TV Ratings: ‘Dancing With the Stars’ Premiere Leaps 30% From Last Season

Dancing With the Stars” began in controversial fashion on Monday night, as Carole Baskin of “Tiger King” fame made her first appearance, while an ad paid for by her late husband’s family aired opposite her debut in certain markets.

Numbers-wise, the premiere was clearly a success for ABC, as the latest season kicked off with a 1.3 rating among adults 18-49 and averaged 8.1 million viewers across its two hours. That represents a 30% ratings bump from last season’s premiere. The season 29 curtain raiser was also the highest-rated “Dancing With the Stars” premiere since 2017. Following that, the Disney-owned network’s “Vomo: Vote Or Miss Out” special scored a 0.4 rating and just under 3 million total viewers. The special, which featured a whole bunch of celebrities and politicians imploring the audience to “Vote or Miss Out,” was hosted by Kevin Hart on behalf of former First Lady Michelle Obama’s nonpartisan organization When We All Vote.

ABC comfortably won the night overall, followed by NBC, which averaged a 0.5 rating thanks to new episodes of “American Ninja Warrior.” The episodes averaged a 0.5 and 3.1 million total viewers, a slight down tick from last week’s premiere, which came in with a 0.6 rating and around 3.7 million viewers.

Univision came third thanks to new episodes “La Rosa De Guadalupe” and “Medicos,” both of which scored a 0.4 rating and averaged around 1.3 million viewers.

Fox aired the Mark Wahlberg feature “Patriots Day.” The film about the Boston Marathon bombing of 2013 scored a 0.3 rating and around 1.3 million viewers.

A new edition of “Love Island” delivered a 0.4 rating and 1.6 million viewers for CBS. The dating show was preceded by scripted reruns of “The Neighborhood” and “Young Sheldon.” The former scored a 0.4 rating, the latter a 0.3. A “Bull” replay rounded things off with a 0.3.

CW aired reruns of “Whose Line Is It Anyway” and “Penn & Teller: Fool Us,” both of which scored a 0.1.

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