Dancing with the Stars Season 33 Sets New Voting Record

There’s been record voter turnout, and no, we aren’t talking about the U.S. presidential election. Season 33 of Dancing with the Stars has tallied more votes than ever before, and they’re crushing in the ratings too.

So what is it about Dancing with the Stars Season 33 that has people tuned in? Well, perhaps it’s been a little bit of everything.

Dancing with the Stars Season 33 is breaking records

Photo Credit: Disney/Andrew Eccles

Like most seasons of Dancing with the Stars, Season 33 started with a little bit of controversy thanks to Anna Delvey and her ankle monitor stomping across the dancefloor. Unsurprisingly, she was the first celeb to get the boot, but fans have still tuned in to see reality stars, actors, and Olympic athletes compete for the Mirrorball Trophy.

According to a report from Deadline, DWTS’s Disney Night helped them become the number one entertainment program for Adults 18-49 on October 22. The episode scored a 0.72 Nielsen rating, which was up 24 percent compared to Season 32’s Disney Night.

For reference, that’s about 4.85 million people who watched Dancing with the Stars. It might seem small in comparison to their 2011 numbers, where their most-watched season gained 22 million viewers. However, we know that people aren’t watching live TV like that anymore, and it’s an impressive accomplishment for a show that has been on this long.

Although DWTS doesn’t normally release the voting totals from the viewers, they reveal that the dancers received over 16 million votes during the Disney Night episode. That’s more than the population of some countries!

Unfortunately for Phaedra Parks and Val Chmerkovskiy, those 16 million votes weren’t going in their direction. They wound up getting eliminated during the highly-rated episode, leaving seven couples left in the competition.

Dancing with the Stars airs on Tuesdays at 8/7c on ABC and Disney+.

TELL US – ARE YOU SURPRISED THAT DANCING WITH THE STARS IS DOING SO WELL IN THE RATINGS? WHICH COUPLE DO YOU THINK WILL TAKE HOME THE MIRRORBALL TROPHY?