‘Dancing With the Stars’ Is the Best Show on TV. I’m Serious.

This week:

• I can’t believe this is the coolest show on TV.
• Saying goodbye to another singular talent.
• Who wants to send me to Oprah’s show?
• Put some respect on Sex and the City’s name.
• Kelly Clarkson does it again.

Cha Cha Real Smooth

What if Dancing With the Stars is the best show on television?

I’m being serious.

It’s been shocking to watch the resurgence of the show, which used to be a pop-culture joke, a graveyard playground for celebrities wheezing their last gasps of relevance to shimmy and shake for an Instagram like. (Folks, Instagram didn’t even exist when this show started.)

The two-night premiere of the new season was this week, and it was honestly the most enjoyable thing I watched. I cackled and rolled my eyes at each introduction package. I was legitimately in awe at some of the dancing. I…yes, I’m going to admit this…I cried. Several times. Welcome to the timeline where celebrity chef Giada De Laurentiis appears on Dancing With the Stars and reduces me to tears.

The resurgence of Dancing With the Stars is a huge Hollywood comeback story. And I have theories.

At a time when broadcast television is teetering towards the bright white light and young viewers have all but abandoned the medium, Dancing With the Stars—which had spent years on the struggle bus—suddenly emerged as the coolest girl in school.

This week’s season premiere got higher ratings than the Emmy Awards telecast. Speaking of the Emmys, for the first time in a decade, Dancing With the Stars was nominated for an Emmy for Best Reality Competition, kicking past winners The Amazing Race and The Voice out of the category.

At a time when talent competitions like American Idol or The Voice haven’t launched a legitimate new celebrity in a decade, DWTS is rocket-launching the “who?” contestants the show is famous for into “oh, I love them!” legitimate stars.

Whitney Leavitt, a minor nuisance on Hulu’s The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, won the show and became the most bankable star on Broadway. Robert Irwin now reigns as TV’s chief heartthrob, alongside fellow contestant Dylan Efron, elevating them from breakout cuties from their past TV work to the ultimate designation of a supastah: Your mom and aunts love them.

I think about this season’s cast and how different it is for them to come on the show than it was just a few years ago. When Ciara Miller, the star of Bravo’s Summer House, was announced, it was viewed as a coronation, an earned Cinderella moment for a woman who rose above one of reality TV’s juiciest scandals this past year.

Not long ago, DWTS was viewed as an embarrassment. “Wow, how far they’ve fallen…” “They must be so desperate for attention…” Now, you’re lucky to be asked. Serious actress Julia Stiles is on this season. That is insane! Also, congrats to her; this will do amazing things for her career!

What changed about the show that it’s suddenly so popular? I actually don’t think it’s the show that changed; it’s blessedly as cheesy and predictable as it was two decades ago. The way we consume culture has changed. The world around us in which we consume culture has changed.

The vice president of the United States, JD Vance, compared Netflix’s ugly-hats-and-random-abs merdier, Emily in Paris, to Shakespeare. An AI actress named “Tilly Norwood” is on a press tour. The biggest story of the week was a woman s--ting herself during a cult-like fitness competition. We are being told to choose sides between [checks notes] Macklemore and Ed Sheeran.

At a time when nothing makes sense and every news development feels like a random word generator surfaced a sentence never before seen in the English language, Dancing With the Stars could not be more timely.

Here, we have glorious, fabulous randomness. Esteemed actress Julia Stiles is on the cast alongside the husband of the aforementioned Mormon Wife, several reality stars, an Olympic gold medalist, the little sister from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Jimmy Kimmel’s sidekick, a Glee and Grey’s Anatomy star, and a hunk from a sports thing I am told is called “the Savannah Bananas.”

And here’s the thing: It’s beautiful. There was a time when this show was the harbinger of the cultural apocalypse. Right around when Donald Trump’s first White House press secretary (the first time) Sean Spicer did the salsa to Spice Up for Your Life, all hope for humanity seemed to evaporate. It was downright dystopian. This show was ruining us.

Fast forward to Donald Trump the second time, and it’s saving us. It’s exactly the scattershot nonsense we need to feel uplifted, or, hell, distracted. Better yet, you can even just watch the dances in one-minute videos instead of an entire episode, perfect for our pathetic screen habits today.

