“Dancing With The Stars” Returning for a 30th Season

It has been confirmed that the hit ABC competition “Dancing with the Stars” has been renewed for its 30th season, making it one of the longest-running American celebrity reality competition shows of all time. The show, which pairs celebrities with professional dancers in an elimination-style ballroom dance-off, is a spinoff of the British show “Strictly Come Dancing;” the US version of the show has been on the air since 2005 and hit the peak of its ratings (of 21.93 million viewers) during the show’s 11th and 12th seasons.

The show has featured 336 celebrities throughout its 29-season run, including movie stars, musical artists, Olympic athletes, politicians, and reality television personalities, along with 48 different professional dancers, many of whom gained mainstream notoriety because of their time on the show. 

Past winners include Olympic speed skating competitor Apolo Ohno, singer Nicole Scherzinger, actress Jennifer Grey, actor, comedian Alfonso Ribero, Olympic gymnast Laurie Hernandez, and most recently, star of “The Bachelor” and “The Bachelorette” Kaitlyn Bristowe. Bristowe was paired with dancer Artem Chigvintsev, who would get engaged to and have a baby with his former celebrity partner from Season 25, professional wrestler Nikki Bella.

The show is currently hosted by television personality and model Tyra Banks, who was brought in to replace the longtime host Tom Bergeron in a DWTS shakeup for the show’s 29th season (and now acts as an executive producer for the show). She will be coming back, along with judges and professional dancers Len Goodman, Derek Hough, Carrie Ann Inaba, Bruno Tonioli. Inaba and Tonioli had been judges since the beginning of the show, and Goodman was a part of all but two seasons. Hough and his sister, Julianne, were both cast members of the show before becoming occasional judges.

It is unknown which celebrities or professional dancers will be a part of the monumental 30th season; typically, the stars are announced on an episode of Good Morning America closer to the airdate. While it is not known when precisely the cast will be revealed or when the new season will premiere, it can be expected that the show will go all out in its casting and presentation to celebrate, making it as far as it has.