Dylan Efron is still dancing with these stars.
Dancing With the Stars pro Rylee Arnold revealed that her celebrity partner Connor Wood improved his Yacht Rock Night routine by getting some practice time in with the Traitors personality, who finished fourth on the competition series last year.
“Connor came to a rehearsal afterward,” Arnold exclusively told E! News after the Sept. 29 episode, “and I was like, ‘Dylan put some magic in him!'”
And Efron didn’t only provide help with his moves. In fact, Wood shared that the reality star also offered him some wisdom.
“He’s been through it,” the Brooke and Connor Make a Podcast host explained in the joint interview. “He’s got great advice.”
Of course, Wood noted that Efron’s former celebrity partner Daniella Karagach also deserved some credit for his dancing expertise.
“Whatever Danny taught him never left,” he added. “So, glad to have him in the corner.”
But Efron isn’t the only person Wood has added to his inner circle since embarking on his Dancing With the Stars journey.
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Dancing With the Stars Season 35 Cast
The 31-year-old also detailed his budding bromance with fellow celeb contestant Ezra Frech, who is currently partnered with Karagach.
“We met on the first day when we were doing the promo shoot,” Wood recalled. “And we just hit it off. It’s been so much fun.”
And since then, the pair have developed a unique dynamic. As Wood put it, “It’s very much like older brother, little brother situation.”
However, ultimately, the internet personality insisted that the entire season 35 cast has become a “tight knit group,” noting that he already knew some of his competitors going into it, such as Tyler Cameron.
“I’m very close with everybody,” Wood said. “I had a lot of friends coming into it. Obviously Tyler and I are good buddies.”
For more insight into what goes on behind the scenes of Dancing With the Stars, keep reading.
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.”