Is Dancing With the Stars high art? I don’t need to answer that. Is it what we need, right now? I think all of you answered that yourselves.

Let’s All Sparkle a Little Bit

I had a perfect opener for this: There’s significantly less dazzle in this world today, following the death of Bob Mackie. But that is just not true. And it would be a disservice to the legendary fashion designer, whose iconic creations for the likes of Cher, Carol Burnett, Tina Turner, and so many more sparkled their way into cultural history.

The truth is that Mackie was singular in how he married the glamour of high fashion with the fun of high camp, creating an entirely new aesthetic that isn’t gone, but lives on. That Marilyn Monroe, Madonna, and Sabrina Carpenter, decades apart, each wore a take on his iconic design and set the fashion world on fire for it, speaks to that.

It always tickled me that the same man responsible for Carol Burnett’s legendary Went With the Wind curtain dress also created some of Fran Fine’s most drool-worthy looks on The Nanny. (Never forget that Fran Drescher on that show is a fashion icon.) Pink soared through the sky in his bodysuits. Diana Ross came to life in his clothes. Elton John mimed baseball in his bedazzled uniform.

I am a hypocrite in every way: As much as I can praise the impact of his shimmering design spirit, I would never step out in something bedazzled. That’s just for the divas. But, Bob, know that I am sparkling from the inside in your memory.

You Get a Jackpot! And You Get a Jackpot!

It tickles me that Oprah Winfrey is the next celebrity to announce a show at Las Vegas’ iconic, overwhelming Sphere.

“Oprah Winfrey’s AHA: An Immersive Experience at Sphere” sounds both tantalizing and threatening.

To immersively achieve an AHA moment? As an Oprah superfan, I can’t even fathom something more life-changing. But to do it at the Sphere? I’ve had melatonin nightmares about that kind of experience.

There will be poems, music, conversations, and, of course, Oprah. I’m sure it will be lovely and moving. And there will be the acid-trip Sphere visuals surrounding it. Mostly, ever since this was announced, I haven’t stopped imagining the “BEES!” meme happening at the Sphere, and I can’t stop laughing.

Yes, Sex and the City Was Great TV

I don’t know why, but a clip of one of the most consequential scenes from Sex and the City went viral this week. It was entirely random, but the point was to remind everyone how superb the show’s writing and acting were.

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It’s a scene I’ll never forget because it’s so raw and relatable for anyone who has friends they treat as family: Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) and Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) are shopping, and Carrie confesses that she had met up with her Toxic Man Personified ex, Big. They have a vulnerable fight, with all pretenses stripped away. Emotionally, it’s practically naked, the way you can only be with your friends.

It’s the kind of confrontation that TV hadn’t aired before: scars reopened between two intimately close friends. And Parker and Nixon are just incredible.

I know people have a jokey memory of the series now after And Just Like That, but having recently rewatched some of it, I’d argue the acting is as good as it ever was. But it’s still nice to be reminded that SATC isn’t just a meme; it’s historically fantastic television.

How Is She Real?

Kelly Clarkson just blew our minds with the cover of “Golden” on her talk show’s finale, nailing a song that was only meant to be sung by a mythical creature. Now, she just torched one of rock’s classic “let ’em wail” songs, “The Weight” by The Band. And holy hell, is she singing it.

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More From The Daily Beast’s Obsessed

One of the key players in the Office spinoff has more to his story than you’d imagine. Watch here.

I went to Salt Lake City to interview the Real Housewives. If you know me, that’s HUGE. Read more.

I still can’t get over how bad the Emmys were. Read more.

What to Watch This Week:

Youth: If you loved Catastrophe or Bad Sisters, you’re in for a treat. (Sun. on HBO)

The History of Concrete: I’m serious: The funniest movie of the year is a documentary on concrete. (Now in theaters)

Resident Evil: Anyone who loved Weapons: Get excited. (Now in theaters)

What to Skip This Week:

Brothers: I don’t actually know if this is good or bad, but Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson were so annoying at the Emmys that I don’t want to watch. (Wed. on Apple TV)