Dancing With the Stars is back and bigger than ever.
Sixteen celebrities and their professional dance partners were revealed on Sept. 2 for the upcoming 35th season of the reality competition series. It premieres with a two-night event on Sept. 15-16. “What I like about the season is, it’s the largest cast we’ve ever had,” judge Carrie Ann Inaba told Gold Derby after the cast announcement. “I’m happy that they spread out the nights so that we get to judge the men against the men the first night, and then the second night will be the women. … I think that’s going to set the season up really well.”
The lineup includes the usual mix of actors, athletes, reality TV personalities, and more. Some arrive in the ballroom with previous experience, like Jenna Dewan and Harry Shum Jr., while others are donning their dancing shoes for the first time, but Inaba believes “everyone has a 10,” even if that high score looks different from person to person. The key is to show growth no matter where you’re starting from. “It is important to push yourself because that is why so many people leave Dancing With the Stars and move on to huge careers, because they’ve overcome this huge hurdle and learned something about themselves, that they can push past what they didn’t think they could do.”
For instance, Paralympian Ezra Frech competes in track and field events with a prosthetic leg, which presents unique challenges for dancing, but those challenges have been overcome in the past by contestants Amy Purdy (runner-up, Season 18) and Noah Galloway (finalist, Season 20), both amputees. Frech’s pro partner Daniella Karagach praised him, saying, “Everything I’ve thrown at him he’s able to do, and he’s just so inspiring to me personally because I get to do what I love, but I also get to do it with a freaking cool guy.” Frech is certainly in uncharted territory in the ballroom, and Karagach is “putting my body in positions that I have never been in,” but his career in sports has given him the “work ethic” to undertake such a “difficult challenge.”
“Now I feel like maybe I’ll be able to leave knowing my right foot from my left.” — Giada De Laurentiis
For a couple of stars, DWTS is also a family affair. Conner Leavitt, from The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, is the husband of Season 34 contestant Whitney Leavitt. “I did not have [competing on DWTS] in my brain. The only thing I was thinking of while Whitney was on that ballroom floor was, ‘How do we get her to the finale, and how do we get her to have a real shot at that Mirrorball?'” He was “shocked” when he got the call to follow in her fancy footsteps, but now, “We have a couple of tricks up our sleeve.” Specifically, he would like to incorporate magic into his routines: “Week one, everyone look out. We have a cool surprise.”
Sarah Jane Nader is the sister of Season 33 competitor and fellow Love Thy Nader star Brooks Nader. “She gives me unsolicited advice every moment of every day,” she revealed about her sibling. “She just said to be present because it flies by, and she enjoyed this experience so much, I think she just wants me to have the same experience, but obviously a little different.” Part of the difference is that she’s teaming with a female pro, Hailey Bills, marking just the third time a same-sex pair has competed on DWTS, following Season 30 runners-up JoJo Siwa and Jenna Johnson, and Season 31 finalists Shangela and Gleb Savchenko. She wants to be a role model for “somebody that hasn’t felt seen or validated” because she “didn’t see any representation growing up in Louisiana, so being that for the younger generation now is really exciting.”
Like Nader, figure skater Amber Glenn represents the LGBTQIA+ community. She was the first openly queer woman to be U.S. champion (she prevailed three times at nationals, from 2024 to 2026), and the first to represent the U.S. at the Olympic Games, where she won the gold medal in the team event. Figure skaters have a storied history on DWTS, including Mirrorball champions Kristi Yamaguchi (Season 6), Meryl Davis (Season 18), and Adam Rippon (Season 26). And Glenn is used to being judged for her athletic prowess, but facing Inaba, Derek Hough, and Bruno Tonioli may be even tougher. “I get a sheet after my routine in figure skating, and I can see exactly why they gave the exact scores,” she explained. Scoring is arguably even more subjective on DWTS, though, and dancers only hear brief comments from the judges before getting their marks.
“This is truly a new world.” — Taylor Hanson
“It’s pretty on par with what I was expecting,” revealed comedian Connor Wood about his experience in rehearsals so far. He’s a “huge fan” of the long-running series, but “I was expecting to die pretty early.” However, his partner Rylee Arnold insisted, “He’s been amazing. He is such a quick learner.”
Celebrity chef Giada De Laurentiis also gets her partner Alan Bersten’s seal of approval: “It’s actually been quite inspiring. The growth is amazing.” She decided to join the show at the urging of her daughter, who recently left for college, leaving the culinary maven in search of “a new adventure, something to push me right out of my comfort zone or over my skis, as we like to say.” And to that, Bersten responded, “ What better way to push yourself out of your comfort zone than in front of millions of people live on television dancing?”
Actress Julia Stiles expects the show to be “really emotional,” as it often is for celebrities pushing themselves to their physical limits in pursuit of the art form of dance. “It’s very vulnerable. For me, it’s like I’m not hiding behind a character or a script or a director. It’s just me, you know?” She also teased some future choreography: “I want to learn all of it: ballroom, Latin, maybe we have to do a little mix. Like a little fusion. Dare I say ballet hip-hop fusion,” she described, referencing one of her most famous roles in Save the Last Dance. “I don’t know. You’ll have to vote.” Now that’s a contestant who knows how the game is played.
Summer House star and The Traitors alum Ciara Miller isn’t so sure of herself about her upcoming premiere night routine this early in the process — she rated her current confidence level a three — but she prides herself on her “individual confidence” and has placed her trust in her partner Brandon Armstrong. “I’m going to submit myself to the entire process. The great thing about reality TV is you really have to remain open in order to get the things that you need from it,” she said. “[Dancing With the Stars] is very physically and mentally demanding. But I am going to try my damnedest and my hardest to give it everything that I have and to leave it on the dance floor each week.”
“I’m hoping … to feel what it feels like to express myself in this way that they do so well.” — Tatyana Ali
“I feel like I’ve been launched out of a cannon,” The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air actress Tatyana Ali told us. “It’s hard to say” how emotional the experience will be “because I’m at the very beginning,” but the process has been “amazing.”
Jimmy Kimmel Live sidekick Guillermo Rodriguez is hoping to gain energy and lose some weight as he ages. But “all my body hurts” after the first week of rehearsals, he revealed.
That said, Hanson musician and fellow dancing novice Taylor Hanson is “looking forward to the challenge, frankly. We have this entire new journey,” he said. “It’s all discovery. It’s taking on your fears … I think it’s going to be fun to just let people in on that. We are kind of telling a story. All of these are stories, 16 stories.”
For the stars, those stories have already begun. The rest of us will have to wait until the DWTS premiere. Who among this historic lineup are you most excited to see on the dance floor?
