Creative Exchange Keeps Dancing with the Stars Format Fresh

TV Formats looks at the success of the Dancing with the Stars competition format, which is part of the BBC Worldwide catalog.

Since the premiere of Strictly Come Dancing in 2004 on BBC One in the U.K., BBC Worldwide has licensed the format to more than 50 countries. Australia’s Seven was the first broadcaster to produce a local version, which launched the same year. Adaptations of the format, known internationally as Dancing with the Stars, have popped up around the world, and more than 3,500 episodes and 299 seasons have been recorded to date.

Dancing with the Stars is a jewel in the crown of BBC Worldwide’s entertainment and formats business, and our global team works hard to attain and maintain the audience levels and popularity that have made the show a hit internationally,” says Kate Phillips, BBC Worldwide’s creative director of formats and the incoming controller of entertainment commissioning at the BBC. “From Sweden to South Africa, the magic of this show continues to draw viewers of all ages in year after year.”

The format’s footprint is so widespread that it has reached six continents, with creative teams worldwide bringing their unique ideas and cultures to ***Image***each adaptation.

Producers from 19 countries recently took part in the BBC Worldwide-hosted fifth international Dancing with the Stars Creative Exchange in London, including those from Australia, Costa Rica, the Czech Republic, France, India, Italy, Lebanon, Poland, South Africa, Sweden, the U.K. and the U.S.

“This Creative Exchange is a brilliant opportunity to bring teams from around the world together in one place to share fresh and innovative ideas about the show,” says Norman Lockhart, the head of international production at BBC Worldwide. “We’ve developed a community of creatives who come together and showcase best practice in television production to ensure we’re at the forefront of the format’s development and success.”

Among the creatives in attendance this year were Rob Wade, executive producer of the U.S. version. He notes: “The biggest shows in the world are made by the best producers. It’s an incredibly useful experience to get to hear the ideas, views and working practices of such a brilliant array of talent.”

Soniya Kulkarni, the head of nonfiction content and production at BBC Worldwide India, recognizes the value of original ideas. She credits the show’s success to “its ability to innovate, refresh and offer new delights every year,” a challenge she calls “exciting but also incredibly hard.” According to Kulkarni, “The Creative Exchange is an opportunity for all [of the format’s] talented producers, across the globe, to gather with a huge pool of ideas that can inspire and educate.”

Keeping the show fresh helps drive eyeballs to the screen season after season, and the format has the ratings to prove it. The 22nd season of Dancing with the Stars in the U.S. averaged 13.5 million viewers and a 12.3 percent share. Dancing with the Stars is so popular in the U.S., in fact, that President Barack Obama rescheduled a speech about Libya in 2011 to avoid conflicting with the program’s airtime. When the eighth season of the Indian version, Jhalak Dikhlaa Jaa, aired in 2015, it reached 19 million viewers.

Over the years, a number of well-known celebrities have entered the ballroom to compete on the U.S. version, which wrapped its 22nd season in May. Pamela Anderson, Kirstie Alley and David Hasselhoff are among the past contestants. Even sports stars like Jerry Rice have traded in their cleats (or skates in the case of Olympian and season four champion Apolo Anton Ohno) to show audiences what they can do with their dancing shoes. This year, model Nyle DiMarco became the first deaf winner in the U.S., while the Italian version hosted the oldest contestant when actor Giorgio Albertazzi participated in 2014 at age 91.

While the show is a ratings hit stateside, the U.S. isn’t the only country to have joined the Dancing with the Stars conga line. Among those that have taken a spin around the ballroom are Albania, Argentina, Armenia, Austria, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cambodia, China, Colombia, Croatia, Ecuador, Germany, Greece, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, Kazakhstan, Macedonia, Nigeria, Russia, Slovakia, South Korea, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine and Vietnam.

Dancing with the Stars is an incredible format,” says Jean-Louis Blot, the executive managing director of production at BBC Worldwide France. “Every year all over the world producers have to invent new ways of telling the same story. Sharing all those experiences is vital to be creative and propose to our viewers a new show each season.”