The host exclusively tells Parade how the social media star changed the audience of the hit ABC reality series forever.
Dancing With the Stars just celebrated its 20th anniversary. And somehow, the ABC reality series has been able to do what many shows that have been on the air for decades have not: Undergo a renaissance.
Indeed, it seems nowadays that DWTS is more popular than ever. The troupe of seasonal professional dancers has become stars in their own right, with the likes of Maksim Chmerkovskiy and Mark Ballas even making their way onto celebrity series like The Traitors. Cast members have been getting notable bumps in both their careers and follower count in their efforts to win the Len Goodman Mirror Ball Trophy.
“I think what we did last season was incredible,” host Alfonso Ribeiro exclusively tells Parade at the premiere of Zombies 4: Dawn of the Vampires in Hollywood, “by having so many incredible artists that really worked the social media side of it, [which] brought in a new fanbase.”
And there is one person who the actor, and DWTS Season 19 winner, credits for the change. It’s a fellow Mirror Ball Trophy winner: Charli D’Amelio, who beat out the competition in Season 31.
“What’s really important is the fact that we give Charli D’Amelio a little bit of love and credit for what’s happening right now,” Ribeiro explains. “Because at the end of the day, she brought in a new audience and made it cool again to that audience. So, [we’re] very excited to where we’re going to go forward with this. But a lot of love for Charli and Heidi [D’Amelio].”
Indeed, up until D’Amelio’s season in 2022, when she competed against her mother, Dancing With the Stars had not been relatively known as a show for younger viewers. But when the TikTok star came on, it forever changed the audience, as fans flocked in to watch her performances, only to realize the quality of the show overall. That gave a significant social media buzz around DWTS that still exists to this day, most recently with Olympic standouts Ilona Maher and Stephen Nedoroscik.
So far, Dancing With the Stars‘ upcoming season has released the names of four cast members: Conservationist Robert Irwin, social media star Alix Earle and Secret Lives of Mormon Wives cast members Jen Affleck and Whitney Leavitt. But, no matter who ends up dancing it out in front of our eyes this fall, they’ll do so with a mass of young fans watching. And, according to Ribeiro, we all have Charli D’Amelio to thank for that.
Zombies 4: Dawn of the Vampires premieres July 10 on the Disney Channel.
