All posts tagged: ABC

‘Dancing With the Stars’ Season 35 Premieres to Big Ratings

‘Dancing With the Stars’ Season 35 Premieres to Big Ratings

Published by Daniella Wilson

Dancing With the Stars did not lose any of its ratings momentum in the offseason. If anything, it picked up steam. The ABC competition opened its 35th season Tuesday with a sizable jump in both viewers and the key ad-sales demographic of adults 18-49 over its 2025 premiere. DWTS drew 6.67 million viewers, based on preliminary Nielsen ratings, a 24 percent improvement on last year’s debut (5.38 million) and a little ahead of the show’s full-season average of 6.5 million viewers. It was the most watched season premiere for the series since season 29 in September 2020. Dancing’s gains were even bigger among adults 18-49, where it scored a 1.48 rating — up 40 percent from last year’s premiere and higher than every episode last season except for the finale. The last time a DWTS season premiere scored a better 18-49 rating was in September 2017. One more superlative: Among women 18-34, the premiere’s 2.53 rating was the highest for a season opener since season 17 in 2013. All the numbers above could change a bit …

ABC accuses FCC, Carr of trying to censor its stations

ABC accuses FCC, Carr of trying to censor its stations

Published by Sam Flores

ABC is accusing the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) of trying to censor the network with its move to call several of ABC’s local stations up for early license renewal. In a Thursday filing, the company said “the Commission’s attempted censorship of ABC has attracted condemnation across the political aisle,” and it defended what it argued is the… Source link

MrBeast Will Be a Shark on Shark Tank New Season on ABC this Fall

MrBeast Will Be a Shark on Shark Tank New Season on ABC this Fall

Published by Daniella Wilson

MrBeast is becoming a shark. The YouTuber, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, is joining the cast of ABC‘s reality program Shark Tank, where he will be a guest shark for season 18, which will debut in the fall. Donaldson will be a shark alongside Beast Industries CEO Jeffrey Housenbold, and joins a starry group of guest sharks for the new season. Other guest sharks will include actress and writer Mindy Kaling, former NFL star J.J. Watt, Diary of a CEO podcast host Steven Bartlett, and Sara and Erin Foster, the co-founders of Favorite Daughter and the inspiration for the series Nobody Wants This. The guest sharks will join the roster of permanent sharks on the program, which include Barbara Corcoran; Lori Greiner; Robert Herjavec; Daymond John; Daniel Lubetzky; Kevin O’Leary; Kendra Scott; and Rashaun Williams. Shark Tank has become one of the most enduring reality shows on broadcast TV, and by far the most successful business program. The show sees entrepreneurs and investors pitch the sharks on investing in their product or business, often sparking …

Muse Entertainment Expands in Unscripted Series Adaptations

Muse Entertainment Expands in Unscripted Series Adaptations

Published by Daniella Wilson

Film and TV studio Muse Entertainment has inked a first-look deal with The Walrus magazine to expand into documentary and unscripted TV adaptations. Muse will mine unpublished stories from The Walrus to possibly develop and produce timely documentaries and unscripted TV series for global audiences. The development partnership will include investigative journalism and coverage of social issues, culture, politics, science and business by The Walrus, with discussions on potential projects already underway. The expansion in unscripted fare follows Muse having a long track record in scripted event projects like The Kennedys miniseries for Reelz, Starz’s The Pillars of the Earth, ABC’s Ben Hur, WGN America’s Bellevue and, more recently, Coroner for the CBC, Three Pines for Amazon Prime Video and Sullivan’s Crossing for CW, Fremantle and Netflix. “As we continue to expand Muse Entertainment’s unscripted business, we’re focused on building a pipeline of distinctive, high-quality stories with the potential to resonate globally. The Walrus has earned a reputation for exceptional journalism, and this partnership gives us a unique opportunity to identify compelling stories early and develop them for audiences across film …

This ABC Showdown Is Different

This ABC Showdown Is Different

Published by José Betancourt

This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here. In September, FCC Chair Brendan Carr dangled a simple threat: Either ABC would “take action” against Jimmy Kimmel, or there would be consequences. The network promptly gave in—“Great News,” President Trump wrote at the time—suspending Kimmel’s late-night show only to reinstate it a few days later amid public backlash. Yesterday, just 24 hours after the president and the first lady publicly demanded that Kimmel be fired, the FCC went after the network once again, ordering an early review of all broadcast licenses owned by ABC’s parent company, Disney. In some ways, the situations rhyme. Both involve direct threats to ABC after a Kimmel joke, and both reveal how the FCC has been reconfigured to act on Trump’s personal grievances. But having failed in its previous attempt to oust Kimmel, the White House has now lost much of its leverage; …

