Stars dance with fewer viewers
RTÉ def iant as 60,000 tune out, while new TV3 show nips at hoofers’ heels
DANCING with the Stars seems to have slowed to a waltz as audience figures from RTÉ’s flagship show have dwindled.
The show which was recommissioned after last year’s success has seen the numbers for this year’s second series being markedly lower.
Figures obtained by the Irish Mail on Sunday show that, on average, 60,000 fewer people have tuned in to the reality dance show.
‘The average consolidated viewership figures for last year’s Dancing With The Stars for the first five programmes was 621,100 and this year average viewership figures for the first five programmes of the series has been 561,700,’ an RTÉ spokesperson told the MoS. The station, however, said live streams are up on last year, citing a 7% increase.
‘The total streams to date for Dancing With The Stars on RTÉ Player is 215,100 and these streams are up 7% year on year. The series sees an average of 35,000 streams (live and ondemand) per week on RTÉ Player.’
The first-ever episode of DWTS in 2017 had an average audience of 640,000 viewers. Now, the show faces fierce competition from Ireland’s Got Talent on TV3, but RTÉ maintain DWTS is the number one entertainment show.
It won the ratings battle when Ireland’s Got Talent first aired, capturing 526,100 viewers compared with TV3’s 469,000 viewers.
Meanwhile, the row between professional dancer Ryan McShane and judge Brian Redmond over the scores rumbled on this week.
‘Handbags at ten paces’ is how McShane laughingly referred to his spat with Brian on last week’s show.
They exchanged words when Anna Geary was paired up with Ryan – Erin McGregor’s usual partner – and the pair performed the Viennese Waltz where they scored 22 points.
Ryan was less than pleased with Brian following his comments about the performance, and a heated row ensued.
‘The thing about it is, I also said on Can’t Stop Dancing the week before that Jake [Carter] should have gotten a ten for his dance, so I already was saying there is great numbers being produced every week, so for someone to turn around and say a six or a seven and it’s not, then they need to pull them bigger scores out,’ Ryan told the MoS.
Brian told the MoS he stands by his score and comments.
‘I had a look back when I got home. Anna has actually, over the first five or six weeks up to that point, she has averaged a 7.5 score. She’s had three nines, so if he thinks she was undermarked then the score would have to go up to 14 or 15; so I don’t think he was justified.’
‘The total live streams for DWTS are up 7%’