A big frustration among Dancing with the Stars fans is that the show does not air live on the West Coast, making it so that super-fans must blindly vote for their favorite celebs in order to have a say in who stays in the competition.
The series airs on Tuesday nights at 8 p.m. ET on the East Coast, but in order for it to be live on the West Coast, ABC would have to air the show at 5 p.m. ET.
Why Is DWTS Not Live on the West Coast?
So, why can’t ABC air DWTS during a 5 p.m. timeslot on Tuesday nights?
THR reports that it’s because of “local news and the coveted primetime programming slots,” and ABC would not be able to just shift away from the news coverage slot.
Why Can’t DWTS Air Live on Disney+?
Showrunner Conrad Green previously told THR that airing the show earlier or on streaming is “a discussion with the affiliates who show the show across the network [ABC] all over the country.
“It’s a big issue for them is if everyone starts watching the show at 5 p.m. when it airs. If you’re in L.A. and you watch at 5 p.m. when it airs [at 8 p.m.] on the East Coast, then it’s going to massively affect the people who will watch the show when it comes over to these different territories and those markets. The affiliates are hugely important in the bigger picture for the overall economic structure of the show and for the history of ABC and all of those things.”
“I haven’t had that conversation with Disney+, but the rights to restream the show are expensive; the licensing terms for the music we use on the show and all of those kind of things are pretty significant. So I guess there’s a calculation to be made about how much interest is there in previous seasons versus the cost of having them on a platform,” he added.
The post Why Doesn’t ‘DWTS’ Air Live on the West Coast? Showrunner Explains the Decision appeared first on Just Jared - Celebrity News, Entertainment News & Photos.