‘DWTS’ pro Witney Carson returns for Season 33 — while BFF Lindsay Arnold sits out

Witney Carson is putting on her dancing shoes.

The former Mirrorball champion revealed she is returning to the ballroom for Season 33 of “Dancing With the Stars,” which premieres Tuesday, Sept. 17.

After a two-year hiatus from the series, Carson, 33, surprised her Instagram followers with the news that she is ready to feel the heat with a celebrity partner once again.

“I am back on ‘Dancing With the Stars,’ and I cannot wait to get back on that dance floor,” the professional dancer gushed in her Thursday video. “Just you wait until you meet my partner. You guys are going to die.”

Carson first competed on the long-running series on season 18 with singer Cody Simpson as her celebrity partner.

On Season 19, the reality star was paired with “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” actor Alfonso Ribeiro — who is now a co-host alongside Julianne Hough.

The duo went on to win the competition.

In 2022, for Season 31, Carson competed again and placed third with Wayne Brady.

At the time, Carson was pregnant with her and husband Carson McAllister’s second baby, a boy named Jet.

Carson and McAllister also share son Leo, 3, who was born in January 2021 — and was the cause for her giving her dancing shoes a rest during Season 29.

Meanwhile, the mom’s close friend Lindsay Arnold isn’t waltzing back onto the show.

“As many of you know, I was on “Dancing With the Stars” for close to 10 years,” the 33-year-old said in a TikTok video Tuesday. “I stepped away from the show two seasons ago, and when I stepped away, I wasn’t like, ‘I’m done forever.’ It was just like, ‘This is what works for my life and we’ll just take it one season at a time.’”

Arnold went on to acknowledge that she understands fans’ curiosity about whether she’d ever come back to the show, especially since her sister Rylee Arnold made her own ‘DWTS’ debut during Season 32.

“That question — ‘Are you going back to ‘Dancing With the Stars?’ — is so much more complex than just, like, me deciding whether or not I wanna do it,” she continued. “I feel like some of you might know this, but some of you might not, that when it comes to the pros on ‘Dancing with the Stars,’ you are never, ever guaranteed to be on the show. Ever.”

The influencer explained that she isn’t the only one without a guarantee.

Arnold told viewers “every single season” she competed, she “had to wait” to hear about whether she’d be returning to the ballroom.

“Even though I was under contract, the contract doesn’t guarantee you a job every season,” she added. “But you do need to be available to do it when you’re under contract and you can’t do other shows.”

Although the pros who have been on the show for many years might feel “more confident” about their return, Arnold noted that their futures are also unknown.

“There have been many times on the show where a very long standing pro who’s been on for a long time doesn’t get picked up … so you really, like, never know,” she said.

Arnold currently lives in Utah with her husband and kids, and, if she’d wanted to be involved in Season 33, would have to have discussed it with producers ahead of time.

She said, “It’s not as simple as just me being like, ‘I wanna be on the show!’ It’s not like I can start making preparations to move … because everything is very last-minute.”

“No conversations have really gone on,” Arnold told fans. “It’s not really something that’s been in the cards for me at this time in my life.”