ABC’s long-running celebrity ballroom competition unveiled its full Season 35 roster on Wednesday — and fans have already taken to social media to cry foul. The lineup features Jenna Dewan, Julia Stiles and Harry Shum Jr., each bringing years of professional dance pedigree to a format built around teaching novices to glide across the parquet.
The announcement, dropped during Good Morning America, has triggered a familiar but spirited complaint from viewers who tune in to watch stars stumble, sweat and occasionally soar. Why, they ask, are seasoned performers competing alongside (and against) celebrities who can barely tell a foxtrot from a flutter kick?
A Cast Loaded with Dance Credentials
Dewan, 45, is no stranger to the spotlight — or the studio. Before Hollywood came calling, she cut her teeth as a backup dancer on Janet Jackson’s 2001 “All for You Tour,” then built a glossy résumé performing in music videos for Christina Aguilera, Pink, Missy Elliott and *NSYNC. She later helmed Jennifer Lopez’s World of Dance and judged the 2022 CBS series Come Dance With Me. Her professional partner this season is Val Chmerkovskiy.
Stiles, also 45, etched herself into millennial memory with that now-iconic tabletop routine in 1999’s 10 Things I Hate About You. She carried the torch again for Save the Last Dance in 2001, playing a teenager with ballet dreams and gritty determination. She’s paired with pro dancer Ezra Sosa.
Shum Jr., 44, is best known as Mike Chang on Fox’s Glee. Like Dewan, he began his career as a backup dancer — for Beyoncé, Mariah Carey and Jennifer Lopez among them — and also featured in the Step Up films. He’ll dance alongside Jenna Johnson.
Social Media Reacts: “That Gives Her a Huge Advantage”
The response online was almost instantly divided. Critics were quick to point out what they see as an uneven playing field, with the casting seen by some as a stacked deck before the first rehearsal even begins.
“Isn’t Jenna Dewan a professional dancer who’s worked with Derek?” one X user asked, referencing her past professional partnership with judge Derek Hough. “Can we all not make Harry the winner — he’s a dancer. Let’s vote for the dancers that have no experience,” another wrote. A third chimed in: “Why do you keep adding professionally trained dancers to the cast?”
On Threads, one user wrote: “Umm… as much as I love DWTS, some of these ‘stars’ are already dancers of some sort. Jenna and Julia for example.”
The sentiment was loud enough to make waves — though not everyone was perturbed. “Should be an interesting cast since several amateurs are actually pretty good dancers already,” one person posted.
Perhaps the most enthusiastic response came from a viewer who wrote: “Julia Stiles, Jenna Dewan AND Harry Shum Jr. on DWTS??? Oh they came for the millennials BAD. This lineup just unlocked an entire section of my childhood. Save the Last Dance, Step Up and Glee all in one season??? I’m seated!”
Behind the Ballroom: Judges, Hosts and a Two-Night Premiere
Beyond the controversy, the new season promises a familiar rhythm at the judges’ table. Carrie Ann Inaba, Derek Hough and Bruno Tonioli return to deliver their verdicts, while Alfonso Ribeiro and Julianne Hough reprise their duties as co-hosts. Often considered the American cousin of the UK’s Strictly Come Dancing, the format pairs famous faces with professional dancers who coach them through the conventions of ballroom.
Season 35 will debut with a live two-night premiere on 15 September, setting up a season already drenched in nostalgia — and debate.
Why it Matters
For a show that has thrived on the spectacle of novices discovering their feet, the decision to load up on trained performers raises a genuine tension at the heart of the brand. Fans crave the messy, the moving and the unexpected — the moment a sports star learns to lead, or a comedian discovers rhythm. Yet the network clearly also wants star power, social-media chatter and box-office chemistry. Season 35 is gambling that those two impulses can coexist. If viewers tune in for the journey, not just the pirouette, this cast could deliver both — but the early grumbling suggests ABC will need to work hard to remind audiences why anyone signs up for the sequinned humiliation in the first place.