The Bachelor Franchise ‘Not Going Anywhere,’ Says ABC Unscripted Boss

The Bachelor Franchise ‘Not Going Anywhere,’ Says ABC Unscripted Boss

Published by Daniella Wilson

The Bachelorette already took a break before Taylor Frankie Paul’s season was shelved three days before it was set to premiere on March 22. ABC and producers Warner Bros. had high hopes for the 22nd season that was set to star the breakout reality star from sibling Hulu’s reality hit, The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives. The crossover casting was supposed to bring in a new audience following a ratings decline and the female-led cycle taking a season off in 2025 following Jenn Tran’s 21st season. All of that changed, of course, when the network made the decision to scrap Paul’s already-filmed season entirely following the release of a damning video connected to her 2023 domestic violence arrest, and amid investigations into new claims of alleged domestic incidents involving Paul and her ex-boyfriend Dakota Mortensen. Later, in April, The Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office decided not to file charges related to the new incidents. Since The Bachelorette was pulled, viewers and critics alike wondered if the show would ever return amid the scandal (see …

Mormon Wives Season 5 Details, Casting Ciara Miller on DWTS: ABC Boss

Mormon Wives Season 5 Details, Casting Ciara Miller on DWTS: ABC Boss

Published by Daniella Wilson

The long-awaited update on The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives season five arrived just in time, one day before Hulu would host its second Get Real House 2026 spotlighting the streamer and ABC’s unscripted slate. The slew of new show announcements on Wednesday out of the presentation expands Hulu’s reality TV offerings and includes spinoffs for Disney’s most buzzy franchises, Dancing With the Stars and Mormon Wives, the latter which is now in “active preproduction,” says Rob Mills, evp of unscripted & alternative entertainment at Walt Disney Television. With Mormon Wives set to resume production after a monthlong filming pause and internal investigation into star Taylor Frankie Paul over domestic violence allegations, The Hollywood Reporter spoke with the head of unscripted below about ABC and Hulu’s new offerings, discussing the pressure around replicating last season’s Dancing With the Stars success (“It scares the hell out of me!”), what viewers can expect when Mormon Wives returns (with or without Paul), if we’ll ever see Paul’s scrapped season of The Bachelorette and why The Bachelor franchise “is …

Janine-Gregory Breakup Explained by Quinta Brunson

Janine-Gregory Breakup Explained by Quinta Brunson

Published by Daniella Wilson

[This article contains spoilers from episode 19 of season five of Abbott Elementary] Last Wednesday’s “April Fools” episode of Abbott Elementary was all fun and (stressful) pranks, but this week, there were noticeably fewer laughs between everyone’s favorite teacher couple at the school. Episode 19 of season five began with Gregory (Tyler James Williams) and Janine (Quinta Brunson) attempting to plan their first couple’s trip after moving in together earlier in the season, but differences over their individual philosophies around money and time quickly turned the process from pleasant to painstaking, with Gregory wanting to book an Airbnb and make an eight-hour trek in a car to the Outer Banks to save money and Janine preferring direct flights, a hotel and spa treatments. The pair initially decide to change their vacation destination to Atlantic City as a happy medium, but Janine later approaches Gregory during the workday with a compromise she deems “a bit more compromise-y,” telling him she went ahead and bought their flights to the Outer Banks herself since money was the issue. …

ABC reveals replacement for The Bachelorette premiere after last-minute cancellation

ABC reveals replacement for The Bachelorette premiere after last-minute cancellation

Published by Daniella Wilson

ABC will air a rerun of American Idol Sunday night instead of The Bachelorette season premiere, which was canceled entirely after a violent video of its star, Taylor Frankie Paul, leaked online. The 2023 footage, in which Paul was seen throwing metal barstools at her ex, Dakota Mortensen, was shared by TMZ Thursday, only days before The Bachelorette was set to air. ABC then announced that it would not air the new season, which wrapped filming in December, as planned. The first episode, which usually sees 22 men arrive at the “Bachelor Mansion” to meet the Bachelorette, was scheduled for Sunday from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. on ABC. However, the network has revealed its replacement for The Bachelorette: A recent episode of American Idol. The network will re-broadcast the eighth episode of American Idol’s 24th season, which originally aired Monday, March 16. The episode also featured Keke Palmer and Brad Paisley as guest mentors. However, it’s not yet clear what will be replacing future episodes of The Bachelorette in its Sunday slot. Taylor Frankie …

ABC Dominates New Year’s Eve 2025 TV Ratings, As Usual

ABC Dominates New Year’s Eve 2025 TV Ratings, As Usual

Published by Daniella Wilson

As is usually the case, the final night of the year was also one of the biggest TV viewing nights of 2025 — and also per usual, the largest share of that viewing came on ABC. The network’s annual Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve special averaged 18.8 million viewers in the 11:30 p.m.-12:30 a.m. ET hour on Dec. 31/Jan. 1, according to early Nielsen ratings (which don’t include the measurement service’s big data component). That’s a four-year high and a 5 percent improvement on the previous year’s average of 17.92 million, pending updates. ABC estimates that 30 million people were tuned to the network at midnight ET, and the full night of festivities had some 34 million people watching at least a few minutes of New Year’s Rockin’ Eve (the latter figure doesn’t include out of home viewing). The 18.8 million viewers for ABC made up a large majority of viewers in the hour surrounding the start of the year on the East Coast. New Year’s Eve Live drew 5.3 million viewers on CBS from …