Showrunners Reveal the Real Reason Why ‘Dancing With the Stars’ Doesn’t Air Live on the West Coast

DWTS experienced a major resurgence in recent years, attracting social media stars and new viewers while modernizing through Hulu and Disney+ streaming options alongside its ABC broadcast.West Coast viewers face delayed airings compared to East and Central Time zones for a very specific reason.One of the showrunners, Conrad Green, revealed that licensing agreements, music rights costs, and affiliate distribution rights create complex economic calculations affecting when and where DWTS content becomes available.Dancing With the Stars has made a huge comeback in the past few years, thanks to a slew of social media stars-turned-celebs and a whole new generation of viewers. Though the show has been airing for a whopping two decades now, it’s kept up with the times by streaming on Hulu the day after it airs live on ABC and Disney+.East Coast fans have the easiest viewing, tuning in every Tuesday at 8 p.m. while those on Central Time get to watch the competition at 7 p.m. And even though the show takes place in Los Angeles, West Coast viewers have it the hardest. Meaning: if you’re a ride-or-die DWTS devotee who wants to vote for your favorite contestants in real time, you might miss out since the show airs later on Pacific Time.One of DWTS’s showrunners, Conrad Green, actually revealed why West Coast fans can’t tune in live at 5 p.m. PST during a chat with The Hollywood Reporter. It’s unfortunate, but very true for a pretty good reason: local news.According to Conrad, “local news and the coveted primetime programming slots” stop the show from airing at 5 so viewers can stay informed about current events within their communities.He also explained that the network’s decision to air later also has a lot to do with distributing rights and the money that goes into them.“It’s a big issue for [affiliates] 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. 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.”Conrad added, “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. 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.”Welp…there you have it!