‘Dancing With the Stars’ Will Look Different on Disney+: Inside the Show’s Jump From ABC to Streaming

variety.com:

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large As “Dancing With the Stars” moves from ABC to Disney+ on Monday, viewers will notice several major changes to the competition series as it makes a historic switch to streaming for Season 31 — most notably, there will be a lot more show than they’re used to.

That’s because Disney+ is commercial-free, which means producers have to fill all two hours without any time-outs. “Job one, the first thing, is that there are no longer ad breaks,” says executive producer Conrad Green. “And a lot of other decisions spun out from that.

We’ve got up to two hours on the nose to fill, rather than a commercial version of two hours. And that’s almost a third more material that you’ve got to find for the show.” A two-hour telecast on ABC actually consists of 43 minutes of content each hour, or 86 minutes all together.

The Disney+ episodes will, at least initially, clock in at a full 120 minutes. Green says that won’t be a problem at first, as this season’s “DWTS” will have more contestants than usual to follow — 16 in total (it’s only had that many celebrity dancers one other time, in fall 2009). “What we’re going to do is use what would have been traditional ad breaks as a way to create more programming and to further engage our audience,” says Michael Paull, president, direct to consumer, Disney Media and Entertainment Distribution. “So it’s a pretty exciting task for the team, because it’s a very different format than what it had been historically.