Adele Zaikman won Dancing With the Stars: The Next Pro on August 31, 2026, earning a professional dancer spot on season 35 of the flagship ABC series.
Host and season 34 champion Robert Irwin announced Zaikman as the winner during the season one finale of the reality competition series. Judges Mark Ballas and Shirley Ballas selected Zaikman following her performance in the final broadcast.
Zaikman, a Blackpool Dance Festival champion, defeated runner-up AJ Pritchard and third-place finisher Selena Hamilton to claim the title. Following her victory, Zaikman described the milestone as a validation of her career efforts.
“I just feel like this is a celebration of all the sacrifices that I’ve done,” Zaikman said after winning. “It’s just like a big ‘I made it’ moment.”
Earlier in the finale, guest judge Derek Hough offered high praise for Zaikman’s abilities on the ballroom floor. Hough, who recently reacted to casting rumors surrounding Céline Dion joining the franchise, highlighted Zaikman’s potential to elevate the series.
“Adele, you could just walk across the floor and you would be captivating,” Hough told her during the show. “If you became a pro, you wouldn’t just fit in; you would elevate the rest of the Dancing with the Stars cast. I really believe that.”
Zaikman will officially join the professional roster for season 35 of Dancing With the Stars. Her assigned celebrity partner will be revealed on September 2, 2026, alongside the full season 35 cast announcement.
Eliminations and competition journey
The inaugural season of Dancing With the Stars: The Next Pro concluded following nine emotional eliminations marked by complex choreography and high-stakes stunts. Four contestants reached the final stretch of the competition: Zaikman, Pritchard, Hamilton, and Allen Genkin.
Genkin was eliminated on August 24, 2026, just one week prior to the finale episode, following a jive performance with professional partner Witney Carson. Although he missed out on a spot in the season 35 main cast, Genkin expressed gratitude for the experience.
“I’m feeling really grateful and blessed to be a part of Dancing with the Stars,” the So You Think You Can Dance? alum said in an Instagram video posted on August 25. “I’m going to take this opportunity to grow as a choreographer, to grow as a dancer, to grow as a leader, to grow as a person. That’s the whole beauty of it all.”
Genkin noted that the season one contestants had “become a big family” during filming and promised fans that he would return to television projects in the future. “This is not the last you guys have seen me, for sure,” Genkin added.
Season 35 of Dancing With the Stars is scheduled to premiere on Tuesday, September 15, 2026, at 8 p.m. Eastern Time on ABC.
Celebrity contestant compensation details
As Zaikman prepares for her debut on the flagship show, production details highlight how contestant compensation works behind the scenes. According to a 2019 report by Variety citing multiple sources, celebrity contestants receive a base pay of $125,000 for the rehearsal period and the first two weeks of the show.
Stars who advance beyond the initial two weeks earn additional pay for each week they remain in the competition. At the time of the Variety report, maximum celebrity earnings were capped at $295,000.
However, radio personality Bobby Bones revealed higher earnings following his victory on season 27 alongside pro partner Sharna Burgess in 2018. Speaking on a September 2025 episode of Jason Tartick’s podcast Trading Secrets, Bones detailed the weekly pay progression.
“That show pays OK,” Bones said during the podcast appearance. “Like, first episode, no money. Second episode, $10,000. I think it’s like, $10,000, $10,000, $20,000, $20,000. It ends up being $50,000 an episode if you last.”
Bones added that he received a base salary of approximately $110,000, bringing his total payout near the top of the scale. “I ended up making close to $400,000 from that show,” Bones stated. ABC has not publicly confirmed contestant financial figures.
Professional dancer earnings and trophy rules
Financial details regarding professional dancers also indicate scaled compensation based on longevity in the ballroom. While specific contract numbers are rarely made public, pros who face early elimination are guaranteed pay up to a set number of weeks.
Professional dancer Jenna Johnson discussed pro contracts on a June 2025 episode of Kelly Stafford and Hank Winchester’s podcast The Morning After. “You’re guaranteed until a certain amount of weeks,” Johnson explained. “I think there’s different contracts though. I can’t speak for everybody.”
Winning the competition does not come with a separate monetary prize for professional dancers. Johnson, who won season 26 with Olympic figure skater Adam Rippon and season 33 with Joey Graziadei of The Bachelor, clarified that champions receive performance bonuses rather than cash jackpots.
