Do you remember those rumors about Dancing With the Stars cutting back to once a year? Not happening, said Paul Lee at Thursday’s ABC executive panel at the Television Critics Association tour in Los Angeles:
“We still intend to keep it going twice a year,” Lee insisted. “It’s still a big, broad, crowd pleaser. I think the All-Star version made it a little bit older. I think we have the ability of casting fresh and bringing in the younger audience again. We think there’s a lot of life in it. 16 million viewers is a lot of viewers.” Season 16 premieres March 18.
After the recent All-Star edition of DWTS turned into a ratings disappointment, Lee had a realization:
“Turns out people like to see bad dancing as much as they do good dancing,” Lee said. So viewers can probably expect that to be the first and last edition of “DWTS: All-Stars.”
Duh!
Meanwhile, ABC still believes in Nashville, despite the newbie show’s mediocre ratings:
“Those performances are superb,” Lee says of stars Connie Britton and Hayden Panettiere. “We know we have the young trendsetters in and loving that show and we want to use that…We’re going to sustain this one,” he promises, adding that he hopes the ladies’ Golden Globe nominations will help.
