Dancing With the Stars Prepares for “Wicked Night” With Robert Irwin & Witney Carson Set to Perform Jazz to “Dancing Through Life”

Dancing With the Stars will return to ABC and Disney+ with a themed live broadcast on Tuesday as the competition stages its anticipated “Wicked Night” — a tribute episode built around music and aesthetics inspired by the long-running Broadway hit Wicked. The production will feature remaining celebrity–pro pairings performing routines to songs tied to the show’s universe, with voters casting decisions in real time ahead of another weekly elimination.

Among the scheduled routines, television personality Robert Irwin and professional partner Witney Carson will perform a jazz number set to “Dancing Through Life.” The choice aligns with the choreography-friendly character of the song within the source musical, suggesting a performance likely emphasizing ease, charm and character storytelling over the stricter technical frames required in ballroom styles.

The episode is part of the series’ ongoing strategy of theme weeks designed to generate appointment viewing and increase shareability on streaming and social platforms. ABC will carry the show live at 8/7c, with next-day availability on Hulu for time-shifted audiences.

While the network did not reveal detailed staging information in advance, the “Wicked Night” label signals that costuming, lighting design, and show-open packaging will draw visually from the emerald-tinted palette and fantastical theatrical motifs associated with the Broadway production. Themed episodes often feature augmented graphics, stylized pre-tapes and on-camera segments that align with the narrative apparatus of the week’s concept.

Producers expect the Broadway-based sound cues to offer choreographers a wider character canvas than episodes built around standard charts or modern pop hits. Jazz, in particular, gives pros like Carson latitude for theatrical blocking and staging decisions that might not translate as well in traditional ballroom genres. For Irwin, whose on-air persona has been characterized by openness to direction and steady technical progress across prior weeks, a looser vocabulary could prove beneficial with judges emphasizing performance value on theme weeks.

Network guidance encourages viewers to watch live to participate in voting as several couples remain closely clustered on the judges’ leaderboard. Results can hinge on marginal audience swings when numerical spreads are narrow. In past seasons, theme nights have produced both break-out moments and high-profile exits, as performances trending online during the show window can distort late-vote momentum and override earlier polling sentiment.

The series continues to leverage its simultaneous broadcast-stream format, with ABC carrying the linear feed and Disney+ providing the concurrent stream. The dual-distribution strategy — established in recent seasons — is designed to expand reach without cannibalizing the live event experience that underpins the program’s voting mechanics. Hulu access the following day provides a catch-up pipeline that maintains weekly consumption for viewers who do not participate live.

As with other theme nights, the “Wicked Night” episode is expected to integrate on-screen references contextualizing the origin of the songs and their placement within the storyline of the source musical. Such packaging serves less to educate than to onboard casual viewers who may not have Broadway familiarity but respond to narrative cues when judging performance quality.

The show has experimented with several Broadway-adjacent specials across seasons, including tributes to Hamilton and Disney theatrical catalogs. Ratings data in prior cycles indicate that theme frameworks tied to well-known cultural properties drive higher social commentary and clip circulation, particularly when costuming and camera direction deliver recognizably branded imagery.

In addition to Irwin and Carson’s jazz routine, the episode will feature other genre assignments aligned to the “Wicked” catalog, though full dance card details were not disclosed at press time. Judges’ scoring will be combined with viewer votes to determine which couple leaves the competition. ABC typically withholds elimination order until late in the broadcast to maintain live tension.

For Irwin and Carson, “Dancing Through Life” represents a mid-season inflection point. At this phase of the series, consistency becomes more critical than week-one impact; couples who survive theme nights with solid — if not record-setting — scores often gain cumulative safety through reliability. Jazz can double as both opportunity and risk: judges tend to reward confident storytelling but have historically marked down routines perceived as under-choreographed or too safe.

DWTS executives frame the episode not only as weekly competition but as a programming event timed to capitalize on the continuing consumer visibility of Wicked following its renewed media cycle, including promotions for the upcoming film adaptation. Integrating established intellectual property into a live contest format allows the series to borrow cultural momentum while offering viewers a new interpretive layer on familiar material.

@robertirwin

Tuesday night… we’ll be DANCING THROUGH LIFE!

♬ Dancing Through Life – Jonathan Bailey

The “Wicked Night” broadcast airs live Tuesday at 8/7c on ABC and Disney+, with next-day streaming on Hulu. Viewer voting instructions will be communicated on-air during the show window. Absent early leaks or production-released rehearsal footage, first public assessment of Irwin and Carson’s “Dancing Through Life” performance will occur in real time.