Getty Peta Murgatroyd at the 2022 ESPY Awards
“Dancing With the Stars” professional dancer Peta Murgatroyd made a surprising admission in a recent interview — she feels sorry for the show’s fans due to the move to Disney Plus.
Here’s what Peta had to say about the whole thing:
Peta Said It Makes Her ‘Sad’ to Lose Loyal Fans
In an interview with Us Weekly, Peta said that while she personally loves the move to Disney Plus, it makes her sad for the loyal fans who can’t watch anymore due to the cost.
“I have seen some comments that are like, ‘Oh, I can’t watch it now because you have to pay for it,’ obviously, so I do feel sorry for the fans who have been there throughout the years and years and years and now they can’t watch the show if they can’t [pay for it], so that makes me sad,” said the dancer.
But she did say that she loves that the show can be longer now because there won’t be any commercial breaks.
“It’s gonna be a longer show because there’s no ads in between now so we’ve got to fill a lot of space up and a lot of time slots. I like [the move],” said Peta.
She added, “I hope the troupe is back because I feel like troupe adds a lot to the show.”
In addition to the troupe, we have also been wondering if the move to Disney Plus could see the return of a results show (since they are no longer under the constraints of broadcast TV) or two seasons airing per year again. And new host Alfonso Ribeiro recently teased his role and it sounds like perhaps that signals the return of the skybox.
Other ‘Dancing With the Stars” Pros Love That The West Coast Can Watch Live
In an interview with Hello! magazine, pro dancer Alan Bersten said that Disney Plus is an “amazing platform” and that “streaming is taking over the world.” He also praised the fact that it’s more “inclusive” because everyone can watch live now.
“[O]ur west coast fans will be able to vote for the first time when it actually matters. Before [on ABC] it was like, ‘just vote for me, trust me, we’ll be good,’ so it feels inclusive to everyone,” said the dancer.
Pro Cheryl Burke echoed those sentiments on an episode of “The Tamron Hall Show,” telling the talk show host, “I think [we’ll find] a new audience on top of our loyal fans as well. It’s the first time — this is live, still the same format, it’s going live, voting. At least west coast and east coast can vote now together and west coast won’t have to just base it on a popularity contest, right? It’ll be completely even in that sense.”
There is no word yet on the roster of pros that will be a part of the first season on Disney Plus, though Jenna Johnson and Sharna Burgess are probably out — Sharna just had a baby at the end of June and ended up having to have a C-section, and Jenna is pregnant and due in January 2023.
But both Peta and Maks Chmerkovskiy have said they want to come back, so that could be fun for longtime fans.
“Dancing With the Stars” returns for its 31st season this fall on Disney Plus.
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