‘Dancing With The Stars’ Moving To Disney+ In Stunning Move After 16 Years On ABC

deadline.com:

EXCLUSIVE: Hold on to your Danskins: Dancing with the Stars is relocating to Disney+ in a groundbreaking arrangement.DWTS has received a two-year pickup — for Seasons 31 and 32 — and will debut exclusively on Disney+ this fall in the U.S.

and Canada, becoming the first live series to debut on the service. It is also believed to be the first live streaming reality show in the U.S., marking another milestone for direct-to-consumer platforms.In an advisory to its affiliate stations sent this morning, ABC notes that NFL football is part of its plans for the Monday 8-10 PM slot on the fall schedule that has been occupied by DWTS for the past 15 years.“After over 30 seasons of the program on ABC, including two spin-offs, Dancing with the Stars will move off of ABC this fall in order for the Network to showcase several Monday Night Football games as well as develop and invest in new and future programming,” said the network, which also has had success with fall installments of The Bachelorette in the past two seasons.As part of ESPN’s MNF contract, beginning in 2022, ABC will air exclusively an additional Monday Night Football game, which will expand to three in 2023.With Prime Video, Peacock and Apple TV+ becoming players in live sports, live entertainment had remained the last bastion of network television.

That started to change this year when longtime broadcast staple ACM Awards streamed on Prime Video, a landmark which is now followed by DWTS’ move to Disney+.While other broadcast shows have relocated to streaming services such as SEAL Team and Evil to Paramount+ and (post-cancellation) Lucifer and Manifest to Netflix and AP Bio to Peacock, this is the highest-profile, most established and popular series — and first major