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In the weeks leading up to the premiere of Season 33 of Dancing with the Stars<\/em> last September, Anna Delvey\u2019s casting set the internet aflame.<\/p>\n While the fake heiress and convicted felon\u2019s controversial dancing debut drummed up fresh interest in the decades-old show at the season\u2019s start, it may have been her pro partner\u2019s internet savvy that helped carry engagement in the season to record-breaking levels.<\/p>\n That pro partner is Ezra Sosa, a 24-year-old ballroom dancer that joined the DWTS<\/em> cast as a troupe member in 2021 before being promoted to a pro dancer partnered with contestants in 2024. Delvey was his first ever celebrity partner, and while there was great fanfare, it was short-lived: the duo was the first pair to be eliminated. But their short run gave way to a long tail of viral moments on both TV and phone screens, and even after the pair was voted out, Sosa\u2019s TikTok account became a go-to destination for newer fans to engage with the show.<\/p>\n Now between seasons, Sosa is managing a budding personal brand while still representing DWTS<\/em>\u2019s newly modernized image\u2014a perception that he says is a result of both his work on social and the show\u2019s clever casting efforts.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re like, \u2018Okay, we have a convicted felon. Okay, let\u2019s give her to the twink who has a good social media presence. Let\u2019s go. Let\u2019s make the most out of this,\u2019\u201d Sosa told Marketing Brew. \u201cWhat a lot of the pros really started to get into this season was bringing that awareness to the show. We brought people to the show, but they stayed to watch the show. It came hand in hand. If the show wasn\u2019t good, we wouldn\u2019t have the fan base.\u201d<\/p>\n Before DWTS<\/em>\u2019s most recent season, Sosa had about 70,000 TikTok followers and 90,000 Instagram followers. Today, those numbers have jumped to about 571,000 and 272,000, respectively, with an average engagement rate of 100 million views per month, a result that he credited to strategic posting, he said.<\/p>\n For those previously unaware of him or his role on the show, Sosa might have popped up on feeds for a clip filmed after his and Delvey\u2019s elimination, where she was asked what she learned from her experience on the show. Delvey deadpanned \u201cnothing\u201d \u2014and a meme was born instantly. Sosa took the moment and ran with it: he got a tattoo of the word \u201cnothing\u201d; created a custom TikTok sound mashing up Delvey\u2019s line delivery with the chorus of Whitney Houston\u2019s \u201cI Have Nothing,\u201d and incorporated the moment into several of Delvey\u2019s appearances in behind-the-scenes footage.<\/p>\n Beng in on the joke is key to his social media presence, he said, and it\u2019s something that he believes sets him apart and helped lay the groundwork for how the show puts social media to use.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I joined the show, I was posting TikToks, and [the other pros were] like, \u2018We don\u2019t want to do TikTok,\u2019 so I\u2019m like, \u2018Wait a couple years. Just give it a little bit. [The show is] going to get into it, I promise you,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd now we\u2019re all doing TikToks.\u201d<\/p>\n Marketing Brew informs marketing pros of the latest on brand strategy, social media, and ad tech via our weekday newsletter, virtual events, marketing conferences, and digital guides.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Sosa\u2019s posts gave fans access to their favorite stars beyond what aired on TV, and later in the season, it became more official when he was tasked with cohosting a DWTS<\/em>-official TikTok Live during the Instant Dance Challenge\u2019s ad breaks. The challenge involved the remaining couples coming up with an entire routine in the minutes between the live broadcast, and the TikTok Live showed fans more of the process against the backdrop of Sosa\u2019s commentary.<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t the first time DWTS<\/em> had done a livestream, but Sosa said previous versions had been on YouTube. The TikTok version, which Sosa described as \u201cwildly successful,\u201d reassured him that his online activity was not only approved, but encouraged.<\/p>\n \u201cI knew what I was posting was not the norm,\u201d he said. \u201cSo when they told me that, I was like, \u2018Wait, maybe they\u2019re appreciating my social media presence.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n The show has plenty else to appreciate. During Season 33, fan voting records were broken several times over, peaking at 32 million votes during the finale, and 6.4 million people tuned in to watch the finale, the show\u2019s highest Live+Same Day viewership since 2020. Much of that growth was in the 18\u201349 demographic, where viewership was up 70% YoY, per Deadline.<\/p>\n Where does Sosa go from here? He\u2019s gearing up for Season 34, which will premiere in September and includes conservationist Robert Irwin and social media star Alix Earle among the celebrity dance partners. Before then, he is balancing the show\u2019s recent live tour, making appearances during Pride, and bolstering his social presence that\u2019s increasingly featured brand deals. (Recent collabs include Skittles, beauty brand Sol de Janeiro, juice brand Naked, and allergy medicine Allegra.)<\/p>\n Even with a wide range of partnerships, Sosa says he is strategic about how and when he posts brand deals, and he prides himself on being easy to work with.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll never double-post a brand deal,\u201d he said. \u201cI have to make sure that it\u2019s sandwiched in between a video that I know will go viral, because my job, when I\u2019m getting these brand deals, [is] to make sure that I can get it to as many people as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n Sosa said he knows that as he grows his personal brand, people engage most with content related to DWTS<\/em>, which means he is tasked with playing the dual roles of influencer and reality TV star. That delineation can be blurry, he said, but he also views it as giving him a bit of an edge.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are very recognizable people, but we\u2019re not, like, A-list,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m not like, freaking Jay-Z up in this. I\u2019m just shaking my booty cheeks on national television.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\nSocial with the stars<\/h2>\n
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