The summer hit DANCING WITH THE STARS will return with an eight-week run, beginning Thursday, January 5 (8:00 p.m., ET), it was announced by Andrea Wong, executive vice president, Alternative Programming, Specials and Late-Night, ABC Entertainment. This summer´s only true hit series, DANCING will replace the action drama ALIAS, which will take a broadcast hiatus due to Jennifer Garner´s maternity leave and which is scheduled to return to the lineup with original episodes in the spring.
"We are so grateful viewers embraced this show," said Ms. Wong. "With a new cast of stars and the addition of the results show, we will be delivering to them a season that has even more drama, more dancing and more glitter!"
This second season of DANCING WITH THE STARS will feature a new lineup of celebrities, who will be announced at a later date. A weekly results show will air in the days following the Thursday broadcast. The day and time of that broadcast will also be announced at a later date.
With an average audience of 16.8 million viewers, DANCING WITH THE STARS concluded its six-week summer run as the most-watched summer series on any network in the last five years - since the inaugural season of CBS´ SURVIVOR during Summer 2000. The ABC unscripted show ranked a dominant No. 1 in its time slot among Total Viewers and Adults 18-49, qualifying as the top TV show of the evening on each of its telecasts on both Nielsen measures. DANCING WITH THE STARS greatly improved its time period, boosting ABC´s performance in the hour by 12.2 million viewers (16.8 million vs. 4.6 million) and by 168% in Adults 18-49 (5.1/15 vs. 1.9/6) over the same weeks the previous summer.
DANCING WITH THE STARS is the U.S. version of the international smash hit series, STRICTLY COME DANCING.
