that we produced with Jason Bateman’s company Aggregate that we’ve just made our third season, and it was the highest ratings we’ve had again in any of the three seasons. That is an interesting one where it’s not live appointment TV like “Dancing with the Stars,” but Netflix was very smart and strategic in how they chose to batch that eight-episode series. We launched with six of the eight episodes, and then after about a week, we had the remaining two episodes, so it allowed viewers to consume those six on their own time, but then come back and consume the last two in that finale, in a very concise short window of time, so that there was chatter online in the same way that we get that that chatter and that dialogue on on a live show like “Dancing.” I think we have a lot of shows that are generating that conversation, that’s the name of the game now: with all of the offerings out there, how do you create and sell a show and produce a show that gets people talking?
There’s been lots of unscripted production moving out of the country as well. Where do you stand on moving production internationally?
It’s a question that comes up on a daily basis. We as a company are so proud to have produced 20 years of 45 seasons of “Dancing with the Stars” in L.A., and the commitment we have to continuing to produce that show in L.A. is very important to us, especially a show of that magnitude and of that budget … I think the key is for us to be able to find ways to produce shows at a budget threshold that satisfies the network. Our desire is to make as many shows as possible in L.A.
“Outlast” is a great example — we need a terrain and a location that is tropical, that is jungle, so you’re in Panama in the case of last season of “Outlast,” but we’re constantly looking at ways by which we can bring production back to the U.S. if we’ve had to move elsewhere, and we’re motivated to do that if we can.
What advice would you give to a young person aiming to enter into the industry?
Perseverance and persistence is everything. Having been on the selling side of our business for so many years, getting comfortable with rejection is one of the most valuable character traits you can have in our business. I would say, of every 10 shows we pitch, you’re lucky to have one of those 10 get picked up and go to series … we’re not going to go to a network or a streamer with something that we don’t genuinely believe in, so, imagine when you do that, and the thing that you really poured months of time and energy and money and resources into this thing, and and it’s not deemed worthy. That’s a tough pill to swallow, but I think the key is learning from what could you have done differently. And sometimes there is nothing you could have done differently — sometimes it’s a budgetary constraint on that network’s behalf. Sometimes it’s that they have enough in that genre already on their slate, and they need something completely different. It’s a matter of really using rejection as a motivating factor.
I’ve never sold a show to CBS. I love CBS. I want to have a show on CBS. It keeps me awake at night that I’ve been unable to sell a show to CBS, but that’s motivating to me … I want to see what are the network needs that they have .. and I think we’ll both benefit from that, so consider that a shout out to [EVP of alternative programming] Mitch Graham and [CBS Entertainment president] Amy Reisenbach.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
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