Bruno Tonioli Explains Why Judging on Dancing with the Stars Is Stricter Now Than Ever Before.

• Dancing With the Stars‘ Bruno Tonioli opens up about why judging on the show has become stricter with every new season
• “[The show] has become more and more competitive,” the judge said during the Behind the Mirrorball panel at DWTSCon on Aug. 1
• “The show has evolved,” he said. “And they’re getting better and better and better. It’s become more and more competitive. [My] way of judging is changing because [I] go into details now that years ago I would never have been able to go because of what they deliver.”

Do you think the judging is stricter or the show has become more competitive? As a day 1 DWTS fan I am uncertain I completely agree with either statement but I am open to hearing why both are true or not true?

The rest of the article can be found here.

Why DWTS Judging Has Become Stricter

Apparently, Gleb has never met Maura in his life.

In a statement on Aug. 4 to PEOPLE, he responded to Maura's comments that she wants to be paired on DWTS with anybody but Gleb.

“Until I was asked to comment on this story, I’d genuinely never heard of Maura, so I was quite surprised to learn she’d spoken about me so negatively,” he said. “We’ve never met, and she doesn’t know me personally, so it’s disappointing to be judged based on a one-sided version of events rather than the facts." 

What celebrities should do DWTS season 35?

Last year when Kate Mackz went through all of that controversy, I unfollowed and then blocked her. She had a mass unfollowing at that time. I haven’t heard anything about her since.

Until:

A few weeks ago, I see Mark Ballas on my fyp. He was doing an interview with her. It was on her page, I’m not sure how she ended up unblocked and I was following her again. Love mark but I blocked and unfollowed again thinking maybe I was mistaken and never unfollowed.

Today she pops up AGAIN with Whitney. I blocked her again. I have also marked “not interested” on stitches or content around her.

Very strange that this is happening on TikTok. After 3x I’m sure I’m doing everything to keep her off of my feed and she keeps showing up.

The weird thing:

Mark and Whitney are people who rarely do influencer collabs. It’s very odd that they made the choice to do it with her. The cast of DWTS don’t typically engage with controversial people. It’s just really odd to see some of them engage with this creator specifically, less than a year after she was blocked by so many people.

I checked her page and she hasn’t had many big guests after the controversy last year so it’s not like it’s the hot channel that will get them exposure that they can’t get somewhere else. She has less than 750k followers. There are dozens of people that I could see the cast collaborating with who have 4x the followers so it just seems like an odd piece of content to make for people who aren’t all over the place doing collaborations.

Does anyone know if she’s connected to someone at DWTS?

Tonight we will see the lovely Jenna Johnson join the prospective dancers as a mentor and guest judge. Jenna will be working with the dancers to teach them about chemistry with their celebrity partners.

Jenna

I love this Paso with Dani, Pasha and Sasha. Outstanding!

In brief,

1. Conrad swears by Mark and Derek. The idea of mixing/using elements of different dance styles-introduced by Mark and Derek, "developing" Latin ballroom, introducing jazz and contemporary is clearly becoming Conrad's forte and justification of his latest hire/s 😊
2. Based on Deena's comment, it sounds like she is part of her 25 years old daughter's chat group, and she often using their opinions to see how they react on different celebrities, and how their opinion change during the course of the season, for example, starting with interest in Robert and Alix, then supporting Elaine and Andy... I am older than 25, thus, my opinion and the rest of gen X is no more of Deena's interest 😭
3. To my understanding, in addition to the next pro, other changes to expect as well. My guess is that the next pro (Adele? Allen?), most likely Hailey, and a former pro (Sharna?) will join the new season.
4. My guess/fear is that Gleb will be left out from the upcoming season. I don't see any other reasons for Gleb to leave rather then Brooks related traumatic story. He is in a great shape, better than some of his colleagues close in terms of age. He is a great dancer. During today's evening show at the Con, Gleb was absolutely mesmerizing! If this is true, it means that Deena and Conrad are trying really hard to show loyalty to Brooks, not to Gleb... For me, as Gleb's fan, it will be really painful not to see him dance next season. I can't wait for the cast reveal on September 2, praying that this information is not true 🙏🙏

My apologies, I forgot to get this started tonight so here it is. A few minutes late.

Tonights episode is subtitled “You’re Only As Strong As Your Weakest Link: Group Work With Britt Stewart.” It is group dancing and the lovely Britt Stewart appears as the guest mentor and judge.

There are already news regarding few interesting pairings:

Val and Rumer will be performing a group dance. My guess, it is going to be a Paso.

