The 33rd season of Dancing with the Stars officially kicked off on Sept. 17th, 2024 and viewers have been tuning in almost every Tuesday since. 13 stars were given the opportunity to compete to be this year’s Mirrorball Champions and after nine weeks, only five couples remain in the competition. 

Currently, the eliminated stars include actress Tori Spelling, fashion icon Anna Delvey, actors Eric Roberts and Reginald VelJohnson, model Brooks Nader, basketball player Dwight Howard, reality star Phaedra Parks and Bachelorette Jenn Tran. The remaining stars include, the Bachelor Joey Graziadei, actress Chandler Kinney, football player Danny Amendola and olympic medalists Ilona Maher and Stephen Nedorosick. With only one week left until the finale, the stars are fiercely competing to earn their spots and get the opportunity to win the mirrorball trophy.

With the introduction of influencers into the pop culture realm, Dancing with the Stars began integrating them into the show, whether people believe they are true “stars” or not. It all started with Charli D’Amelio being a contestant on season 31, but the show still did not obtain the social media presence that was expected. The biggest drive of social media is TikTok, many other platforms have begun taking aspects and integrating them into their system. The rise of TikTok has played a big role, with people sharing clips of the week’s dances, reactions to the eliminations, and even creating accounts just sharing their opinions on this season. 

Part of what keeps viewership rising every season is having a wide range of celebrities join the show. Each season, there are stars from every generation and many types of people, like athletes, actors, models etc. This year, it ranged from actors in their 70s to olympians in their 20s. Due to this, a wide variety of people are able to relate to the show and tune in every week to see the progress of their favorite competitors. 2024 has been the year of pop culture, season 28 of the Bachelor was one of the most successful seasons in franchise history, so obtaining the leading man of season 28 of The Bachelor, Joey Graziadei, as well as Jenn Tran, who competed on Joey’s season and became the next Bachelorette, allowed for viewers of the Bachelor franchise to bring their support to Dancing with the Stars week after week. With that, of course another big summer event was the olympics. Since they only come every four years, it is a time where the country sets aside their differences and cheers for the top athletes as they compete against the rest of the world. This year, the Paris olympics were a TikTok sensation, with everyone becoming obsessed with pommel horse “Clark Kent” Stephen Nedorosick, as he led the men’s gymnastics team to a bronze medal, and rugby player Ilona Maher, who brought insight into the olympic village, while also leading her team to win a bronze medal. Having these Olympic stars that consumed social media during August allows for their fans to also be brought to the show and keep the votes coming in.

Since the beginning of the show, fans have been able to vote on their favorite couple, which acts as an incentive to tune in to the live broadcast every week. We have seen it this season, where Ilona has continuously gotten one of the lowest scores over the weeks but stayed in because she is a fan favorite. On the other hand, Jenn was at the top of the leaderboard on halloween horrors night, but she was eliminated for not having enough fan support. This is not just a problem this season, fans believe that since the judge’s save was taken away, more people who don’t deserve to go home end up being eliminated. To try and make a change, people tune in to the live shows to ensure that they vote for their favorites before it is too late.

Dancing with the stars has been doing the same flips and tricks to captivate audiences since the first season. 2024, specifically, has been different due to having multiple reality television shows blow up on social media, starting the year with The Bachelor and ending the summer with Love Island USA, fans were looking for a new show to indulge in every week and Dancing with the Stars fell at the perfect time. Whether you’re a lifelong fan, or just want a new show to watch to finish out the fall, you can tune in every Tuesday until November 26. Make sure to vote for your favorites; every vote counts.