Watch:Why John Stamos Turns Down ‘Dancing With the Stars’ “Every Single Season”
Have mercy—because John Stamos is catching heat from Sharna Burgess over his thoughts about Dancing With the Stars
Days after theFull Housealum shared with season 27 winner Bobby Bones how he’s declined joining the ABC dance competition because “what makes that show good is people suffering and looking like fools,” the former DWTS pro clapped back at his candid remarks
“Why do I care because I’m not on the show? Because I was on the show for 15 years,” Burgess began in a since-deleted video shared on her Instagram Story “Because the man that you’re speaking to is the man that I won with, who was the underdog, who laid it all out on the floor every time on what he did not start off being good at.”
The 41-year-old added, “That is the last thing Dancing With the Stars is about.”
Indeed, Burgess was partnered with Bones, 46, when he took home the Mirrorball Trophy in 2018
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Why John Stamos Turns Down Dancing With the Stars “Every Single Season”
But, in the years since, Bones faced backlash over his victory—with DWTS co-host Julianne Hough and former emcee Tom Bergeron publicly saying that they didn’t think the radio DJ deserved to win—leading him to voluntarily return his prize to producers
In fact, when Stamos recently appeared on Bones’The BobbyCast, he jokingly reiterated the same sentiment
Savion Washington/FilmMagic; Robby Klein/Getty Images for IMDb
“You shouldn’t have won,” Stamos quipped to Bones, playfully arguing that Fuller House costar Juan Pablo Di Pace “got 10s all the way across the board, and you came in and somehow won.”
Ribbing that the competition was “rigged,” Stamos jokingly added, “I was gonna call ABC!”
However, Bones—who reconciled with Bergeron earlier this year after receiving an apology—now takes criticism over his victory in stride. As he joked to Stamos, “I’m the jackass!”
Eric McCandless/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images
“I never had a plan to do it, but ABC—because I was going on my fourth season with Idol—said you needed to do that show as promotion,” he continued, explaining how he had zero dance experience before the show. “No one that has never danced has won, but I just kept blasting and I won.”
And that’s why Bones told Stamos that he believes theGrandfatheredalum would make a great DWTS contestant
“You would love it,” he said. “You would learn so much about yourself.”
For more behind-the-scenes secrets about DWTS, 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.”
