ABC orders Dancing with the Stars Junior, Bachelor Winter Games
Today, the network confirmed leading up to the upfront presentation that there are two more spin-offs to the long-running franchise coming over the course of the next year.
Dancing with the Stars Junior – Think the flagship show, except with kid celebrities and children of famous people performing alongside some of the best young dancers in the country. The judging panel remains to be announced, but this is obviously ABC trying to capitalize on the recent kid reality-star craze brought on by both MasterChef Junior and then Project Runway Junior. It’s hard to argue against the logic here, especially since the flagship ultimately gives you a good total audience week in and week out and requires people to watch live or avoid missing out on something. This is one of the struggles that many network shows are having at the moment.
Bachelor Winter Games – As if the title didn’t make it clear already, this is going to be ABC’s answer to the Winter Olympics over on NBC next year, a chance to see some fan favorites from the franchise competing in some athletic tasks while also trying to find love along the way. This is obviously just a ratings ploy / reason to get some steamy reality TV sauna scenes, but given that The Bachelor generates enormous ratings week in and week out, can you be shocked that the network wants to do something like this?
Consider both of these shows as further evidence that reality TV programming over at ABC is probably alive and well probably more so than any other broadcast network. In between all of this, the game-show programming that airs on the network all throughout the year at this point, and the upcoming arrival of American Idol in 2018, this is a network clearly establishing itself as a centralized location for fun family programming … not that the Bachelor franchise is the most family-friendly thing sometimes given the fantasy suites and all of that talk.
Out of these two spin-offs, do you think that either one of them could work? Are you planning to watch them? Be sure to share now in the attached comments! (Photo: ABC.)