Dancing With the Stars takes a dive in the ratings
Once a top-10 mainstay for ABC network, it now has a hard time cracking top 20
NEW YORK The dance floor is thinning over at ABC.
The Nielsen company, which measures television ratings in the U.S., says viewership is down for ABC’s Dancing With the Stars franchise. The series wrapped up its fall season on Monday, with country radio host Bobby Bones beating Disney star Milo Manheim, actress Evanna Lynch and model Alexis Ren.
Each episode averaged 8.2 million U.S. viewers the night that it aired and during the week afterward, down 22 per cent from last year’s average of 10.4 million, Nielsen said. The show was once a routine top-10 performer for ABC, but last week’s semifinals finished out of the top 20. A figure for Monday ’s finale was not immediately available. In Canada, Dancing With the Stars has generally performed outside the top 30 for broadcaster City.
In better news for ABC, the Roseanne Barr-less sitcom The Conners has turned into a solid primetime performer. Its ratings don’t measure up to last year’s Roseanne revival, but last week’s episode was the third most-watched comedy on American television, behind CBS’s The Big Bang Theory and its spinoff, Young Sheldon. The Conners airs on CTV in Canada, and has become a top-10 show here. The Big Bang Theory and Young Sheldon are typically the highestrated comedies north of the border as well.
Among the 18-to-49-year-old audience that ABC watches most closely, The Conners ranked No. 15 last week, Nielsen said. Only Grey ’s Anatomy and the annual CMA awards had more young viewers on ABC last week, Nielsen said.
And for the second straight week, talk show host Alec Baldwin was pre-empted, this time replaced by Shark Tank reruns. ABC has said the show will switch from Sunday to Saturday night, often the television version of one step closer to cancellation.
The top 10 TV shows in Canada for the week of Nov. 5-11 (the most recent data available from Numeris) are, in order: The Big Bang Theory, Young Sheldon, The Good Doctor, Survivor, 9-1-1, Station 19, Law & Order: SVU, Hawaii Five-0, Bull and Blue Bloods.