How ‘Dancing With The Stars’ EP Conrad Green Expects ‘The Next Pro’ Champion To Shake Up The Season 35 Competition

SPOILER ALERT! This post contains details from the season finale of Dancing with the Stars: The Next Pro. Dancing with the Stars has added a new pro dancer to its repertoire for Season 35. The finale of the summer spinoff series The Next Pro put the three finalists through the ringer with not one but two choreographed dances paired with a former DWTS finalist or champion. Adele Zaikman was paired with former contestant Nev Schulman. AJ Pritchard had former winner (and judge Mark Ballas’ former partner) Charli D’Amelio, and Selena Hamilton got former winner Adam Rippon. Zaikman came out on top, securing the gig as the next professional dancer on DWTS. She will be paired with a celebrity, along with the rest of the Season 35 pros, during Wednesday morning’s cast reveal on Good Morning America. Watch on Deadline In the interview below, executive producer Conrad Green spoke with Deadline about how he expects the Latin expert Zaikman to shake up the competition after its most-watched season in nearly a decade and whether there are more Dancing with the Stars spinoffs in the franchise’s future. DEADLINE: You’re going from The Next Pro straight into another season of Dancing with the Stars. How has adding another show to the mix shaken up your production? CONRAD GREEN: Well, most of the really hard work on Next Pro was actually done when we shot it, which was actually in the spring, so that this immediate busy week leading up to the main show hasn’t been so bad, because it was just post-production and finishing those edits. But, it was definitely an extra layer, and I think the challenge for us was to try and work out a show that complemented Dancing with the Stars without feeling like it was trying to be Dancing with the Stars. You want something that sheds a slightly different light on the show. We always thought it was a bit more for real fans of the show and people who really love dance to get a feel and an understanding of what our pros actually have to do. I think people who’ve really invested in Dancing over the years have grown more and more fond of our dancers and passionate about them, so it’s kind of a show for that audience, and it does make you realize just how much they have on their plate and how much they do. DEADLINE: So many of the pros came to visit The Next Pro. Did you get any feedback from them on the bootcamp you were putting these dancers through? CONRAD GREEN: I think most of them were really glad they didn’t have to go through that. [Laughs]. And, you don’t often stop in life and consider how good you are at your job or anything, and they’re really good at their job. It doesn’t matter what your background is. As soon as you actually do the show every season, you’re learning every season. It doesn’t matter how brilliant you are. So I think a lot of them don’t notice that growth they’ve had. When you actually come and stop, and you go, ‘Oh yeah, actually, we do have to think of this and that and the other’…I think it gave them a chance to pat themselves on the back a bit and realize just what great pros they actually are. DEADLINE: Yeah, that’s a great point. CONRAD GREEN: For a lot of them, when we were actually shooting it, they were busy doing the Dancing with the Stars tour all over America, which was incredibly intense work. So even though they flew to Australia to do it, for a lot of them, it almost felt like a little break, and they really loved it. They loved being able to judge and seeing that side of it. Coaching their peers was really nice for them. In the same way, I wanted to make it a show that was about dancers, judged by dancers. They were judged absolutely by people who know this stuff, right? Only by their peers who are going to do the job, or by Shirley Ballas, who’s pretty much recognized as one of the greatest judges and ballroom coaches on the planet. DEADLINE: Well, she’s incredible, and her and Mark’s banter on the show is just one of my favorite things about it. And I wonder when you knew that their dynamic would be so good at the judges’ table? CONRAD GREEN: I’ve known Shirley for a long time behind the scenes, and I know Mark really well. So I knew what they were like with each other. It reminds me a bit of Len, that sort of mischievous British humor, where they’re sort of willing to take a strip off each other. So I was hoping we’d get that, and it’s a really interesting dynamic. I don’t think I’ve ever seen it on a TV show before, where two judges are mother and child, and they have that kind of bickering relationship, but coming from a place of love and respect for their both their takes on this competition. I was delighted when it came across like I hoped it would, and like I expected it to. I do think it was a bit of a treat on the show/ Usually, when you do a new judging panel on any show, there’s always a little bit of awkwardness and getting up to speed, like trying to work out ‘well what’s my role in relationship to yours.’ You didn’t have that with them. They’ve had a lifetime of bickering at each other and arguing about dance, right? And then the other pro — particularly starting with Derek, who grew up with Mark and was trained by Shirley when he was a kid. Almost all our other dancers have been trained by Shirley at some point, as had many of the people competing on this. So there was that immediate sense of comfort, directness, honesty that I think really helped the show. There wasn’t any sense of this being a pretend-y judging panel trying to make TV moments happen. DEADLINE: They disagreed quite often and in very interesting ways. You really saw their different interpretations of the challenges coming out. CONRAD GREEN: Judgment is always subjective, right? Even if you’re judging on criteria, still subjective, and they have slightly different takes. Shirley came into it, I think, feeling like she had to hold the standard for technique of ballroom and Latin dance. Mark was a bit more like, ‘yeah, but Dancing with the Stars is a whole other layer on top of that as well,’ and [intent on] finding that balance between what is an official, technically correct foxtrot or whatever, and what is one that works on Dancing with the Stars and has these other elements. I think we did quite well at diving into what these other elements are and trying to find that balance. It’s not a science. It is a judgment call, ultimately. But I think what I enjoyed about the show is we made those kind of discussions and thoughts understandable, and as a viewer, you’d have your own opinion, based on that. DEADLINE: Mark is one of those pros that can really find the balance well. AJ’s finale freestyle reminded me a lot of Mark’s own finale freestyle with Charli D’Amelio. It was fun to see Mark get to observe Charli in that element. CONRAD GREEN: I think it’s always slightly bittersweet if you see your partner dancing with someone else. I think they had a ton of respect for AJ, because I think the thing that’s hard to notice if you’re not really in in the weeds of understanding ballroom and Latin is, when the guy leads, how important that is on making the dance itself work. And AJ, throughout, had this knowledge and this ability to lead people through and make things correct. That often isn’t that showy for yourself, if you see what I mean. But they, as pros, know when he’s doing it really well. I think they had a lot of appreciation for AJ in that. But, I think it was probably a bit bittersweet for him seeing Charli dance with someone else. DEADLINE: All three of the final freestyles were phenomenal. How do you think Adele will shake up the competition on Season 35? CONRAD GREEN: I think she’s one of the best Latin dancers we’ve had on the show. Full stop. A lot of our dancers come from ballroom competition to a degree, but they’ve also done lots of other things, and I think that those are areas that are going to be more of a challenge for Adele coming on the show. But, in terms of ballroom Latin competition dancing, she’s one of the best dancers we’ve had on the show. I mean, Dani [Karagach] is probably the most similar to her in that they both her and Pasha [Pashkov] came from competition. She’s got an incredible charisma. DEADLINE: We know that Nev [Schulman] is a good dancer. He made it to the finals last time, but to see what she could get out of him in just a couple days made me very excited to see what she could do throughout a whole season with a celebrity. CONRAD GREEN: Yeah, exactly. I mean, I think she’s going to have a blast, because I think when you’ve been in that kind of rigid world of Latin competition, her technique is unimpeachable, right? All of those things she’s got, but she’s going to have fun, because she can spread her wings and play a bit. You can’t play in competition. You couldn’t do a Dancing with the Stars-style dance necessarily. People are ding you for things that we let you get away with a bit, because we want it to be creative. We want to create impact in these dances. So I think for her, what’s going to be interesting is watching her spread her wings creatively on the show and embracing that. DEADLINE: Was there anything filming The Next Pro that kind of gave you new ideas or inspiration for the original series? CONRAD GREEN: There’s a possibility, I guess, that we could theme episodes a bit more on some of these technical aspects. Or, we could make a challenge round within the season where it’s like you’ve got to do a ‘wow’ moment within it. So some of those things could leach into the main format, but I feel like this was just an incredibly tough boot camp they had to go through. I don’t know if most of our pros would have felt confident that they would have won a spot through that process. We’ve never put anyone through that much work, and it doesn’t mean that Adele’s the finished article either. I mean, now she’s on the show, she will learn. Even our very best dancers that we’ve ever had on the show have changed and grown with understanding season by season, because every different celebrity you have teaches you something different. There’ll be different challenges to how to get the best out of them, and you understand more and more, and the show itself has evolved. The style of dancing on the show and the