‘Dancing With the Stars’ Twice a Year Again? Bosses ‘Would Happily Embrace That Challenge’

Dancing With the Stars hit voting records this season and has enjoyed a resurgence in popularity both on broadcast TV and on social media. After last night’s three-hour finale, in which conservationist Robert Irwin and his pro dancer partner, Witney Carson, were announced as the Len Goodman Mirrorball winners, the five finalists and their pro partners — Irwin and Carson, Alix Earle and Valentin Chmerkovskiy, Jordan Chiles and Ezra Sosa, Dylan Efron and Daniella Karagach, and Elaine Hendrix and Alan Bersten — all boarded a flight to New York City for a post-finale press tour.

TV Insider caught up with executive producers Conrad Green and Deena Katz right on the ballroom floor to get their thoughts on this past season, who the show’s MVPs truly are, and the chances on going back to producing the reality competition series twice a year.

Congratulations on a fantastic season! What do you attribute to the resurgence of the show and its popularity on social media?

Conrad Green: Well, most of it comes down to Deena’s casting because they are the reason that everyone watches. Deena’s always understood just a few months or six months before that person you want to be watching on your TV hits that peak. She has the ability to craft a cast that is balanced and appeals to our older audience, our younger Gen Z audience, and pulls it all together.

The key is we never lose sight of what the show itself is. It’s all about art, and it’s all about storytelling. It’s all about goodwill and effort. Of course, there are moments where people have gnarly times, but that’s the core of the show, and if you don’t lose that, you’re always on a good track.

Disney/Eric McCandless

Also, I think our hosts have been hugely important in the resurgence of the show. Alfonso [Ribeiro] and Julianne [Hough] are a completely fresh take. After we went to Disney+ for a season and came back, it felt like [we had] a soft relaunch, and the audience could fall in love with the show again.

Deena Katz: I watched Conrad do this show, and Conrad is the biggest fan of the show, which is part of the reason why I think that the audience loves the show so much. He sees the heart of the show, and we see the heart of the show. We’ll sit and watch rehearsals. We smile, we laugh, and we cry just like the audience does. We care about [the show] the way the audience does,

The freestyle performers tonight were all amazing.

Katz: I have to give so much to our pro dancers. They are our show. They are the stars of the show. We have these fantastic celebrities that come in every season, but these guys, they have the hardest jobs on this show, and each one of them this year with those freestyles did something exactly right for their celebrities. Each one did something different for each of them, but really showed [their celebrity]. Kudos to them.

What goes into the pairings? Why did you think that Andy Richter and Emma Slater would make such a great pairing? Or Dylan Efron and Daniella Karagach?

Katz: Some of it is really basic. We have heights that we’re working with. Also, you don’t always want to see, for example, the same female dancer with the football player [every season]. What does the audience want to see? It really is your gut. It’s fun casting the show and pairing people together, but it’s so stressful. I have a grid in our office. We send things back and forth when we are putting pairings together. Some, we know immediately.

Green: We have the same original corkboard [that we put people’s names and headshots on] that we used back in Season 1.

Katz: We’ll literally move pictures around on it because we’re trying to make new stories. Each pairing is a potential story. You don’t know where it’s going to go, but you can have a feel for where it might go. You have a feel already for what your dancers are like. You have a feel for what the celebrities are like. So, you’re trying to work out where that could go.

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For next season, you’re out of Irwin siblings, as both Robert and Bindi have won.

Katz: It’s so funny that you say that. Right after Robert won, I was standing with him, Bindi, and [their mother] Terri. We were all crying and hugging, and I said, “Terri, I guess it’s your turn.”

Green: [Smiling] I don’t think she’ll be taking us up on that offer.

Katz: [But] who is going to do it next is Grace, Bindi’s daughter [who is 4]. Ten years [or so] from now, we’ll see.

Tom Bergeron made a plea to ABC when he was on the show’s Birthday Week episode for the network to bring back the results show. Any thoughts on that? Or going back to twice a year?

Green: It’s sort of out of our hands. Being on twice a year is great for the show, but there’s a lot to be said for being on once a year. It just feels like a real event that everyone looks forward to. You don’t want to overstay your welcome.

Having said that, of course, we would happily embrace that challenge. As for the results show, I don’t know in the modern economics of the industry whether that makes as much sense as it used to. I do think moving the show to Tuesday nights has helped because there’s no competition from football. The social media drive of our stars, our celebrities, and our dancers has been really important in embracing the younger generation.

I image you’ll have even more celebrities wanting to do the show given this season’s popularity.

Green: I would hope so, absolutely. But what really matters is that the people who want to do the show actually want to dance. That’s been the theme of this season and what made it so compelling. The people on the show loved doing it.