“If you make it all the way to the end, you’re getting paid the whole season, which is amazing, and you get a bonus on top of that for making it to the finale,” Johnson said on The Morning After. “If you win, it’s not like you win a $1 million and split it with your partner. You’re just getting a cute trophy together.”
Winners receive the Len Goodman Mirrorball Trophy, named in honor of the late head judge. In contrast, dancers assigned to the show’s ensemble troupe earn substantially less than lead pros. Former pro Lindsay Arnold shared on a 2022 episode of Trading Secrets that her salary was cut “more than in half” when she was reassigned from pro to troupe member.
Pairing selection and daily practice schedules
Matching professional dancers with celebrity contestants is managed entirely by show executive producers. Dancers receive no input regarding their assigned partners, with pairs often kept secret until camera blocking or live introductions.
“You get no say,” Lindsay Arnold said on a May 2025 episode of Maggie Sellers’ Hot Smart Rich podcast. “It’s very much just, ‘Here’s your partner. Make it work.’”
Johnson confirmed that secrecy is strictly enforced to ensure genuine reactions on camera. “They really want to keep it a secret until you meet them live,” Johnson stated on The Morning After. “They want that genuine reaction. So I think people always think we know who we have and we’re keeping it a secret. Absolutely not. They do not tell us. They really don’t even want us to know the cast. It gets leaked a lot, but they want it very hush-hush until you walk in and meet your partner.”
Former showrunner Rob Wade explained to E! News in 2015 that producers evaluate physical height, body build, personality, and personal compatibility when constructing pairs. Wade noted that pairing incompatible personalities creates negative experiences for dancers, celebrities, and viewers alike.
“It’s based on height, build and personality and compatibility,” Wade told E! News. “We don’t pair people who aren’t going to get on. It’s too intense. It’s not like The Bachelor or something, we couldn’t do that. That would just be miserable experience for the celebrity, for us and the viewer. You don’t want to see two people who don’t like each other and, quite frankly, we have made that mistake pairing people up who didn’t get on so well.”
Once paired, participants maintain rigorous daily practice routines throughout the season. Pro Rylee Arnold, who competed on season 33 alongside Olympic gymnast Stephen Nedoroscik, detailed the schedule on a September 2024 episode of the Lightweights Podcast With Joe Vulpis.
“Every day we have four-hour rehearsals,” Rylee Arnold said. “It’s either 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. or 5:00 p.m to 9:00 p.m.”
Following daily rehearsals, professionals meet with production teams, arrange choreography, and review performance footage. “Literally my whole life is devoted to it,” Rylee Arnold added. “But it’s my passion and it’s what I love. So, it makes me so happy.”
The weekly routine leaves little downtime between broadcasts. “We have our show day on Tuesday and then it’s Wednesday to Sunday, straight rehearsals,” Rylee Arnold explained. “And then Monday we have camera blocking and then Tuesday’s show day again.”
Music choices and costume design workflow
Music selection for weekly routines is largely driven by professional dancers working alongside executive producers. Professional dancers Emma Slater and Britt Stewart confirmed in a September 2025 Instagram video that while pros choose songs “mostly yes,” final tracks remain “a collaboration with producers.”
Wardrobe production requires rapid turnaround times for each episode. Costume designer Daniela Gschwendtner told TV Insider in 2017 that the wardrobe department collaborates with set designers, lighting technicians, and dancers to develop distinct narrative themes for every pair.
“We meet with the set and lighting designers, dancers and talent and create a story [for each pair],” Gschwendtner told TV Insider. “Then we sketch out ideas. We have five days, max, to make all the outfits. That’s half a day per costume, not including all the rhinestones. The fitting and trimming we do later. We have about 20 people in our department and then we have a separate tailor shop. It’s a big enterprise.”
Costume designer Steven Norman Lee noted that contestants usually try on their finished costumes for the first time just hours prior to showtime. While basic trousers are occasionally reused for male dancers, standard competition outfits are custom-built for each broadcast.
“We do reuse things for group numbers or promo shoots, but not for the competition,” Gschwendtner added. “We don’t reuse things unless there’s a specific reason to do so. We try to keep everybody fresh and new in something different every week, so it stays interesting.”
