Eric Roberts said a scheduling conflict kept him from accepting an offer to join Dancing with the Stars 19 years earlier. In 2024, he finally competed on Season 33, partnered with professional dancer Britt Stewart—and said he was taking part in part because his wife, Eliza, had long loved the show.
Why couldn’t Eric Roberts join DWTS the first time?
Roberts told Parade that he was offered a place on the show when it was starting, but he was in China making a movie. The production schedule overlapped with the show by one day, and he said he could not leave the film set—even though he ultimately did not film on the conflicting day.
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Parade’s interview is the basis for the account that Roberts was the first celebrity offered a place. That distinction has not been independently confirmed in the reviewed reporting, so it is best understood as Roberts’s recollection rather than an established fact about the show’s casting history.
Why did Roberts say yes 19 years later?
By Season 33, the timing worked. Roberts said his and Eliza’s calendars finally aligned, and that he was doing the show for her. In a pre-premiere interview with Woman’s World, he also spoke about his wife’s affection for the program. The “dream come true” framing reflects Roberts’s personal account of making the opportunity happen, not a formal statement from the show.
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What was Roberts’s DWTS experience like?
Roberts entered the competition as a dance novice with Stewart as his professional partner. He described having to repeat movements and work to catch up with the coordination dancing required. Stewart told Parade, “Sometimes not being a dancer is not necessarily a bad thing.”
Before the Season 33 premiere, Roberts was candid about his nerves. “I’m scared to death. There’s no hiding it. There’s no pretending to be cool,” he told Woman’s World. He also named his memoir, Runaway Train: or, The Story of My Life So Far, in the interview.
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When were Roberts and Stewart eliminated?
Roberts and Stewart were eliminated in a double elimination on October 8, 2024. Good Morning America reported their combined score as 46.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How did Season 33’s premiere perform?
The premiere drew 7.32 million total viewers after seven days of viewing across ABC, Disney+, Hulu and digital platforms, according to a Disney/ABC Television Group release dated October 7, 2024. The release also reported 4.97 million Live + Same Day viewers and a 47% increase after seven days. Those are season-wide premiere figures, not a measure of Roberts’s individual audience support.
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Quick Recap
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- Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Full Screen, NTSC
- Language: English
- Region: Region 1 U.S. and Canada only
- Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
- Video Run Time: 51 minutes
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