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By Movieguide® Staff
DANCING WITH THE STARS is heading into its 35th season this fall, and four names are already attached.
“[Maura] is exactly what our show is, and she’s having a moment right now, so that was a no brainer,” executive producer and casting head Deena Katz told The Hollywood Reporter of the early cast choices.
Irish reality star Maura Higgins — a second runner-up on THE TRAITORS season four and a UK LOVE ISLAND veteran — joins SUMMER HOUSE’s Ciara Miller, Savannah Bananas second baseman and content creator Jackson Olson and JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE! personality Guillermo Rodriguez. The full celebrity-and-professional-dancer pairings will be revealed Sept. 2 on GOOD MORNING AMERICA, with the season premiering on ABC Tuesdays from 8-10 p.m. ET/CT and streaming on Disney+ the following day.
Higgins has been openly campaigning for a ballroom spot for some time. “It’s something that’d be a challenge for me. I’ve never danced. I’d done a bit of Irish dancing when I was younger,” she told THR after her TRAITORS run. “It’d be a huge challenge, but I know I’d throw myself into it and all the looks and glitter.”
Katz says she already knew Higgins from casting THE TRAITORS, so the fit was clear before the call was ever made. The two have lunched their way toward this announcement for months, Higgins texting Katz every time she lands in LA.
Miller’s casting carries the most cultural weight of the four. Her ex, West Wilson, and her close friend Amanda Batula confirmed a romance this spring — a Bravosphere-shaking development Katz referenced when announcing Miller’s spot.
Related: Will This DWTS Winner Host the Upcoming Spin-Off?
“It was a really of the moment thing that we all felt like it was the right time,” Katz said. The parallel to Ariana Madix is hard to miss — Madix rode the VANDERPUMP RULES Scandoval fallout all the way to the DWTS ballroom, then on to host LOVE ISLAND USA. Miller now mirrors that arc almost exactly, having just been named co-host of LOVE ISLAND USA’s companion show AFTERSUN.
Olson brings a very different energy. A second baseman for the Georgia-based Savannah Bananas exhibition baseball team, he’s built a following of over 2 million on TikTok and 1 million on Instagram. His casting follows a social media-meets-sports formula that paid off for Season 34.
Rodriguez — the beloved recurring personality on JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE! known for his red-carpet celebrity interviews — rounds out the early announcements. His casting was confirmed by Kimmel himself.
Judges Derek Hough, Carrie Ann Inaba and Bruno Tonioli return to the panel. Hough, who alongside wife Hayley Erbert navigated a frightening medical crisis in December 2023 — Erbert required emergency brain surgery after collapsing backstage at a concert — has remained one of the show’s steadiest figures. Movieguide® covered the couple’s first TV interview about her recovery. Alfonso Ribeiro and Julianne Hough return as co-hosts.
Ahead of the main season, ABC is launching a companion series this summer: DANCING WITH THE STARS: THE NEXT PRO, where professional dancers compete for a spot on the pro cast. Showrunner Conrad Green told THR the winner is already locked in, just not yet announced.
“Just being a good ballroom or Latin dancer is the basics,” Green said of what the spinoff revealed about the demands of competing on DWTS. “But you have to be able to do group dancing, choreograph, manage difficult people, manage time pressure.”
Movieguide® covered Season 34 — the show’s 20th anniversary — which featured a memorable cast including wildlife conservationist Robert Irwin, GRAMMY®-winner Scott Hoying and BOY MEETS WORLD’s Danielle Fishel, among others. Season 35 carries no anniversary banner, but the early cast choices send a clear signal: DANCING WITH THE STARS still knows how to find a moment — and then put it in sequins.
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