This dance troupe is one big family.
After all,Dancing With the Starsrevealed thatCarrie Ann Inaba,Derek HoughandBruno Tonioliare all returning to the judging panel for season 35 of the dancing competition.
Plus, the ABC series confirmed during the announcement onGood Morning AmericaSept. 1 thatJulianne HoughandAlfonso Ribeirowill also be back on stage as co-hosts.
For Derek, the momentum is high for this upcoming 35th season.
“The cast is incredible,” he said during his appearance on GMA. “The pros are energized. They’re motivated. They’re excited. They’re ready to compete. It’s gonna be an incredible season. I cannot wait. Truly, this is just magic in a bottle, and it continues to create magic every single season.”
And while Carrie Ann and Bruno have now been judging alongside each other since the very beginning, Carrie Ann said Bruno always keeps things feeling fresh.
As she joked, “Every time we get out there, I never know what’s going to happen with this guy.”
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Dancing With the Stars: The Next ProWinner Revealed—Find Out Who Will Compete on DWTS Season 35
But while many fans online speculated thatShirley Ballas—the mom of series proMark Ballaswho joined him as a judge on Dancing With the Stars: The Next Pro—would become part of the judging panel for season 35, she was not announced as part of the team.
Fans will need to wait until Sept. 2, however, to see which celebrities will be rounding out the cast alongsideMaura Higgins,Ciara Miller,Jackson OlsonandGuillermo Rodriguezas part DWTSseason 35.
There is one exciting change though: After DWTS:The Next Pro—hosted by season 34 champRobert Irwin—crowned its inaugural winner, there will be a new face among the team of dancing pros.
Indeed,Adele Zaikmanwill be among the professional dance partners for the incoming cast, and she detailed her surprise after sashaying her way into the winner’s circle.
“I just feel like this is a celebration of all the sacrifices that I’ve done,” Adele, a Blackpool Dance Festival champion, said in the Aug. 31 finale. “It’s just like a big ‘I made it’ moment.”
For their parts, finalistAJ Pritchardwas the runner-up whileSelena Hamiltoncame in third place.
During the finale episode, Derek—who served as a guest judge for the episode—praised Adele’s “maturity” while envisioning her future.
“Adele, you could just walk across the floor and you would be captivating,” he said. “If you became a pro, you wouldn’t just fit in; you would elevate the rest of theDancing with the Starscast. I really believe that.”
Dancing With the Starswill announce the season 35 celebrity cast and their professional partners Sept. 2.
In the meantime, read on to learn all the behind-the-scenes secrets from the series.
ABC/Paula Lobo
However, Bobby Bones said he made more than this when he won season 27 with Sharna Burgess in 2018.
“That show pays OK,” the radio personality said on a Sept. 2025 episode of Jason Tartick’s podcast Trading Secrets. “Like, first episode, no money. Second episode, $10,000. I think it’s like, $10,000, $10,000, $20,000, $20,000. It ends up being $50,000 an episode if you last.”
Also receiving a base salary of around $110,000, Bones continued, “I ended up making close to $400,000 from that show.”
ABC has not publicly confirmed any of these figures.
But even if a pro is eliminated in the first round, they’re not leaving the ballroom empty-handed.
“You’re guaranteed until a certain amount of weeks,” Jenna Johnson said on a June 2025 episode of Kelly Stafford and Hank Winchester’s podcast The Morning After. “I think there’s different contracts though. I can’t speak for everybody.”
While Johnson—who won season 26 with Olympic figure skater Adam Rippon, as well as season 33 with The Bachelor’s Joey Graziadei—says the pros don’t get a larger paycheck if they take home what is now called the Len Goodman Mirrorball Trophy, she noted there’s still an incentive to make it to the finale (besides bragging rights, of course).
“If you make it all the way to the end, you’re getting paid the whole season, which is amazing, and you get a bonus on top of that for making it to the finale,” she explained on The Morning After. “If you win, it’s not like you win a $1 million and split it with your partner. You’re just getting a cute trophy together.”
On a 2022 episode of Trading Secrets, Lindsay Arnold recalled how her salary was cut “more than in half” when she was demoted from pro to troupe member.
“You get no say,” Lindsay said on a May 2025 episode of Maggie Sellers’ Hot Smart Rich podcast. “It’s very much just, ‘Here’s your partner. Make it work.'”
In fact, Jenna said the pairing is often a secret until the last minute.
“They really want to keep it a secret until you meet them live,” Jenna said on The Morning After. “They want that genuine reaction. So I think people always think we know who we have and we’re keeping it a secret. Absolutely not. They do not tell us. They really don’t even want us to know the cast. It gets leaked a lot, but they want it very hush-hush until you walk in and meet your partner.”
As for what the Dancing With the Stars team looks for when making these matches?
“It’s based on height, build and personality and compatibility,” former showrunner Rob Wade told E! News in 2015. “We don’t pair people who aren’t going to get on. It’s too intense. It’s not like The Bachelor or something, we couldn’t do that. That would just be miserable experience for the celebrity, for us and the viewer. You don’t want to see two people who don’t like each other and, quite frankly, we have made that mistake pairing people up who didn’t get on so well.”
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