It’s 2025, So Why Can’t The West Coast Watch ‘Dancing With the Stars’ At The Same Time As The East Coast?

I know this is maybe not the best opportunity to be bringing up qualms with time zones as we all still deal with the aftermath of Daylight Savings Time, but we need to address one of the many elephants in the ballroom this season (and every season) on Dancing with the Stars: Why can’t us West Coast viewers watch at the same time as our East Coast friends?

Spare me the eye roll — I understand that this complaint is super low on the totem pole of things to have an issue with, given the state of the world — but I’m saying it loud and proud as a California resident. Why, in the year 2025, when this show has become a veritable cultural obsession can we not just use our Disney+ accounts to watch the show live and avoid social media spoilers?

As someone who used to work in broadcast television, I’m smart enough to know that there is a reason that people who watch on their local ABC affiliate have to wait until their designated time to watch it live. Those stations around the country have to pay to be affiliated with the ABC brand and therefore reap the benefits of the shows they put out over the airwaves. That much is clear and makes sense. But in this day and age when TikTokers are (quite illegally) livestreaming the entire show or uploading shoddy footage of their television right after one of the contestants’ dances, it seems silly for Disney not to make adjustments in order to satisfy the fanbase (and, as an added bonus, drive more DWTS viewers to subscribe to Disney+).

Dancing with the Stars is a show that films in Hollywood for an audience that is made up primarily of Los Angeles residents, and yet, if those audience members were at home, they would not be able to fairly cast their votes based on the dances throughout the night. I remind you, that’s what the show is supposed to be about. Maybe we’ve all been blinded by falling for certain stars at the beginning of the season, but we’re not supposed to have blind loyalty. Furthermore, one could argue that the whole reason we’ve now sent home Lauren Jauregui, Danielle Fishel, and Jen Affleck before Andy Richter is because of the blind loyalty that the voting method forces us into.

Perhaps my issue is more with the voting method in general, but I do think that is just part of a wider problem with the show’s blatant fairness issue. How, in any way, does it make sense that the West Coast is expected to vote without getting to watch? Or, is it that the West Coast viewers are just not expected to vote? If that’s the case, how does that not lead to an argument about the implication of contestants who have an East Coast appeal? That’s a bit of a stretch, sure, but people on the Eastern seaboard seem more likely to vote for Alix Earle, who’s from New Jersey, than they are for Whitney Leavitt from Utah. (Full disclosure: I don’t have any scientific data to back this up, but that’s what makes sense in my mind.)

I just can’t understand why we’ve come so far since the early days of American Idol and shows where votes play a major role and we’re still allowing something as silly as a time zone stand in the way of equity. Why do I have to avoid spoilers like the plague and inconvenience myself in the three-hour time block before I can tune in just because that’s how it’s always worked? Make it make sense, please. We can and should fix this issue before we get to Season 35.

How To Watch Dancing With The Stars

Dancing with the Stars airs on Tuesdays at 8 p.m. local time on ABC and Disney+ and streams the next day on Hulu.

Disney+ offers a number of subscription options, so you can find the one that works for you. With ads, a subscription costs $10.99/month; without ads, it’s $18.99/month or $189.99/year.

There are also Disney+ bundles with Hulu, Max, and ESPN+, so you can subscribe to up to three services at once and save over 40% every month. The bundles are available in a few different configurations, starting at $12.99/month for Disney+ and Hulu with ads, and going up to $32.99/month for Disney+, Hulu, and Max ad-free.