way we approach those dances has evolved as the dancers have gradually changed and pushed boundaries and the show has reset. If you watch season one or two of it, the dances compared to now, they’re a lot more explosive and varied and challenging. DEADLINE: On that note of the show evolving, you also have dancers who have been there for so many years now to help build the foundation of the show. You have Sharna Burgess returning this season, and I wonder what you’re looking forward to about having her back in the ballroom. CONRAD GREEN: Well, I love Sharna. I mean, she’s one of the OGs, and she’s great, and she’s charismatic, and she’s a great teacher. I know that there are some dancers who aren’t on the show that were on the show previously, but I like to think the doors never closed to anyone in that, there might well be a season where people can come back, and we could try it. I like mixing that up, and I just think she’s going to be fantastic. She’s got a great track record. She’s done it all, and I really think it’s nice to mix up the generations [of dancers] a little bit. It’s not just a linear thing where we’re always bringing in new people and people don’t come back. It’s kind of nice. It’s something there, as well, for the long-time fans of the show. DEADLINE: It definitely feels like they are pushing boundaries each season, and even the longtime pros are using those decades of experience to help evolve the format. How have you seen them raise the competition in recent years? CONRAD GREEN: Well, that’s what’s so interesting about them. This is an artistic pursuit, but it’s also a competition, and there’s no one more competitive than ballroom dancers. Our dancers on the show, they’re really supportive of each other. It is like a big family. But at the same time, they really want to win. They’ve just got really high standards. So, if they see someone else does some crazy inventive thing that they haven’t seen before, they’re like, ‘okay, noted.’ There is just that level of competition, and that’s what’s driven the quality of the show. I think in terms of the production of the show itself, I don’t think we’ve ever made a better show than we did last season. I think every season it ratchets up, and that’s why you’re always trying to bring in new blood just to keep that [energy]. But also, you don’t want to let go of these great people with this great experience. It gets harder every season to work out which dancers to keep on and which not, because there’s so much expertise there now. DEADLINE: Do you see The Next Pro as a continuing series that you might bring back if you’re ever searching for another pro? CONRAD GREEN: think so. It’s definitely something we’ll talk about with the network. I mean, you’ve got to try and get the balance right that you don’t have so much churn that you’re changing people for the sake of changing people. I also think it could be a really fun companion series going forward to the main show. I would be surprised if it was ever as big as the main show. I think it’s a different kind of pleasure, but I think it’s a really interesting show, and I think people who love dance get really into debating the merits of the different people doing it. So yeah, certainly we’d look at bringing it back, and if we did, we might tweak it. You learn things from when you do a season. I’d like to see it coming back, because I think it’s been really helpful, just in terms of talent search, keeping up the quality, and making everyone aware that there are great people out there, and we never want to stop finding great people. DEADLINE: How are you viewing the overall strategy right now in terms of expanding the franchise? Any other spinoff ideas? CONRAD GREEN: We’ve talked about them a bit, but I don’t want to try the patience of our audience. I think we’ve been very fortunate to engage a new audience in the last few years, and the show is doing really well, which has been great. I don’t want to lose people’s joy of the show or take advantage of that. So it’s always a question of trying to expand, but trying to make things additive rather than just blanket wall-to-wall Dancing with the Stars stuff. I don’t want to devalue the main show. So, that’s a balancing act, and you only find that by trying things and seeing people’s response to them and hoping your audience gives you a bit of grace to come with you on these things. DEADLINE: Cast reveal for Season 35 on Wednesday. What should we expect? CONRAD GREEN: I think there’s going to be a really, really good level of competition. I mean, last season I thought we had a really strong cast in dance terms. I think this will probably be equal to that, if not more so. But also, I think we’ve got a lot of people in there with really strong stories that you’re really rooting for. I think there’ll be people coming with challenges that you haven’t seen before that might well surprise everyone, and there’ll be some pairings that are unusual and memorable, and just make you take a fresh look at the show and what it can do. Dancing with the Stars Season 35 premieres September 16 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on ABC and Disney+.