‘Dancing With the Stars’ Boss Defends Anna Delvey Casting, Ponders Adding On Set Therapists and Previews ‘Fierce’ Season 33
“Dancing With the Stars” wouldn’t be the hit it is without the casting of some controversial figures — and the upcoming 33rd season is no exception. The reality competition series will feature multiple athletes including Danny Amendola, Ilona Maher, Dwight Howard and Stephen Nedoroscik. Actors Reginald VelJohnson, Tori Spelling, Eric Roberts are also among the group.
However, it was the casting of Anna Delvey, the convicted felon who was under house arrest, that created a bit of an uproar. “I think back to all the families who’ve had family members arrested by ICE who have gone to the courts to get their dad or their brother or their mother back. This woman, they gave her permission to go do this,” Whoopi Goldberg said on a recent episode of “The View.” “Now, should I think there’s a reason, is there a two-tiered system here with ICE?”
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The controversial casting isn’t new for the series, but they’ve always stood by their choices. Here, Variety catches up with showrunner Conrad Green about what to expect from this season, his thoughts on Delvey and what the future of “Dancing With the Stars” looks like.
How are you feeling about this cast and the overall feel of Season 33?
I think this is a very appealing cast. There’s so much good energy around them. Last season, we had Barry Williams on the show. He was a huge fan of the show, always really wanted to do it, and his passion and enjoyment of being on it really struck home with me, in a way. So we’ve tried to lean into people who’ve got that kind of passion for performing on the show. I think it translates for our audience, and a lot of our cast have that kind of passion. I also love that we’ve got a very strong sports core to this cast from a number of different sports. Athletes have done so well for us in the past, and I think this is a real continuation of that, in terms of the types of sports and the types of people taking part. The level of competition is going to be pretty fierce by the end of this. There’s a lot of people who either come in with a bit of dance experience or look like they’ve got a lot of potential. So it’s a very engaging, positive, uplifting cast, which I think will be helpful at this time of year.
We’re also trying to keep abreast of the changes in the media/celebrity landscape. We’ve started to have more influencers and people who are famous on YouTube and different social media levels. What celebrity is now is very different than 20 years ago. When we did our first season, the iPhone wasn’t out! So, we try to get that blend.
There’s been a bit of backlash around the casting of Anna Delvey this year, since she was a convicted felon and had to get permission from ICE to compete. What do you say to that?
We’ve always tried to be a very broad church when it comes to the types of people, the types of backgrounds, the types of stories we have on the show. Anna is fascinating to a lot of people, a lot of people have watched the dramas about her life and have followed her story, so I think there is an inherent curiosity about her. She’s very into the world of fashion and those kinds of things, so I think she’ll actually present very well as a dancer. I think people really want to see her. She’s a very valid and interesting part of that cast. Yes, she had the issues she’s had, but we’ve had other people on the show who’ve had criminal issues in the past. She served her time. I think it’s perfectly valid for her to be on the show, and I think people have been really curious to see how she performs.
In Season 30, JoJo Siwa and Jenna Johnson became the first same-sex pair on the show. Are we getting closer to two men being paired?
That’s certainly a possibility, it’s something we’ve talked about. I think if the right situation arose, quite possibly, we’d go there. We had Gleb [Savchenko] and Shangela together, so read that one as you will. We’re a very broad church and obviously very accepting and welcoming of people of all genders and sexualities, so we try and reflect America in all of its different ways of being.
There have been past seasons with up to 16 pairs. This year, you have 13. How do you decide on the number?
We usually have a number in mind. Jenn Tran came on at the very last minute, but we thought her story was so interesting from the low she had just suffered. She literally walked out of that studio [on “The Bachelorette” aftershow] into a car, drove straight to Burbank and the next day was our title shoot. It was nuts! We weren’t setting out to have 13, but if the right person comes up, we can make it work. We’re a flexible, live show, and we can adapt. I think a lot of people are really rooting for Jenn and want to see her bounce back, see what she can do. It’s been great at helping her get over the trauma of what she just went through. We’re delighted to be able to give her something positive to get her teeth into. But yeah, we’re flexible when it comes to numbers. We will go where the talent takes us!
Speaking of Bachelorettes, Charity Lawson recently spoke out about racism she experienced from fans on social media during last season and that she was surprised the show didn’t have a mental health professional available. Is that something you guys have considered?
It’s not something we’ve actively considered bringing on. This hasn’t happened very often in our experience. Obviously we’ll watch the situation, and we definitely have a constant dialog with the people taking part in the show. Social media comments can be very brutal, and it’s hard for everyone to work out how to manage this when people are put into a public position like this. The network works on that, but in terms of a full-time mental health professional, it’s not something we felt was necessary, particularly in the past, but we’ll keep monitoring that situation. If we feel that changes, we would certainly consider it.
You tried to capture younger audiences with Disney+ and then moved back to ABC. Who is your target audience?
Our primary thing is to service our core audience. We’ve been one of the biggest and most popular unscripted shows in America for almost 20 years, and I always think the most important thing is to service the viewers who actually love the show. Traditionally, we have quite an older audience, relative to some other TV shows, but along with that, you get a lot of families watching together. So there are people who started watching as kids, who are now watching as adults with their kids. I think the best way to bring in a younger audience is through that experience in some ways, so that people watch it with family members who also love the show.
“Dancing With the Stars” premieres on ABC and Disney+ on September 17 at 8 p.m. ET.
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