“Dancing with the Stars:” Episode 1 Review
Dancing with the Stars is back for Season 31 and the cast is ready to make this season the best in history. This season has a few aspects that are different from any previous season. Dancing with the Stars will now be streaming live on Disney+.
With stars like Charli D’Amelio, Jordin Sparks, Wayne Brady, Selma Blair and many more, this season is almost guaranteed to be phenomenal. The producer of this show is Phil Heyes, who has been producing this show since 2016.
The judges have been around for quite some time and are better than ever. The head judge is Len Goodman, Carrie Ann Inaba, Bruno Tonioli and the newest addition to the judging panel, Derek Hough. They have plenty of experience and all bring different qualities to the table.
Dancing with the Stars has been around since 2005. It is a competition show where one “Pro” is partnered with a “Star,” who typically isn’t known for dancing, but famous in some other way. The duos compete in a new dance routine every week against the other contestants.
This year, there was an elimination on the first episode, which normally they don’t do right away. The elimination portion is based on the judges' scoring as well as America’s votes.
Everyone has an even playing field from the beginning, but it really isn’t all that fair. Some stars have much more talent than others but don’t have as big of a fan base.
The hosts have changed plenty of times over the years, but this year's season had a little bit of an interesting change. Tyra Banks was the first host on this show in Season 1 of Dancing with the Stars.
She has switched on and off, but after years of just her hosting the show alone, she was bumped to co-hosting with one of the previous Mirror Ball Champions, Alfonso Ribeiro.
Many of the pros and stars have stated in interviews that Tyra makes them uncomfortable, talks too much, and is very obnoxious. This may be why she isn’t hosting alone anymore.
Tyra is very famous and all famous people get hate in some way, but the majority of people who watch the show get annoyed by some of her comments.
Another strange change is that Dancing with the Stars, after 30 seasons of being on ABC, changed to Disney+. It is crazy that after so many years of this tradition, it changed to an app and not live TV.
For younger kids that watch this show, it may benefit them in many ways. If they want to fast forward or watch it an hour late, they have the option. For older grandparents, most don’t have apps like Disney+, so they would have to set up an account and a whole subscription.
This may cause this show to lose views. This point goes to show that live TV might not be in our future. Our future is no ads and subscriptions.
Overall, most will find this first episode very interesting. Over the years, this show has gained so many younger viewers because of their choice in celebrities they bring on the show.
This is an extreme reason why not every competition show is fair. Stars like Charli D'amelio have an insane amount of followers on social media which is where she asks people to vote. She definitely has an advantage, even without her skills in the picture. This episode is without a doubt worth a watch.
Rating: 4/5
Olivia Anderson is a third-year majoring in public relations. To contact her, email oqa5131@psu.edu.
