'Dancing With the Stars' Premiere Has Fans Fuming Over Disney+ Move

By Daniel S. Levine

Dancing With the Stars made history Monday night as the first-ever live competition series in U.S. television history to be only available on a streaming platform. There were no widespread reports of issues early on, but there were a few isolated Twitter users complaining about the app crashing or being unable to access the live stream. There were also many DWTS fans annoyed that they had to subscribe to a new platform just to watch their favorite show.

Before the premiere, Michael Paull, president, direct to consumer, Disney Media and Entertainment Distribution, told Variety that Disney already has experience with live streaming through shows on Hulu, ESPN+, and the international Star+ platform. Paull assured viewers that everything was worked out on the technical side. Despite all that hard work, there were some hiccups.

"The internet was not built for the live streaming of video. Fortunately, we've had a lot of experience doing [live TV] with ESPN+, with Star+, with Hulu," Paull explained. "Members of our team know how to operate a streaming service in a live environment. There are all sorts of things that we deal with on the technology side to make sure that the experience is consistent, the picture quality is great."

'I can't stand when a show goes live stream'

DWTS executive producer Conrad Green praised the technical team for making sure things work out while his group focuses on the creative end. "...I think I'm confident that we have this mapped out," he said. "We've tried to be super rigorous about it and how everything works and the testing we're doing. Bear in mind a lot of these pathways have effectively been done before with live transmission. A lot of what we're doing is known stuff. But yes, it's always a little bit nerve-wracking until you get that first show on air and everything works."

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'Is Disney+ not working for anyone else?'

Green's other challenge is to fill extra time on the show. Since there are no commercials, Green's team has to come up with over 30 minutes more content per week. The huge 16-contestant field will help early on, as will co-host Alfonso Ribeiro's interviews with contestants in the skybox. As the field whittles down though, he told Variety that fan-favorite segments like dance marathons and team dances may come back.

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'It keeps freezing'

As for future live programming on Disney+, Paull said the focus is just on DWTS right now. "I think there's a lot of opportunity to differentiate the Disney+ experience using live programming," he told Variety. "I think there's a lot of content out there that would afford itself really well. And while this is the first live TV series we're doing on the platform, we think we're going to learn a lot from this experience. We also have a bunch of ideas in the pipeline. So hopefully, you'll see more to come."

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'Can't get into Disney plus'

DWTS launched on ABC in June 2005 and is the U.S. adaptation of the long-running U.K. hit Strictly Come Dancing. The show was the anchor for ABC's primetime television lineup for well over a decade. At one point, two episodes aired a week, but the network trimmed it to a single episode per week when ratings decreased. There also used to be two cycles per television season, but ABC changed it to a single cycle for the 2018-2019 season. Now, for the first time since 2007, ABC will not have DWTS airing Monday nights.

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'I'll watch the clips on YouTube'

There were a few longtime DWTS fans who were not complaining about Disney+ technical problems, but the very fact that the show moved to a streaming platform at all. "Am I the only one who's pissed that #DWTS is not on Tv and that you have to actually pay for a subscription to Disney+ to watch it?! The biggest mistake they could've ever made," one fan wrote.

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'The move from ABC to Disney+ is a mistake'

DWTS will stream live on Disney+ Mondays at 8 p.m. ET. Viewers across the country will be able to vote since it will stream live in all time zones.

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