Executive Producer Rob Wade Talks On Dancing With The Stars Season 21 Before The Premiere: What’s In, What’s Out

Rob Wade talked with TV Guide about the new season of Dancing With Stars. You’ll like some of this news and maybe not other parts of it. Let us know what you think.

1. Results shows are gone… again. Dancing’s on-again, off-again relationship with results shows continues. Though the show will air on back-to-back nights some weeks this season, the Tuesday shows will not be results shows, Wade says. This week, the Tuesday episode will be a pre-taped behind-the-scenes look at Monday’s premiere. In Week 2, there will be performance shows on both Monday and Tuesday, as well as hometown visits for the celebrities (on Monday) and dancers (on Tuesday).

2. No 10s from Len. After several seasons of pulling double duty between Dancing with the Stars and Strictly Come Dancing, Len Goodman has finally decided to take an entire season off. But, there’s a “very, very likely chance” that he’ll be back for Season 22 in the spring, according to Wade. “For a man in his 70s, flying back and forth every week from London is pretty exhausting,” Wade admits. I understand his position. … Hopefully, he’ll be back in the spring stronger than ever.”

3. No guest judges. Despite Len’s absence behind the judges’ table, the show is breaking from tradition this season and opting not to bring in guest judges to take his place. “Julianne [Hough], Carrie Ann [Inaba] and Bruno [Tonioli] are a great judging panel, and they’ve got a lot of experience between them,” Wade says. “Sometimes if you have four judges, their comments can repeat themselves. And that’s not really entertaining for the viewer.”

4. New theme nights. While some theme nights (Most Memorable Year of Your Life) remain set in stone, Wade says he hopes to incorporate new theme nights this year – and throw the dancers off in the process – beginning in about Week 5. “We want to keep the whole season a bit of a surprise for the dancers and the couples,” he said. “It’s good to put challenges in front of them when they’re unsuspecting, because then you get a real reaction to them. … We have some really nice ideas which should hopefully cause a lot of drama and entertainment and intrigue in that back end of the season.” Also, the Switch-Up will likely return, while Judges’ Choice will not.

5. A couple of celebrity firsts. The Season 21 cast includes a few celebrity superlatives. At 15, Grier is the youngest male to ever appear on the show, while Carlos and Alexa PenaVega are the first-ever husband-and-wife team to compete. Also, the 5-foot-2 jockey Victor Espinoza is the shortest male dancer in Dancing’s history. “How is Karina [Smirnoff] going to manage to dance with him?” Wade ponders. “We’ve had a guy with no arm and no leg, but we’ve never had a guy who’s 5-foot-2.”

More at TV Guide on some of the pairings.