“Dancing With the Stars” returned to ABC for its Season 35 premiere on Tuesday night and reached a strong 6.7 million viewers.

That’s a 24% increase from the performance of the Season 34 premiere, which hit 5.4 million viewers in 2025. Even more, Tuesday’s episode marks the series’ best opener in six years, since Season 29 launched with 8.1 million viewers in 2020.

Season 35 also improved by 40% on last year’s rating among adults 18-49, jumping from a 1.06 to 1.48 — the best-rated “Dancing With the Stars” premiere since 2017. Season 35 also improved by 40% on last year’s rating among adults 18-49, jumping from a 1.06 to 1.48 — the best-rated “Dancing With the Stars” premiere since 2017, and the best-rated non-sports non-news telecast across all of television since the Oscars in March. Among women age 18-34 specifically, “Dancing With the Stars” scored a 2.53, its best for a premiere since Season 17 in 2013.

“Dancing With the Stars” was also on top compared to other Tuesday night television, beating its next closest competitor (“America’s Got Talent” with 4.4 million viewers on NBC) by 51%; by rating in the key demo, it was up 279% compared to “America’s Got Talent’s” 0.39.) The premiere led ABC to win the night overall, averaging 5.3 million viewers and a 1.06 rating across primetime hours, beating NBC by 38% and 221%, respectively.

“Dancing with the Stars” is produced by BBC Studios. The second episode of the season premieres on Wednesday, and will feature the elimination of a female contestant after Tuesday’s elimination of Conner Leavitt.