By: Chloe Wilson

Culture Editor

The new season of Dancing With the Stars aired on Sept. 16, and its exciting cast members are increasing the viewership week by week. With athletes, celebrities, reality TV stars, and more, the 34th season is already a fan favorite. 

The show features two cast members of the viral series, Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, Whitney Leavitt, paired with Mark Ballas, and Jen Affleck, partnered with Jan Ravnik. In episode 4, Disney Night, Leavitt and her on-stage partner danced to the song The Room Where It Happens from Hamilton. This earned the season’s first nine out of ten rating from one of the judges, which gave them an overall score of  25 out of 30 for the night. The dance put Whitney at the top of the leaderboard. 

Another fan favorite, Robert Irwin, the son of the late Crocodile Hunter star Steve Irwin, maintains high scores, garnering a 22 out of 30 score on Disney Night and remaining in the competition. Additionally, influencer Alix Earle wowed the crowd with a dance to Once Upon a Dream dressed as Maleficent, earning her and her partner a 24 out of 30 from the judges. 

The most recent contestant eliminated from the competition was Hilaria Baldwin, an American entrepreneur married to actor Alec Baldwin. So far, the judges have eliminated four contestants: Hilaria Baldwin, Lauren Jauregui, Baron Davis, Corey Feldman, and all of the stars’ professional dance partners. 

Dancing With the Stars is a light-hearted competition show, a show that gives celebrities a platform to dance professionally, a passion they may not have otherwise pursued.  It also highlights the significant improvement of the stars on the show as they take in feedback from judges Carrie Ann Inaba, Bruno Tonioli, and Derek Hough. The hosts of the show are Julianne Hough and Alfonso Ribeiro.

Unsurprisingly, the viewership of Season 34 has been off the charts. On the Disney-themed night, the show reached 5.88 million viewers, just beating the 5.83 million viewers on the previous episode. This marks the first time in all 34 seasons that the audience has grown for three weeks in a row after the premiere. 

Additionally, the show has reached different age groups that it has not seen in past seasons. Across its first four weeks, ABC’s (American Broadcasting Company) DWTS achieved a 1.0 rating among adults 18-49, a significant achievement for a network show, considering most viewership in that age group stems from streaming services. 

The show will conclude at the end of November, with a total of 11 episodes. New episodes come out every Tuesday, and each episode is associated with a different theme. New themes to look forward to in the future include Dedication Night, Halloween Night, Prince Night, and more!

(Sources: Cosmopolitan, The Hollywood Reporter, Yahoo Entertainment)