‘Dancing With the Stars’ Cast Reportedly “Eyerolling” and “Whispering” Over “Unfair” Casting Choices

The Dancing With the Stars season 35 cast was just announced, and there are several people with a slight edge going into the season. Namely, Step Up star Jenna Dewan, professional dancer Harry Shum Jr., Save the Last Dance star Julia Stiles, and Tyler Cameron (who previously competed on competition show The Real Dirty Dancing). And, um, there have reportedly been some complaints on set.

“The cast is definitely whispering about how unfair some of the casting is, especially with Jenna being a former dancer and others having dance experience,” a source tells the Daily Mail, while another adds, “Everyone thinks Jenna Dewan has a very unfair advantage because she is a professional dancer. That is how she began her career. It's like, ‘Duh, we all know she's going to win.’”

Per insiders, Jenna’s pro partner Val Chmerkovskiy “is feeling a lot of pressure to showcase Jenna’s skills” and “he’s always set on winning but, this season, he believes he has a chance again with Jenna as his partner. He’s not going to go easy on her, that’s for sure.”

Meanwhile, there’s chatter about contestants being friends with the judges and hosts. Apparently, Jenna is “more or less besties with Derek,” which has fellow contestants worried she’ll have an advantage, while Tatyana Ali is “very close” to her Fresh Prince costar Alfonso Ribeiro and the source says, “having that connection will help her.”

On top of alllll that, “There’s some eyerolling going on because there are partners who they know are already going to be fan favorites: Ciara [Miller] after what she went through with Amanda [Batula] and West [Wilson] on Summer House, Maura [Higgins] since people felt bad Rob [Rausch] robbed her from winning The Traitors.”

I mean, sounds like everyone has their own edge going into the season, whether it’s baked-in fan interest or a dancing background, which makes for a great competition! Reminder, Dancing with the Stars has a special two-night premiere on September 15 and September 16 at 8:00 p.m. on ABC and Disney+.