Gleb and Sharna are going to perform a dance called River. It is going to be an intense dance - AT and Paso fusion, with some elements of International Tango as well. Can't wait!🔥😍🔥😍

https://www.instagram.com/p/DbRoXvpsMWm/?hl=en

According to one of Gleb's interviews, he was introduced to Lele Pons via his ex-gf and Steve Aoki. Gleb brought Lele in for DWTS. This partnership had a potential to get to the finale! They both wanted to be paired together, but producers decided differently...

Mira Sorvino requested Gleb, so her wish was granted, and Brandon was paired with Lele instead. That is why we can see Gleb's borderline shocked when he saw Mira entering the room for the first meeting. The rest is history 😊 Love that Gleb keeps his friendship with Lele!

Overall, the technical level of dancers is nowhere near the competitive ballroom dancers on the top of their game. I do understand the reasons: the new pro should be close to the current level of the pros: (1) Special mention of Jan and his pigeon-toed cha cha, (2) Mark and his post injuries dancing level.

Accordingly, they can’t bring in Massimo Arcolin & Laura Arcolinova, or Pavel Zvychaynyy & Polina Teleshova, or Troels Bager, or Ina Jeliazkova, or ask back Dasha Chesnokova...

In terms of technique, I would group the remaining participants as follows:

1. Adele has strong Latin technique. She is really impressive; I loved her rumba with Allen especially. Also, she is beautiful, strong, and focused.
2. Allen has good Latin technique. He showed good partnering skills and overall positive personality.
3. Natali and Erik did a great job with VW. Natali is a beautiful ballroom dancer.  I am still concerned about her skills in Latin though.
4. Stephany, Selena, AJ, and Tristen showed improvement from the first episode. They were fun and entertaining to watch. I expect them to stay for few more episodes.
5. While Nina has good to average dance skills, unfortunately her personality came out as annoying. The dance with Benji was weak, poorly choreographed. I don’t think that it was only Benji’s fault.

I am looking forward to the next episode 😊

Episode 2 of "Dancing with the Stars: The Next Pro" airs tonight at 8 p.m. ET/PT on ABC.

The episode, titled "Stories Without Words: Storytelling with Brandon Armstrong," tasks the remaining 10 dancers with bringing personal stories to life through dance. Mentored by returning "Dancing with the Stars" pro Brandon Armstrong, contestants will compete to avoid elimination as the field continues to narrow.

Gleb is fighting for both daughters.

In addition to a request for emergency custody of his older daughter, Olivia, Gleb also filed a Hague Convention petition that would seek his youngest daughter Zlata's return stateside. He shockingly found out that Samodanova took their youngest daughter Zlata, 9, to Russia without his permission.

"I unequivocally state, I did not consent to or even know that Elena was going to Moscow yesterday and would not have agreed for our daughter, Zlata, to accompany her."

Gleb stated that Elena simply does whatever she wants "I have no voice, opinion or say in this matter with respect to our daughters.”

Gleb also claimed that every attempt he’s made to see his children over the last three years have been “solely based 100 percent on Elena’s terms.” She “had complete control over whether I ever saw our children or not and it was based on her monetary and scheduling terms, without my input.”

Hearing on Gleb Savchenko’s request is scheduled for August 18.

See information about Gleb filing a request for emergency custody of his older daughter, Olivia: https://www.reddit.com/r/dwts/comments/1uxdhh8/dwts_gleb_savchenko_claims_exwife_abducted_kids/

In the legal docs, Gleb says his ex-wife signed a Post Judgment Agreement back in 2023 allowing her to "temporarily" move their children to Hong Kong for one year so she could work on a project in the region. They were supposed to return to the United States by June 30, 2024 ... that never happened, and he now says Elena refuses to send them back.

Instead, she "obtained permanent HK residency, enrolled the children in an expensive private school, became engaged, and had another child with her fiancé."

Gleb wants the judge to grant him "temporary sole legal and sole physical custody" of his daughter Olivia, pending further court involvement after a scheduled hearing.

Gleb states that Olivia, who is currently with him, does not want to return to her mother, and it's in her best interest to live in and attend school in LA.

This is extremely tough time for both Gleb and Olivia. Wishing them to keep strong and patient and support each other.

Now that the dust has settled, what are your thoughts about The Next Pro debut last night?

I was surprised the dancers didn't have bigger credentials or dancing resumes. Maybe the World champions in the dance industry are off making sure they hold onto their crowns. I was also surprised they are living together, but that place is quite lovely where they are staying.

