Dust off your dancing shoes — in seven months. “Dancing with the Stars” will for sure return in the fall for its 28th season, ABC Entertainment President Karey Burke confirmed Tuesday at the Television Critics Association press tour. “I can confirm that it will definitely be returning in the fall,” Burke said.
ABC made “Dancing” fans’ anxiety levels skyrocket in December when it left the show off its midseason schedule. This marks the first time the show has missed a spring season since it started its spring-fall rotation with Season 4 in March 2007. Burke, who replaced Channing Dungey in November, said she had nothing to do with the decision to skip a spring outing. “That decision was made before I got here,” she said.
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As for whether “Dancing” could return to double seasons in a calendar year in 2020, Burke told reporters that there have been “conversations” about it. “[Producers are] coming in soon to talk about their plans for the fall and we’ll discuss it then,” she said.
The future of “Dancing” has been up in the air since the ill-advised four-week “Athletes” season last spring, which was ordered to accommodate ABC’s acquisition of “American Idol.” Season 27 last fall didn’t help matters when stellar dancer after stellar dancer kept getting the boot, leading to a controversial win by Bobby Bones, who is, by his own admission, not a great dancer. Even former champ Alfonso Ribeiro called for a change to the voting system after Bones’ victory.
Maybe Burke and the “Dancing” TPTB will discuss that in their meeting.
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