The choreography got edgier and more athletic, the music less wedding-DJ and more Top 40. And crucially, the commanding cadre of pros—the backbone of the show who often seemed to be encouraged to retreat in order to let their partners shine—moved to the fore and started amassing giant social media followings, turning them into bankable influencers and, ironically, stars in their own right.
Female pros like Jenna Johnson, Witney Carson, Britt Stewart, Emma Slater, Rylee Arnold, and Daniella Karagach have millions of followers between them and arguably have emerged as the real draw of the show. Karagach in particular is often credited with helping revitalize the franchise with her challenging choreography and her 2021 partnership with basketball icon Iman Shumpert, whose winning freestyle routine was hailed by ESPN as “historic.”
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This rebrand wasn’t totally accidental. After 30 seasons on ABC, Dancing with the Stars moved to Disney+ in 2022, a glossier and more modern home where it felt less like legacy network fare and more part of the streaming culture that most young people rely on to watch television. (To be fair, it does air on ABC now as well after outcries that its core viewership didn’t have Disney+ and didn’t want to pay for it.)
The show also leaned hard into potentially viral moments: same-sex pairings (Siwa and Johnson; Gleb Savchenko and Drag Race star Shangela), dance clips built for TikTok, and behind-the-scenes content of the pros and stars meant to live as much on your phone as it does on TV.
There’s also been a shift in tone. What once felt a little cringey now feels knowingly campy, a subtle but crucial difference. The show is still sparkly and over-the-top, but it’s owning it instead of being embarrassed by it. In a cultural moment where pop-culture maximalism is back—just look at Gaga, Sabrina, Chappel, Doecchi, even Taylor trying to get a piece of the pop pie with her Showgirl shenanigans—the kitsch of the ballroom doesn’t seem so analog. The stars genuinely seem excited to be there, and the camaraderie is more palpable in recent seasons, which sends viewers a message that this is low-stakes fun and maybe even a cool thing to do—because anything is cool these days if you own it.
