Dancing With the Stars returns for its 35th season on ABC and Disney+ on 15 and 16 September, with music director Ray Chew once again overseeing the show's live 14-piece band. Chew, who has held the role for 17 seasons, has helped shift the programme's sound from a traditional ballroom style to one that reflects current pop culture, tackling everything from a Wicked-themed episode to a night of TikTok hits. The feature matters because it highlights the largely unseen effort behind live televised music, at a time when live bands on screen are increasingly rare.

Chew describes an intense weekly process: song assignments arrive on Wednesday, after which his team must "unbake the cake" — deconstructing hit songs to rework them for live performance within days, while music supervisor Nancy Severinsen races to clear rights that can involve multiple writers and publishers. His show days reportedly begin at 3.30am and run until broadcast ends that evening. Chew, a Saturday Night Live band alumnus who has also music-directed the Grammys, the Emmys and American Idol among others, calls DWTS a "unicorn" of live television.