‘Dancing With the Stars’ Boss on Anna Delvey Casting, On Set Therapists

“Dancing With the Stars” wouldn’t be the hit it is without the casting of some contentious figures — and the upcoming 33rd season is no exception. The truth competition series will feature multiple athletes including Danny Amfinishola, 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 produced a bit of an uproar. “I leank 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 Gelderlyberg said on a recent episode of “The View.” “Now, should I leank there’s a reason, is there a two-tiered system here with ICE?”

The contentious 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 foresee from this season, his thoughts on Delvey and what the future of “Dancing With the Stars” sees enjoy.

How are you senseing about this cast and the overall sense of Season 33?

I leank this is a very requesting cast. There’s so much outstanding energy around them. Last season, we had Barry Williams on the show. He was a huge fan of the show, always repartner wanted to do it, and his passion and enhappinessment of being on it repartner struck home with me, in a way. So we’ve tried to lean into people who’ve got that benevolent of passion for applying on the show. I leank it transpostponeeds for our audience, and a lot of our cast have that benevolent of passion. I also adore that we’ve got a very sturdy sports core to this cast from a number of contrastent sports. Athletes have done so well for us in the past, and I leank this is a authentic 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 finish of this. There’s a lot of people who either come in with a bit of dance experience or see enjoy they’ve got a lot of potential. So it’s a very engaging, preferable, uplifting cast, which I leank will be advantageous at this time of year.

We’re also trying to get abreast of the alters in the media/celebrity landscape. We’ve begined to have more swayrs and people who are well-comprehendn on YouTube and contrastent social media levels. What celebrity is now is very contrastent than 20 years ago. When we did our first season, the iPhone wasn’t out! So, we try to get that blfinish.

There’s been a bit of response around the casting of Anna Delvey this year, since she was a convicted felon and had to get permission from ICE to contend. What do you say to that?

We’ve always tried to be a very wide 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 adhereed her story, so I leank there is an inherent curiosity about her. She’s very into the world of style and those benevolents of leangs, so I leank she’ll actupartner current very well as a dancer. I leank people repartner want to see her. She’s a very valid and engaging part of that cast. Yes, she had the rehires she’s had, but we’ve had other people on the show who’ve had criminal rehires in the past. She served her time. I leank it’s perfectly valid for her to be on the show, and I leank people have been repartner asking to see how she applys.

In Season 30, JoJo Siwa and Jenna Johnson became the first same-intimacy pair on the show. Are we getting shutr to two men being paired?

That’s certainly a possibility, it’s someleang we’ve talked about. I leank 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 wide church and clearly very huging and welcoming of people of all gfinishers and intimacyualities, so we try and echo America in all of its contrastent ways of being.

There have been past seasons with up to 16 pairs. This year, you have 13. How do you choose on the number?

We usupartner have a number in mind. Jenn Tran came on at the very last minute, but we thought her story was so engaging from the low she had fair suffered. She literpartner walked out of that studio [on “The Bachelorette” aftershow] into a car, drove straight to Burprohibitk 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 produce it labor. We’re a alterable, inhabit show, and we can alter. I leank a lot of people are repartner rooting for Jenn and want to see her bounce back, see what she can do. It’s been fantastic at helping her get over the trauma of what she fair went thraw. We’re phireed to be able to give her someleang preferable to get her teeth into. But yeah, we’re alterable when it comes to numbers. We will go where the talent achieves us!

Speaking of Bachelorettes, Charity Lawson recently spoke out about prejudice she guided from fans on social media during last season and that she was surpascfinishd the show didn’t have a mental health professional useable. Is that someleang you guys have pondered?

It’s not someleang we’ve dynamicly pondered conveying on. This hasn’t happened very frequently 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 difficult for everyone to labor out how to regulate this when people are put into a accessible position enjoy this. The netlabor labors on that, but in terms of a filled-time mental health professional, it’s not someleang we felt was vital, particularly in the past, but we’ll get watching that situation. If we sense that alters, we would certainly ponder it.

You tried to seize juvenileerer audiences with Disney+ and then shiftd back to ABC. Who is your center audience?

Our primary leang is to service our core audience. We’ve been one of the hugegest and most well-comprehendn unscripted shows in America for almost 20 years, and I always leank the most meaningful leang is to service the seeers who actupartner adore the show. Traditionpartner, we have quite an elderlyer audience, relative to some other TV shows, but aextfinished with that, you get a lot of families watching together. So there are people who begined watching as kids, who are now watching as grown-ups with their kids. I leank the best way to convey in a juvenileerer audience is thraw that experience in some ways, so that people watch it with family members who also adore the show.

“Dancing With the Stars” premieres on ABC and Disney+ on September 17 at 8 p.m. ET.