Executive producer and casting director Deena Katz has brought her daughter to the set of “Dancing With the Stars” since she was 4 years old. Now 25, Katz says, her daughter is watching the 21-year-old ABC network mainstay “as if it’s new all over again.” The youngster may have tuned in for podcast host and influencer Alix Earle and eventual champion Robert Irwin this season, but she was soon won over by older contestants such as Andy Richter and Elaine Hendrix. As Katz says, “I feel like we do our job best when you might tune in for Alix, but you end up falling in love with someone you might not know, or you weren’t so aware of.”But it’s not sheer luck, much less magic, that brought “Dancing With the Stars” its first Emmy nomination for reality competition program in a decade, or its ratings resurgence and cultural relevance to a younger generation. It’s strategy. And TikTok.“Our social media is now so big during the week,” Katz says. “People have to watch our show to keep up with the social media. We used to be the show that everybody talked about the next day. And so we’re in the zeitgeist again.” Julianne Hough, Alix Earle and Valentin Chmerkovskiy. (Eric McCandless / Disney) Executive producer Conrad Green says the team behind the show always wanted to engage with a younger audience, but also recognized you can’t always force it without turning off your base. The process began with tweaks to the casting of the dancers, evident in social media star Charli D’Amelio’s 2022 run, followed by Harry Jowsey in 2023 and Earle and Irwin this past season. But the show’s professional partners Rylee Arnold and Ezra Sosa have been just as important, using their own online brands to promote the show — creating hype that has since spurred the other dancers to get more involved. From there it started to “take on a life of its own,” Green says.It also hasn’t hurt that this season’s contestants were so passionate and invested in the show. As Green observes, they did not treat it as just another reality TV payday. “I think one of the big things in our favor is we’re a really positive, likable show that shows people pulling together for a common purpose at a time when America’s pretty fractured and miserable, really,” he adds. “I think we tell a story about America that people want to hear and are reassured by, in a way. I think this particular cast just hit on all the levels. Someone like Andy Richter staying through and being so warm and really engaging with the process.” Scott Hoying and Rylee Arnold. (Eric McCandless / Disney) Current co-host, former dancer and onetime judge Julianne Hough says all these elements culminated in a “perfect storm,” but it’s also the longtime Los Angeles-based production that’s essential to the show’s comeback.“I’ve been a part of a lot of different shows or projects where it feels like a great experience and ‘Cool, we’ll see you next year.’ But this is like family,” Hough says. And this Emmy recognition is “like when your family calls to tell you they’re engaged or they’re pregnant. It’s that moment where you’re so overwhelmed with pride, like, ‘Oh, my gosh, every single person deserves this for the years of just consistent dedication, not for the award, but for the passion and the creativity of what they’re doing.’”One theme the trio all kept returning to, however, was the series’ new multigenerational appeal. Hough recently met a fan whose story is familiar to many on the “Dancing” team. With tears in his eyes, the young man shared with Hough how he’d watch the show with his mom when he was growing up. She has since died, but those memories meant so much to him that he started watching again with his wife and young child. Ezra Sosa and Jordan Chiles. (Eric McCandless / Disney) “It’s such an honor to be a through line in memories for families,” Hough says. “I have fans that are 90 years old and then these new fans that are just discovering it, and they’re like, ‘She’s the host. I didn’t know she danced.’ And I’m like, ‘Hang on! I’m one of the OGs. Let me just remind you.’ But it’s so cool because it stayed consistent and relevant, and people are discovering it when they’re ready for it. And we’re on the pulse of it.”Beyond the TikTok dances, zeitgeist-making moments and fans supporting their favorites, Hough thinks the reason for “Dancing’s” renaissance might be as simple as viewers looking for a “joy-filled” escape every week.“Trust me, we love a little drama. That’s fantastic in life. But it’s also really refreshing not to have it,” Hough says. “And that the thing that is fueling our minds and our hearts is just watching a contestant on the show grow and come alive and do something that they never thought that they could do and have people rooting for them. What? That’s happening in 2026? Are we OK? Yes, we are.”
