Ezra Frechtruly stuck the landing with one key relationship.
After hisDancing With the StarspartnerDaniella Karagachintroduced the Paralympic gold-medalist to her 3-year-old daughterNikita, she reflected on how touching it was to watch the two become best friends.
“Honestly, it was so cool just watching them sit together on the couch,” Karagach told E! News in an exclusive interview following the Sept. 29 episode ofDancing With the Stars. “She was just petting his leg, and she thought he is Superman.”
As the pro dancer said, “She’s obsessed with him, and just seeing him with her is really cool because they’re literally besties.”
In fact, Karagach—who shares Nikita with fellow dance pro and husbandPasha Pashkov—noted her daughter is convinced Frech is superhuman.
“She literally says, ‘He’s like Superman,’” she recalled. “He is. He is Superman.”
And the feeling is mutual for Frech, who added, “She’s so cute.”
read
Dancing With the Stars‘ Rylee Arnold Shares How Dylan Efron “Put Some Magic” in Connor Wood’s Performance
But the 21-year-old isn’t just bonding with Nikita—he has also found new friends in Pashkov and his celebrity dance partnerAmber Glenn.
“Having Posh and Amber, it feels like I have teammates in this in some way,” he shared. “When I see them around at the studio, or even right before we’re about to go, it’s just beautiful energy. It’s nice to have that home base.”
In the end, though, Frech and Karagach are putting their all into their routines for the fans, which is why they were so moved by seeing the positive response on social media to their performances from last week.
“It was so rewarding because we’re doing it for them,” Karagach said. “That’s why we’re doing this. We’re doing this for our families, for our friends, for our fans, for the people watching”
Plus, she added, “It’s so inspiring watching Ezra do his thing and getting comfortable in the ballroom and actually turning into a baller dancer. So, the fact that everyone else sees that and recognizes that and tries to do our dance…that is just the biggest honor.”
To learn all the behind-the-scenes secrets ofDancing 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.”
