‘Dancing With The Stars’ Season Premiere Cuts A Rug To Top Monday Ratings

Dino-Ray Ramos
·2 min read

Dancing With The Stars samba’d, tango’d and fox-trotted its way to the top of Monday’s primetime broadcast ratings, delivering a 1.3 in the adults 18-49 demographic and netting 8.10 million viewers. The final numbers for the live premiere are expected to be adjusted due to an NFL preemption in parts of the country, but the numbers were still big enough to lead the night.

ABC’s long-running reality dance competition, which debuted with a new pandemic-friendly format, a new host and a fresh batch of celebrities vying for the coveted mirror ball trophy, debuted with its highest-rated premiere since Season 25 in 2017. As a chase, ABC aired the special VOMO: Vote or Miss Out (0.4, 3.00M), and effort to bolster voting ahead of the November elections.

Both shows gave ABC the sweep in the demo and viewers on a night in which Disney sibling ESPN aired a doubleheader to launch its Monday Night Football regular season.

Elsewhere, amid encores of The Neighborhood, Young Sheldon and Bull, Love Island (0.4, 1.64M) kept the beach party going at CBS, ticking up from last week.

On NBC, American Ninja Warrior (0.5, 3.05M) struggled to compete against dancing celebrities as it slipped from last week. The reality sports competition led into a new edition of Dateline (0.4, 2.81M).

Fox meanwhile aired Patriot Day (0.3, 1.34M) as its movie of the week, which held steady with last week’s Draft Day. The CW aired repeats of Whose Line Is It Anyway and Penn & Teller: Fool Us, but its numbers are also likely to be adjusted due to the NFL preemption.

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