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A big question about “Dancing With the Stars” season 32 has been answered by ballroom legend and “Strictly Come Dancing” judge Shirley Ballas.
Here’s what you need to know:
Shirley Ballas Confirmed ‘Dancing With the Stars’ is Sticking With 3 Judges
In an interview on British talk show “Loose Women,” Shirley Ballas, a judge on “Strictly Come Dancing” for the past six seasons and mother to “Dancing With the Stars” pro Mark Ballas, confirmed that she was talking to “Dancing With the Stars” about joining the judges’ panel, but the executive producer decided to keep the panel at three judges for now.
“I think at the moment, I spoke to [executive producer and showrunner] Conrad Green, I think at the moment they’re going to keep it to three judges,” said Ballas.
The judges’ panel had been four judges for the past couple of seasons after Derek Hough joined during season 29 when Len Goodman could not travel back to the U.S. from the U.K. due to pandemic travel restrictions. When Goodman returned to the show full time, they kept the panel at four judges for seasons 30 and 31.
But now that Goodman has officially retired from “Dancing With the Stars” after being there more or less since the beginning (he missed only two seasons in 31 seasons), fans have been wondering if the show would replace Goodman and keep the panel at four judges, or if they would shrink the panel back down to three.
Looks like we have our answer.
Ballas Also Said She’d Love to Be a ‘Dancing With the Stars’ Judge Because She Could Seek Her Son Every Week
Shirley Ballas, a legend in the ballroom world, was previously married to former “Dancing With the Stars” pro Corky Ballas. Corky appeared on two seasons of the show — season seven with Cloris Leachman and season 11 with Florence Henderson.
Their son Mark Ballas joined “Dancing With the Stars” as a pro in season 5 and appeared on every season between season 5 and season 22. He came back for season 25 and season 31, in which he won his third Mirrorball Trophy.
Shirley Ballas told “Loose Women” that she would love to be on the U.S. dancing competition show because she doesn’t get to see Mark as often as she would like to.
“You know, the bonus of being over there would be that I see my son every week. I miss him — we’ve all got family — I saw him at Christmas, he came over for 10 days,” said Ballas, adding that when Mark left the U.K., she was in a total “slump” because she misses him so much.
“[When he left] I had a slump for three days. I couldn’t operate, I couldn’t do anything. It took me a minute to find my feet,” said the ballroom dancing star.
She also revealed that Mark initially said no to coming back to “Dancing With the Stars” for season 31, but then he changed his mind and asked his mom to come help him get into shape for the season.
“He got offered the job on ‘Dancing With the Stars,’ he hadn’t done it for five years. He goes, ‘No, mom, I’m not [going to do it],’ so I flew back to England, ready for our launch show [for ‘Strictly Come Dancing’], just about to go on our launch show and he goes, ‘Could you fly back tomorrow, mom? I’ve decided to do it, but I need to get back into shape,'” said Ballas, adding, “So I went out there and he had to keep up with me for two weeks! He got back into shape.”
Shirley then added that she is “extremely proud” of what he did on season 31 with his partner Charli D’Amelio, telling the “Loose Women” hosts, “I have to say, winning that trophy, his body of work, his creativity, all his own music, his outfits, his choreography was second to none, I was extremely proud of him.”
“Dancing With the Stars” returns for its 32nd season in the fall of 2023 on Disney Plus.