‘Dancing with the Stars’: Disney executive blames All-Stars for lower ratings

When “Dancing with the Stars: All-Stars” was first announced a little earlier in the year, it was hard to find anyone at all who had anything negative to say about the concept. Why wouldn’t viewers want to see some of their old favorites again? Unfortunately, what this season ultimately showed ABC and their parent company in Disney that viewers are not often looking for good dancing; they are instead looking for a narrative, and one that involves new people learning the art of dance every year.

At the UBS Global Media and Communications Conference this week, Disney CFO Jay Rasulo didn’t hold back any punches when it came to his feelings about the failure of the season this fall to attract viewers in the coveted 18-49 demographic:

“We thought it was a great idea … Turns out people didn’t want to see people who could dance. They wanted people who couldn’t dance. So it’s not easy to be a taste-master in programming a network.”

Really, Rasulo is only in part correct here. The best seasons of “Dancing with the Stars” have featured good and bad dancers, but more importantly than that, they want to see people who they care about and who they could never imagine on the dance floor. This is why season 10 turned out to be one of the show’s best years: you can great dancers (Nicole Scherzinger), legends (Buzz Alrdin, Pamela Anderson), people whose name was in the spotlight a good deal at the time (Erin Andrews, Kate Gosselin), and a man in Jake Pavelka who had just wrapped up a high-rated season of “The Bachelor.” “Dancing with the Stars” does not necessarily need huge stars, but they need people who are a part of pop culture now, and not someone who was successful on a reality show years ago.

What sort of change do you think that “Dancing with the Stars” should opt for moving forward? Be sure to share your thoughts below, and you can see more news about how to fix the show over at the link here.

Photo: ABC