Why ‘Dancing With the Stars’ Isn’t Live on the West Coast

Every Dancing With the Stars episode used to begin with the iconic introduction: “Live from Hollywood, it’s Dancing With the Stars!” But for those tuning in from the West Coast, the show isn’t live at all.

Season 35 of Dancing With the Stars airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. for both coasts, simulcasting across ABC and Disney+, streaming the next day on Hulu. New episodes begin filming in Los Angeles at 5 p.m. PT, airing immediately for the East Coast audience at 8 p.m. ET, but not until 8 p.m. PT. for the West Coast audience.

The discrepancy in air time is a pain point West Coast viewers who are easily spoiled on social media about how couples fared. Voting also only takes place during the live taping, meaning West Coasters have to “blindly vote” for their favorite celebrities and remember to send in their votes in from roughly 5 p.m. to 6:45 p.m. if they want to be counted.

Dancing With the Stars has historically utilized this format for airing the show, but that hasn’t made viewers any less frustrated. Season 31 was exclusively streamed on Disney+, and began at 5 p.m. PT; the show returned to ABC for season 32, though, and has since retained its method of airing at 8 p.m. for both coasts.

“I’m angry and sad that The West Coast cannot watch the premiere live!” reads the title of a Reddit thread from 2023 when Dancing With the Stars shifted back to ABC for its 32nd season. The same user wrote, “Please help me understand why The West Coast cannot watch the premiere or future episodes of Dancing With The Stars live on Disney plus? It makes no sense and I’m furious! It almost makes me want to boycott the show.”

A recent Reddit thread left another user with the same confusion about the show’s air time: “The show does not air live on the west coast. Not entirely sure WHY, but it doesn’t air live. So the show has happened, you have to vote blind, and you’ll get to watch at it at your appointed time.”

The reason Dancing With the Stars doesn’t air live for its West Coast audience stems back to local news and the coveted primetime programming slots. Evening news is a major primetime program, and airing hours belong to differing identities, meaning ABC can’t just shift Dancing With the Stars into that 5 p.m. PT slot.

One outlier to this more-often-than-not rule is Saturday Night Live; the late-night show airs at 8:30 p.m. PT/11:30 pm ET on NBC, also simulcasting on Peacock. However, since it airs somewhat later for the West Coast and on Saturday nights, local news won’t be disrupted by showing new episodes.

The Hollywood Reporter recently spoke with showrunner Conrad Green for a DWTS season 34 finale piece, and when THR asked Green why Dancing With the Stars doesn’t air or stream live for the West Coast, he clarified that the question is moreso “a discussion with the affiliates who show the show across the network [ABC] all over the country.

“It’s a big issue for them is if everyone starts watching the show at 5 p.m. when it airs. If you’re in L.A. and you watch at 5 p.m. when it airs [at 8 p.m.] on the East Coast, then it’s going to massively affect the people who will watch the show when it comes over to these different territories and those markets,” he said. “The affiliates are hugely important in the bigger picture for the overall economic structure of the show and for the history of ABC and all of those things.”

Green said he understands the frustration from West Coast viewers, “but the good thing is, you can still vote. You’re just basically voting blind. But if you love someone, you can set your alarm for five o’clock and vote 10 times for them on both methods and make sure your voice is heard. It just requires a bit of forward planning (laughs).”

THR also asked if Green knew why every Dancing With the Stars season wasn’t available to stream on Disney+. (As of Sept. 2026, only seasons 31-35 are available to watch.)

“I haven’t had that conversation with Disney+, but the rights to restream the show are expensive; the licensing terms for the music we use on the show and all of those kind of things are pretty significant,” he said. “So I guess there’s a calculation to be made about how much interest is there in previous seasons versus the cost of having them on a platform.”

West Coast viewers who aren’t able to tune in live can keep up with Dancing With the Stars by following along with THR’s weekly live recaps. Or wait until 8 p.m. PT to watch — but make sure you get your votes in by 6:45 p.m. PT.

THR reached out to ABC for comment, but did not hear back by the time of publication.