Season 33 of “Dancing with the Stars” has premiered on Disney+ and Hulu.
“Dancing with the Stars (DWTS)”, the popular celebrity dance series, is typically filled with heartfelt moments, drama, competition and of course, dancing. The cast reveal before the Sept. 17 premiere made it clear season 33 would be no different.
Alfonso Ribeiro and Julianne Hough returned as co-hosts for the second time. They were joined by head judges Derek Hough, Carrie Ann Inaba and Bruno Tonioli.
Casting
The cast size tends to vary by season on “Dancing with the Stars”. The past few seasons have featured between 14 to 16 dance couples. Thus, many were shocked that only 12 dance couples were called up to compete for the Len Goodman Mirrorball Trophy for season 33. DWTS invited Jenn Tran, star of season 21 of “The Bachelorette”, as a final addition before producers officially announced the cast list on Sept. 4.
Tran joined “The Bachelor” star, Joey Graziadei, as the first Bachelor/Bachelorette stars to compete on the same DWTS season. “Real Housewives of Atlanta” star turned multi-career woman, Phaedra Parks, is also taking her shot at getting that Mirrorball trophy.
The season 33 cast also notably has a ton of athletes competing for a new piece of hardware. USA Olympic medalists, rugby star Ilona Maher and pommel horse specialist, Stephen Nedoroscik, joined the cast early on. NBA Champion Dwight Howard and two-time Super Bowl Champion Danny Amendola are also hitting the dance floor this season.
Brooks Nader, a model and cover girl, is partnered up with professional dancer Gleb Savchenko. Many fans quickly noticed the chemistry between the pair in social media posts leading up to premiere night.
Actors Chandler Kinney, Eric Roberts, Tori Spelling and Reginald VelJohnson round out the star-studded cast for season 33 of “Dancing with the Stars”.
Casting controversies
Fans were quick to voice their concerns and frustrations over the casting of Anna Delvey, a well-known fake German heiress.
Known fraudster Delvey faced accusations of grand larceny and theft of services totaling up to $275,000. As written in a 2019 article for TIME, “she was found guilty on many of the charges, including three counts of grand larceny and one count of attempted grand larceny” in April of 2018. Delvey was able to dodge more serious charges. However, she received a sentence of four to 12 years in prison.
Since her sentencing, Delvey remains on house arrest as she awaits results for her deportation case. Fans were quick to point out Delvey’s ankle monitor in promotional content for DWTS. She will be sporting the ankle accessory through the duration of her time as a contestant for the show.
DWTS fans felt frustrated because Delvey appeared uninterested in participating in the competition show. This was additionally frustrating to fans of dancer Ezra Sosa, who announced he would be joining the cast of pros for the first time this season. Sosa was formerly a troupe member on the show before getting his promotion to compete as a celebrity’s partner.
Premiere performances
As the show began, Ribiero announced that there would be no elimination for premiere night. Instead, couples focused on collecting judges’ scores and viewers’ votes online. Next week, they will combine the scores from both weeks to determine which two couples go home in “Double Elimination.”
As the episode progressed, fans quickly noticed how generous the judges were when giving out their scores. Judges are typically a bit harsh on night one in hopes that it will motivate the couples to do better. However, many couples received seven’s and eight’s when four’s and five’s are the norm from this set of judges.
Sure, it’s only night one so you can’t judge their dance progress yet, but many fans felt annoyed.
“Dancing with the Stars” fan Emily Garcia, ‘25, shared her opinions on the judges’ criticisms and voting decisions from the evening.
“I think they were all very fair corrections/comments. Derek has been oddly harsh this season for some reason, and I don’t know why, which shocks me,” said Garcia.
Final rankings
At the end of the night, Kinney and her partner, Brandon Armstrong, were on the top of the leaderboard while Roberts and Britt Stewart were on the bottom. Nedoroscik and partner Rylee Arnold appeared to be fan favorites of the night along with Maher and Alan Bersten.
“I think my number one team is Rylee and Stephen. I love everything about them. I am obsessed with him, and I love Rylee as a pro on the show, she is incredible. Personally, I am rooting for Rylee and Stephen, Chandler and Brandon, Daniella and Dwight and Ilona and Alan!” said Garcia, ’25.
Extra competition
A social media presence had become a big aspect of the show. Fans feel more connected to the stars through quirky TikTok’s and Instagram posts every week, which helps with voting numbers. Especially with a double elimination, the celebrities and their dance partners will continue to post to boost their engagement and their scores each week. This extra factor tends to heighten the competitive aspect of the show, an element that Garcia, ’25, says is very apparent this season.
“Everyone was SO much better than I thought they all would be! There was no one where I was like “oh dear” for. Everyone truly showed up that night and I was so impressed with everyone. I found something in each celebrity that they did very well!” said Garcia.
The level of dance skill and performance quality has made this season very tough, according to Garcia.
“I think this season is the first season where there’s competition for the entire season. This season feels like the ultimate season in a way. Everyone is coming out each week improving and giving more each time, and it really shows,” said Garcia.
Now we’ll wait and see what the scores look when the show continues on Oct. 7 and 8!
Catch new episodes of “Dancing with the Stars” at 7 p.m. CDT on Disney+ or the next day on Hulu.
