Jenna Johnson wowed viewers when she was a contestant on Fox’s So You Think You Can Dance when she was 18. She joined the Dancing With The Stars troupe less than a year later. The talented dancer got her first celebrity partner in 2016, pairing with actor Jake T. Austin. She won the Mirrorball Trophy twice in the 9 seasons she’s competed on DWTS. We’ll find out if she’s going for a third when the cast for the new season is announced next week. But whether she competes or not, she fiercely defended the rumored Season 35 celebrities from growing backlash. Keep reading for all the details.
DWTS Fans Call Out Season 35 Rumored Cast List
ABC already revealed four of the celebrities competing on Season 35. Summer House’s Ciara Miller, Traitors star Maura Higgins, Savannah Bananas player Jackson Olson and Jimmy Kimmel Live! sidekick Guillermo Rodriguez are taking the dance floor. Witney Carson just revealed that she’s paired with Guillermo Rodriguez. Sharna Burgess is returning as a pro for five seasons.
The rest of the roster of celebrities and pros remains a secret. The full list of celebrities and their pro partners will be revealed on GMA on September 2. But the rehearsals for the premiere have already started. Celebrities have been spotted arriving or leaving the studio. Not even their huge masks are enough to hide their identities from internet detectives.
There have also been multiple leaks over the last few weeks about who is joining Season 35. Fans aren’t happy about several of the names they’ve been hearing. A few of the names, they don’t even know. Secret Lives of Mormon Wives star Whitney Leavitt competed on Season 34. Her husband, Conner Leavitt, is allegedly joining Season 35.
Jenna Johnson Fires Back, Defends The Show
The original premise of Dancing With The Stars was to pair celebrities with zero dance experience with professional dancers. However, the show did away with that a long time ago. Fans dubbed the celebrity contestants with dance backgrounds as “ringers.” Typically, each season only features one, but if the rumors are true, Season 35 has several contestants with dance experience.
Step Up actress Jenna Dewan is reportedly joining Season 35. But that’s not all. Julia Stiles plays an aspiring dancer with dreams of attending Juilliard in the 2001 hit movie Save the Last Dance. Before playing a doctor on Grey’s Anatomy, Harry Shum Jr. played Mike Chang, a singer and dancer on Glee. He also starred in the Step Up movie franchise.
So, if the rumored cast list is correct, Season 35 has at least three contestants with prior dance experience and fans aren’t happy about it. But DWTS pro Jenna Johnson said it’s not as big of a deal as fans are making it out to be.
She shared her opinion on the backlash with Us Weekly. “I understand when people are like, ‘Oh, you know, dance experience, whatever.’ Who cares! This is the first time they’re ever doing Dancing With the Stars. That is very different,” the Mirrorball trophy winner said.
The DWTS pro also pointed out that the celebrities are performing live, which is new for them. Jenna Johnson said she never knows how her partners will respond to the pressure of a live television audience.
Jenna Johnson is a fan favorite, so her opinion could help reassure fans to keep an open mind going into Season 35. Tune in to Good Morning America on Wednesday, September 2, to find out if she’ll be competing this season.
Jennifer Havener grew up in a small town in Upstate New York. She earned her B.A in Writing & Literature from Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado. She always knew watching reality TV shows and soap operas, particularly ‘Days of Our Lives’, would come in handy someday. When she’s not writing, she’s playing with her dogs, Lola and Ruger