‘Dancing With The Stars’ would consider an all-male partnership.
DWTS to feature male-male partnership?
Back in 2021, JoJo Siwa and Jenna Johnson made history as the first same-sex pairing on the reality TV dance show and producers are keen to continue to “push the envelope”.
Speaking about professional dancers Mark Ballas and Derek Hough, who performed a tango together on the show, executive producer Ryan O’Dowd told Deadline: “It’s great to do a dance like that in general, with the motivation behind it. Many people said to me they had no idea about the origins of the tango. And I had no idea that it did begin with two males. And so you’ve got to see an unbelievable performance, right? … I would say we are constantly looking at the ways by which we can push the envelope and produce a show that reflects and represents society as a whole. So I wouldn’t rule it out. It’s something that we’re continuing to discuss.”
Ryan added that he loves to “do things that have never been done before” on ‘DWTS’.
He said: “I love when we do things that have never been done before, like with Ilona Maher this past season became the first-ever female celebrity to lift her partner Alan Bursten. There was another moment when Whitney Carson and Danny Amendola had this very iconic leg lift. It’s almost like a slow motion leg lift that became this massive viral sensation and people started trying to do it. I love when things are being done that go beyond the scope of the broadcast and into your everyday life.”
And, Ryan believes the live nature of the show is one of its best assets.
He said: “I think live television is more important today than it ever has been. You’re going to see a spectacle. With appointment television, anything can happen on any given night. Lights can go down, someone falls, an ankle monitor is revealed, you name it. Even we as producers don’t know the outcome of anything that you’re about to see. That’s exciting and gets people talking. So I would really lean into that, along with the fact that we also don’t have many pure entertainment formats that a family can watch. It’s rare today that there’s something for everyone. There’s suspense each and every season.”
‘Dancing With The Stars’ is currently hosted by Alfonso Ribeiro and Julianne Hough, with Carrie Ann Inaba, Derek Hough, and Bruno Tonioli as judges.
