'Dancing With the Stars' Finale Ratings Hit New Low

Dancing With the Stars did its best to deliver a strong season finale this week, but it still came up short of ratings expectations.

Dancing With the Stars just closed out its 27th season on the air, and its age is beginning to show. The series seems to have lost ground with viewers, who did not feel the need to tune in for this year's competition. According to a report by The Wrap, Monday night's finale was the lowest-rated season finale in the show's history.

The episode managed a meager 1.3 Nielsen rating in the key demographics of adults ages 18 to 49. It had a totally of 8.6 million viewers — far below the hopes for big events like season finales and competition conclusions. By comparison, last season's finale had also set a record low at the time, with a 1.4 rating and 9.2 million total viewers.

The show did tie ABC with its competition on NBC.

Still, even Monday's disappointing numbers are actually a season high for Dancing With the Stars, perhaps spelling bad news for the competition. In addition, the ratings could actually drop later in the day on Tuesday, as the network has to account for NFL pre-emptions in Kansas City and Los Angeles.

Dancing With the Stars broke a lot of hearts on Monday night when it crowned Bobby Bones its champion for the season. Many fans hoped to see Alexis Ren and Alan Bersten as their winners, and the upset left a bad taste in their mouths.

It should come as no surprise, therefore, that the show's future is in jeopardy. On Sunday night, host Tom Bergeron made a candid post on Twitter, suggesting that there would likely be no spring season this year.

"Doubt it," he said when a fan asked about the possibility.

This led to many more questions, with some asking whether the show would at least come back in the fall, or if it was "gone forever."

"ABC has authorized us to say, 'See you next year' but exactly when is, as yet, undetermined," Bergeron wrote.

This assessment was somewhat discouraging to fans, many of whom still follow the show's results religiously.