On August 18, 2026, Dancing With the Stars: The Next Pro is no longer just a pleasant franchise spin-off. With Entertainment Weekly reporting the first Season 35 pairing, Guillermo Rodriguez and Witney Carson, and with the competition continuing to identify a new professional dancer, ABC, Disney+ and Hulu are showing a very clear strategy: turning a studio show into a machine for recruitment, storytelling and continuous streaming. Entertainment is no longer simply launching a season; it is publicly manufacturing its next cast.

The premise of The Next Pro is simple, but sharply modern. Twelve aspiring dancers live together, train under pressure and compete for a professional spot on Season 35 of Dancing With the Stars. The official promise, carried by ABC and Hulu, shifts the light: celebrities are no longer the only ones learning to dance; the craftspeople behind the show become characters. In an industry obsessed with behind-the-scenes access, the franchise finally gives a story to those who often carried the glamour without owning the leading role.

The choice of Robert Irwin as host is smarter than it may appear. As the Season 34 winner and a popular face of positive family television, he serves as a bridge between the old promise of Dancing With the Stars and its new economy. He does not arrive as a neutral presenter, but as living proof that the franchise can still produce cross-platform figures: a champion, a personality, an ambassador able to move between ABC, Disney+ and Hulu. In Disney’s ecosystem, that movement is highly valuable.

Today’s news strengthens that mechanism. Entertainment Weekly reports that Guillermo Rodriguez, known from Jimmy Kimmel Live!, will dance with reigning champion Witney Carson, while the full list of pairings will be revealed on September 2 and Season 35 will begin on September 15. People also confirms the casting and notes that Carson returns to competition while pregnant with her third child. The message is double: the main season is being prepared, but The Next Pro becomes the narrative workshop that keeps the audience warm before the big launch.

That is the most important logic. Platforms no longer want only shows; they want to occupy the intervals. Between two seasons, two casting announcements and two finales, attention must keep flowing. The Next Pro functions as an airlock: it tells the future of the franchise while the audience waits for the main season. Each episode adds a piece of information, a debate, an elimination, a name to remember. Competition television becomes a permanent calendar.

Hulu states this grammar clearly in its guide: episodes air live on ABC and become available the next day on Hulu, with the show also connected to Disney+. This hybrid model has become the language of Disney Entertainment. Live television provides urgency, the platform provides catch-up viewing, social media provides clips, and the global brand creates the feeling that everything belongs to the same universe. Old linear television does not disappear; it powers a streaming loop.

The creative bet is also intelligent because it gives new value to professionals. In Dancing With the Stars, the pro is coach, choreographer, partner, psychologist and stage director all at once. Yet the pro has long been treated as a supporting element beside the celebrity. The Next Pro reverses the perspective. It shows that the franchise’s real capital is not only the invited star, but the choreographic competence that makes transformation possible. It is a way of protecting the format’s DNA.

The presence of Mark Ballas and Shirley Ballas at the judges’ table intensifies this return to craft. Entertainment Weekly has already reported on their on-air frictions during critiques, including a recent episode where technical expectation became a television moment. For Disney, it is exactly the right mix: real expertise, family dynamics, dramatic tension and shareable content. Professional judgment becomes a scene, not merely an evaluation.

The Emmy context makes the operation even clearer. Decider reports that Season 34 earned Dancing With the Stars its first nomination for Outstanding Reality Competition Program in ten years, supported by a high-rating finale and a cast seen as especially positive. A franchise regaining critical recognition has every reason to prolong the moment. The Next Pro therefore arrives as both defensive and offensive extension: protect the momentum, then sell what comes next.

This strategy says a great deal about entertainment television in 2026. The franchises that survive are no longer only the ones with solid formats, but the ones that can narrate their own making. Audiences do not only want to see the result; they want to watch the process, guess the decisions, judge the talent before producers do, and choose their favorites before the official season begins. The Next Pro turns auditions into premium content and recruitment into serialized drama.

There is, of course, a risk: extend a brand too far and it can become exhausted. But Dancing With the Stars has a rare advantage. Its format already rests on learning, visible effort, vulnerability and progression. A spin-off about professional dancers therefore does not betray the franchise; it exposes its frame. Viewers better understand why a routine works, why a celebrity improves, and why some pros become stars in their own right.

For B-EMPIRE, The Next Pro is above all a case study in cultural business. Disney is not selling only a dance show. The group is selling a sequence of events: casting revealed by Good Morning America, ABC episodes, Hulu catch-up, Disney+ availability, the spin-off finale, then the launch of Season 35. Everything becomes an entry point. Everything becomes a reason for subscription, conversation and attachment. In this architecture, dance is not only performance; it is a pipeline.

If Season 35 confirms the momentum, The Next Pro may be remembered as the moment Dancing With the Stars understood its new nature. The franchise is no longer only a glittering celebrity contest. It becomes an open school, a talent factory, a streaming laboratory and a demonstration of how an old television brand can become young again without denying its core: a body, a floor, a camera, and the simple pleasure of watching someone transform before our eyes.

Sources

• Entertainment Weekly – first Season 35 pairing announced
• People – Witney Carson and Guillermo Rodriguez confirmed
• ABC Press – official Dancing With the Stars: The Next Pro page
• Hulu Guide – release, cast and spin-off format
• Entertainment Weekly – Mark and Shirley Ballas tensions
• Decider – Emmy nomination and franchise momentum