On Dancing With the Stars, the cross-promotion is blatant. Last season alone featured a Britney Spears week (when Hulu, which hosted DWTS the next day, debuted the documentary Controlling Britney Spears), a Disney night, a Grease night (for ABC’s upcoming Grease Live!), a Queen night (for ABC’s Queen Family Singalong special), and a Janet Jackson night (for Hulu’s documentary Malfunction). Well, get ready for even more of that. Dancing With the Stars is fox-trotting from ABC to Disney+ for its next two seasons, Deadline reports, opening the door to dozens of future Disney nights. Don’t believe us? Kareem Daniel, a Disney executive, specifically cited “the overwhelming popularity of its Disney-themed competition nights” in explaining DWTS’s move. So brace yourself for Pixar night, Star Wars night, Marvel night, High School Musical: The Musical: The Series night, maybe even Avatar 2 night for all we know!
Okay, sure, you have other questions, too. Like how is a live TV show going to hit streaming? Per Deadline, DWTS is set to be the first live reality show ever on streaming — and that’s the key, the show will continue to be live on Disney+ (and presumably voting will stay relatively similar). As for the rationale behind the move? Offloading DWTS to Disney+ gives ABC room for more Monday Night Football games and gives Disney+ another tentpole alongside its current offerings, like the Marvel series The Mandalorian and Pixar films. (Even 30 seasons in, DWTS is one of the top performers on ABC!) And if you’re rolling your eyes at subscribing to another streaming service, well, at least Disney+ is rolling out its cheaper ad-supported tier this fall … just in time for season 31.
