Happy premiere night everyone! As someone who has watched DWTS (Dancing With the Stars) for as long as I can remember, I have been counting down the days until this new season premieres. After the cast reveal a few weeks ago, I started to make predictions on frontrunners, early exits, theme nights, and which couple will be taking home the Mirrorball trophy. I am excited to see how these play out as the season goes on, so here are my predictions for this upcoming season!
- The Return of trio night
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I am fairly certain we will FINALLY be seeing the return of trio night after quite the hiatus. The post-COVID seasons have made several attempts to bring back old traditions of the show, like the dance marathon. Trio night is beloved by all the viewers, and could even prompt the comeback of fan favorites, like Milo Manheim, back to the dance floor.
- Finalists
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While there are always competitors each season who shock everyone with their undiscovered dance ability, there are also a few who are fairly easy to guess as frontrunners each season. I think we can almost 100% expect to see Chandler Kinney and Brandon as well as Stephen Nedoroscik and Rylee. I also think our former Bachelor and Bachelorette will make a deep run, as much Bachelor Nation contestants do, but will still require some skill to make it to the finale.
- early exits
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I think there are also some very apparent early eliminations in this group as well. As much as I would love to see Ezra succeed in his first season as a pro, Anna Delvey’s clear lack of interest as well as controversial backstory will likely lead to a short run. I also think like with most older contestants, Eric Roberts and Britt will probably not go very far. But, as always, you never know who has it in them or who the fans will fight to keep for the next week.
- Theme nights
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There are theme nights we are guaranteed to see every season, such as Disney, Most Memorable Year, and Halloween. However, the producers always throw in some random ones each year. These are fairly hard to guess, but here are two I could see them doing are:
- Beyoncé Night: with decades of hits covering a wide range of genres, as well as the recent success of Cowboy Carter, I think its about time the queen got her own episode.
- Tik-Tok/Chart Toppers: there is no question about Tik-Tok’s influence on charts and the music industry as a whole. This theme would include top hits from artists that are pretty big right now, like Sabrina Carpenter and Chappell Roan, but don’t have quite the fame to dedicate a whole night to them.
- Guest judges
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For at least a couple of episodes, we get a guest judge joining the panel for the evening. This ranges anywhere from former pros or stars to major celebrities. Here are a few I think we might see:
- Post Malone: I truly have no reasoning for this one, it just seems like something he would do, and he also wouldn’t be the most random judge the show has seen!
- Jordan Fisher: As one of the best stars the show has seen, and coming from a dance and performing background on Broadway, I could see him judging an episode should his schedule allow.
- Mark Ballas: Considering one of America’s favorite pros made a return to the finale last year, I think we can expect another performance this year and an appearance as a judge during the season