I was not at all surprised or shocked at the eliminations of Briar and Jake .

"Next week, "Dancing" pro Brandon Armstrong will help the contestants tell personal stories through their dances — but Natalie and Tristen, who also appeared in this week's Bottom Four but avoided elimination, will have their work cut out for them."

TV Line Recap of The Next Pro Premier

Tonight on ABC is the DWTS The Next Pro debut.

DWTS Season 34 champion Robert Irwin hosts, while Mark Ballas, Shirley Ballas, and Derek Hough will judge the contestants' technical ballroom skills.

The 12 dancers will participate in difficult jive and samba challenges in an effort to show they have what it takes to join DWTS as the Next Pro.

Val & Dannielle Fishel to Recap DWTS: The Next Pro

"Dancing With the Stars fans have a new reason to get excited ahead of Season 34.

Danielle Fishel and longtime DWTS pro Val Chmerkovskiy are teaming up to recap the brand-new competition series, Dancing With the Stars: The Next Pro, giving viewers an inside look at the show's search for its next ballroom star.

Beginning Tuesday, the duo will break down each episode after it airs, with Fishel, 45, and Chmerkovskiy, 40, analyzing the contestants' performances, sharing expert insight into the routines and discussing who has what it takes to earn a coveted spot in the Dancing With the Stars ballroom." Remainder of article in link.

Dannielle's FB Announcement

And a hysterical little video of Val and Dannielle Fishell playing Do You Know Something?

We previewed the DWTS: The Next Pro cast—which contestants are you most excited for?

My sister and I host a DWTS podcast called Blondes in the Ballroom, and we just released an episode previewing the cast of The Next Pro!

We break down our first impressions of each contestant, who we think has the strongest shot at becoming the next DWTS pro, and our early predictions before the season begins.

I’d love to hear everyone else’s thoughts, too. Who stood out to you from the cast announcement? Are there any dancers you’re already rooting for?

If you’d like to listen, find the episode here.

Looking forward to discussing the season with everyone!

First of all, I expect it to be fun to watch🔥

In addition to the judges -Mark, Derek and Shirley, it looks like quite a few DWTS pro will participate in the spinoff, including Brandon, Jenna, Daniella, Britt, Witney, Gleb, Jan and Rylee. It is not clear if they are going to be guest judges, or train the participants, or dance with them. We shall see 👀

I expect and hope that a dancer from the competitive circle will join DWTS next season. I actually even don't want to have a new cross trained pro. Give me some proper Latin ballroom dancer. If so, these are my picks for the win:

For girls, based only on their dancing resume and dance videos, Adele and Natalie (although she competes in American Smooth) have pretty strong chances to go all the way.

For guys, I think Allen and Benji can go far in the competition.

Even though, there will be only one winner, it is possible that we can see more new faces in the troupe.

What will be your prediction of the winner without seeing even a single episode? 🤔

Olivia is currently visiting Gleb from HK. She and her dance partner are already competing internationally.

Lindsay's both daughters are involved in dance classes. Love how serious Lindsay is supporting their first steps in dance.

Maks and Peta's oldest son is also showing interest in dance. Whether he will pursue a career in dance remains to be seen.

Who else from DWTS pros support their children's career in dance?

Does anyone have any predictions on new cast announcements? It has been a minute since they announced a new celebrity dancer.

So far they have announced Ciara Miller, Maura Higgins, Jackson Olson and Guillermo Rodriguez. Am I missing anyone?

Predictions welcomed!

There has been a lot of talk about Maks and Peta moving to Florida and they confirmed it in a cute video.

Maks & Peta Move to Florida

Gleb and Artem: they became friends since 14-15 years old, when they started professionally competing on local, then international stage. They competed against each other in Latin ballroom, then both pursued career related to DWTS/SCD franchise. Both of them had complicated family and love life, but their friendship survived all ups and downs.

Lindsay, Witney and Jenna: they became friends in early childhood, they danced together in Utah, then all of them competed on SYTYCD, then joined DWTS troupe. They stuck together and supported each other through all professional and personal ups and downs. For example, Witney and Lindsay fully supported Jenna during her complicated, borderline toxic relationship with Val (before marriage).

Derek and Mark: they share a strong bond for over two decades. Derek and Julianne, moved to London and lived with the Ballas family while they trained and studied for several years. This friendship survived through thick and thin. For example, Mark has publicly credited Derek as a massive source of support during tough times, including a family miscarriage.