It’s only appropriate that Dancing With the Stars devoted an entire night to Wicked last week, because this year, the show’s ratings and buzz are defying gravity in the most spectacular ways. At a time when double-digit declines are the norm for linear shows, ABC’s variety-competition staple kicked off its 34th season in September by scoring its biggest premiere numbers since 2020 — and then proceeded to grow its viewership for five consecutive weeks, something no fall show has done since the modern Nielsen-measurement era began in 1991. Even more stunning is what’s powering the DWTS ratings boom: massive gains among Gen Z and younger millennial viewers, two demographics that had supposedly abandoned linear TV.

A cast packed with lots of social-media influencers, Mormon wives, and o

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