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Aired fall 2017 · Two personal narratives gave the season emotional depth

Fall 2017

Season twenty-five carried two cast storylines with weight beyond the competitive arc. Frankie Muniz's on-air health disclosures and Victoria Arlen's Paralympic background each drew viewer attention in ways the format rarely commands outside the dance.

Filmed
Los Angeles, California
CBS Television City, Los Angeles
Premiered
Sep 18, 2017
ABC · September 2017
Episodes
11
Format
Celebrity ballroom · 11 episodes
Personal narratives with Paralympic and cognitive-health threads
Host
Tom Bergeron
twenty-fifth season with Tom Bergeron at the helm
On this page5 sections
  1. 01The take
  2. 02The shape of the season
  3. 03Where it sits in the canon
  4. 04Adjacent in the canon
  5. 05Also appears in
01The take

Health and history outweigh choreography.

A fall run where the human stories earned as much attention as the choreography — and sometimes more.
02The shape of the season

Eleven episodes, two threaded storylines.

Season twenty-five ran eleven episodes with a celebrity cast that included two competitors whose personal narratives extended well beyond their dance arcs. Victoria Arlen's background as a Paralympic medalist and Frankie Muniz's candid on-air discussion of his cognitive health history gave the season an emotional register that most fall editions do not reach. The season delivered consistent choreographic quality while carrying human stories that made it more than a standard fall run.

03Where it sits in the canon

The #26 slot.

Slot #26 of 34 in the Dancing with the Stars Editor's Canon. Season twenty-five ran eleven fall episodes with a competitive field that included two cast members whose personal narratives drew viewer attention well beyond their dance arcs. Victoria Arlen's background as a Paralympic medalist gave her participation a dimension the choreographic competition alone could not produce. Frankie Muniz's candid on-air disclosures about his cognitive health history opened a public conversation the format rarely hosts. Jordan Fisher and Drew Scott gave the competitive field additional range. The season delivered consistent choreographic quality and earned a claim to this position through the emotional weight its personal stories carried.

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05Also appears in

Cross-references.