‘Dancing with the Stars’ Caps Spectacular Season 34 With 9.24 Million Total Viewers — Drawing Largest Finale Audience in 9 Years

 

Series photos are available here.

Overall Highlights

• Wrapping a stellar season full of record-breaking highlights, “Dancing with the Stars” soared to new heights with a supersized three-hour finale, earning 9.24 million Total Viewers and a 2.15 rating among Adults 18-49, as Robert Irwin and his partner, Witney Carson, took home the Len Goodman Mirrorball Trophy.
• The show rose by double digits over last season’s finale (11/26/24) in Total Viewers (+45% – 9.24 million vs. 6.37 million), seeing its most-watched finale in 9 years — since the Season 23 finale on 11/22/16.
• Among Adults 18-49, the show nearly doubled last season’s finale episode (+89% – 2.15 rating vs. 1.14 rating), hitting its strongest finale result in 10 years — since Robert’s sister, Bindi Irwin, and partner Derek Hough took home the Mirrorball Trophy on 11/24/15.
• The “Dancing with the Stars” finale stands as TV’s top entertainment telecast since ABC’s presentation of “The Oscars®” earlier this year among both Total Viewers and Adults 18-49. In fact, last night’s telecast delivered more Adult 18-49 viewing in one night than the entirety of CBS’s primetime entertainment schedule last week and more than double the combined primetime entertainment programming on NBC during that period.
• For the second season in a row, “Dancing with the Stars” stands as the No. 1 entertainment series among Adults 18-49, after accomplishing this feat for the first time in the show’s history last year.

Younger Adult Audience

• Surging among younger viewers this season, “Dancing with the Stars” earned a 2.55 rating among Adults 18-34, the show’s strongest performance in the younger adult demographic in 14 years — since the show’s season finale on 11/22/11.
• The “Dancing with the Stars” finale captured a remarkable 53% audience share among Adults 18-34, the largest share of available viewers for any broadcast entertainment series telecast since the “Friends” series finale in May 2004.

Voting and Social Media

• After rising all season, fan voting hit a staggering new high with over 72 million votes cast during the finale, a +31% increase over the show’s previous high during semifinals (55 million on 11/18/25) and a +125% rise over last season’s finale (32 million on 11/26/24).
• Devoted “Dancing with the Stars” fans have cast nearly half a billion votes throughout the season.
• With 6.9 million total social interactions, “Dancing with the Stars” was the No. 1 most social program on television across broadcast and cable and the No. 1 most social episode of any primetime series, year to date. The finale grew +109% over the show’s current season average (vs. 3.3 million) and was up +67% over the show’s previous season finale (4.1 million).

In a special holiday presentation, “Dancing with the Holidays” airs Tuesday Dec. 2, 8:00-9:00 p.m. EST/PST on ABC and Disney+, streaming next day on Hulu. The ballroom comes alive with holiday magic as “Dancing with the Stars” celebrates the season with festive-themed routines, dazzling musical performances and special holiday greetings.

“Dancing with the Stars” is produced by BBC Studios.

Source: Nielsen National Live+Same Day Preliminary Panel Program Ratings for 11/25/25. 2025-2026 Season (9/16/25 – 11/25/25). Talkwalker SCR.

*COPYRIGHT ©2025 Disney Enterprises, Inc. All photography is copyrighted material and is for editorial use only. Images are not to be archived, altered, duplicated, resold, retransmitted or used for any other purposes without written permission of ABC. Images are distributed to the press in order to publicize current programming. Any other usage must be licensed.

Media Contacts

You must be logged in to view this content. Please log in or create an account.