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The Erin Andrews Effect? Dancing With The Stars Premieres To Huge Ratings

Last night’s premiere of Dancing With the Stars, helped by Erin Andrews’ much buzzed-about debut, scored big ratings for ABC. From TVbytheNumbers:

Dancing With the Stars waltzed up over last year’s spring debut leading ABC to a big nightly win. DWTS scored a 6.3/17 (rating/share) with adults 18-49  and 23.89 million total viewers in the overnights between 8p-10.

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Last night was much improved compared to last fall’s DWTS premiere on September 21, 2009 when it averaged a 4.1 rating with adults 18-49 between 8p-10p.

It’s hard not to conclude that this year’s inclusion of Andrews (also, Mediaite’s number-one-ranked TV Reporter), helped out a bit. She’s currently ranked #1 in Google News buzz, and #2 in Blog buzz, signs that she is being talked about a lot at the moment.

Andrews, you may recall, unwillingly found herself in the middle of a media controversy last summer, when a stalker secretly filmed her naked in her hotel room. This week, the stalker was sentenced to 27 months in prison.

The sentencing was clearly not a distraction, as last night she was pretty awesome. Video via Rickey.org via The Big Lead: