‘Dancing With The Stars’ Kicks Off With Solid Season 33 Premiere Viewership For ABC

ABC sashayed its way to a ratings win with the Season 33 premiere of Dancing with the Stars.

The episode debuted Tuesday to 4.97M viewers, according to live + same-day Nielsen data, presenting a 4% lift versus the Season 32 premiere’s audience of 4.78M last fall.

In the 18-49 demo, the Season 33 premiere grew 14% year-over-year to a 0.73 rating. Nielsen data shows that’s 19% above the Season 32 ratings average for that demo.

Tuesday’s episode was the best Dancing with the Stars telecast in the 18-49 demo since Taylor Swift night last November, just a few weeks before the finale.

As always, Dancing with the Stars kicked off by allowing the contestants to introduce themselves with their opening numbers. Each of them was tasked with picking their “anthem,” or a song they feel represents them, for their pro to choreograph their assigned dance to.

This season’s cast includes Olympic rugby player Ilona Maher, Bachelor Nation’s Joey Graziadei and Jenn Tran, NBA Champion Dwight Howard, Anna Delvey, and Olympic gymnast Stephen Nedoroscik.

Read Deadline’s recap of the night here.