• by Wayne Friedman , September 16, 2013

ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars” will be the first TV show to reveal viewers' real-time social data and conversations from Facebook.

Linking up with Facebook viewers will reveal how many people on the social net are talking about the contestants and which dancing partners on the show are generating the most buzz. It will also break this on-screen data down by gender.

Nick Grudin, director of partnerships at Facebook, stated: “Now the TV audience will get a real-time snapshot of the social discourse across the nation.”

Marla Provencio, executive vice president/CMO of the ABC Entertainment Group, added: “We are always looking for ways to innovate and engage with our loyal fan base.”

For its last spring edition of the show, “Dancing with the Stars” pulled in 14.9 million viewers from Nielsen’s live plus seven days of time-shifting metric, seventh best of all TV prime-time shows.

The show will start up for the new season Sept. 16. The new season of “Dancing with the Stars” will feature Elizabeth Berkley, Corbin Bleu, Brant Daugherty, Bill Engvall, Valerie Harper, Keyshawn Johnson, Christina Milian, Bill Nye, Jack Osbourne, Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi, Leah Remini and Amber Riley.

Separately, ABC Radio will re-launch its popular “Dancing with the Stars” station on Slacker, providing fans with behind-the-scenes access to the ABC hit reality TV show as contestant battle for the Mirror Ball trophy. Now in its third season, “Dancing with the Stars” Radio will offer a behind-the-scenes look, judges' reactions and weekly Las Vegas odds on the eventual trophy winner .