{"id":13800,"date":"2026-05-14T06:23:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T06:23:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/influencerswiki.org\/blog\/derek-hough-reveals-excitement-for-new-dwts-pro-and-shirley-ballas-spotlight-in-season-35-spinoff\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T06:23:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T06:23:08","slug":"derek-hough-reveals-excitement-for-new-dwts-pro-and-shirley-ballas-spotlight-in-season-35-spinoff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/influencerswiki.org\/blog\/derek-hough-reveals-excitement-for-new-dwts-pro-and-shirley-ballas-spotlight-in-season-35-spinoff\/","title":{"rendered":"Derek Hough Reveals Excitement for New &#8216;DWTS&#8217; Pro and Shirley Ballas&#8217; Spotlight in Season 35 Spinoff"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Derek Hough, the beloved judge of <em>Dancing With the Stars<\/em> (DWTS), has shared his enthusiasm about the upcoming season 35 spinoff <em>Dancing With the Stars: The Next Pro<\/em>, which will air on ABC. The show will spotlight 12 dancers vying to become the newest DWTS pro, with current mirrorball champion Robert Irwin hosting and Mark Ballas and his mother Shirley Ballas serving as judges.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"spinoff-details-and-shirley-ballas-iconic-role\">Spinoff Details and Shirley Ballas\u2019 Iconic Role<\/h2>\n<p>Ahead of the DWTS season 35 premiere, the spinoff will feature 12 dancers competing for a chance to become the newest DWTS pro. Current mirrorball champion Robert Irwin will serve as the host while Mark Ballas and his mother, Shirley Ballas, will be the judges. Derek Hough, who has been close friends with the Ballas family for years, shared that he is \u201cexcited\u201d for the people to get to know Shirley.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"derek-houghs-excitement-for-shirley-ballas-spotlight\">Derek Hough\u2019s Excitement for Shirley Ballas\u2019 Spotlight<\/h2>\n<p>Hough, who has been close friends with the Ballas family for years, shared he is \u201cexcited\u201d for the people to get to know Shirley. He gushed about Shirley Ballas, calling her an \u201cabsolute icon in the ballroom, in [the] Latin [ballroom] world, she is the best.\u201d Shirley, 65, is known in the ballroom community as the \u201cQueen of Latin\u201d and currently serves as the head judge on the BBC\u2019s <em>Strictly Come Dancing<\/em> in England. Hough added that he was also once trained by Shirley. He said, \u201cI\u2019m excited for America to meet her. She\u2019s a riot.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"insight-into-becoming-a-dwts-pro\">Insight into Becoming a DWTS Pro<\/h2>\n<p>Derek Hough gave <em>Us<\/em> some insight about how the new DWTS pro is going to shake up next season. He said, \u201cI think it\u2019s gonna be a nice treat for fans of the show.\u201d The DWTS judge, 40, exclusively told <em>Us Weekly<\/em> at the Disney upfronts on Tuesday, May 12. \u201cIt\u2019s gonna be, like, an insight to see what it takes to be a pro and dance with the stars in different ways.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"faq\">FAQ<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>What is the name of the new DWTS spinoff?<\/strong> <em>Dancing With the Stars: The Next Pro<\/em><\/li>\n<li><strong>Who will be the host of the spinoff?<\/strong> Robert Irwin<\/li>\n<li><strong>Who will be the judges of the spinoff?<\/strong> Mark Ballas and Shirley Ballas<\/li>\n<li><strong>Who is Derek Hough\u2019s close friend in the Ballas family?<\/strong> Shirley Ballas<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>For more information on the new DWTS spinoff, visit <a href=\"https:\/\/www.usmagazine.com\/entertainment\/news\/dancing-with-the-stars-announces-spinoff-to-find-next-pro\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u2018DWTS\u2019 Announces New Spinoff to Find Next Pro Before Season 35<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Derek Hough, the beloved judge of Dancing With the Stars (DWTS), has shared his enthusiasm about the upcoming season 35 spinoff Dancing With the Stars: The Next Pro , which will air on ABC. The show will spotlight 12 dancers vying to become the newest DWTS pro, with current mirrorball champion&#8230;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3815,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/influencerswiki.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/influencerswiki.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/influencerswiki.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/influencerswiki.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/influencerswiki.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13800"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/influencerswiki.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13800\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/influencerswiki.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/influencerswiki.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/influencerswiki.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/influencerswiki.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}