Co-host Alfonso Ribeiro said executive producer and casting director Deena Katz knows how to “create magic” with her celebrity-pro pairings
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NEED TO KNOW
- Season 35 of Dancing with the Stars premieres on Sept. 15
- Celebrity-pro pairings include Maura Higgins with Mark Ballas and Guillermo Rodriguez with Witney Carson
- Casting director Deena Katz has said that although the contestants can make partner requests, she and her team make the final call
By the end of a Dancing with the Stars season, pros and their celebrity partners practically become family.
Season 35 of the competition dance show premieres on Sept. 15, seeing reigning mirrorball champ Witney Carson step back into the ballroom with her newest celebrity partner, Guillermo Rodriguez. Other pairings include Brandon Armstrong with Bravo star Ciara Miller, three-time winner Mark Ballas with Love Island alum Maura Higgins and many more that you can see here.
Ballas shared during a July 2026 appearance on Off the Vine with Kaitlyn Bristowe that executive producer and casting director Deena Katz and executive producer Conrad Green decide the pairings.
“Those two together is a lethal combination,” Ballas said of Green and Katz.
So, how are Dancing with the Stars contestants and pros matched up? Here’s everything we know about the selection process.
Katz said they don’t want the same pro to “always have a top player”
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During the Behind the Mirrorball panel at DWTS Con in August 2026, Katz spoke about the process of pairing pros with the celebrity contestants, noting that they try to make it fair season-to-season.
“First of all, for the fans, you guys love our pros. You see the pros, and so you want to get the pros somebody different,” Katz said. “You don’t want the same pro to always have a top player or whatever because you want to see them doing something different. And, it makes it exciting and better for them.”
She added, “I always tell the celebrities that every single couple, we can see a way that they can make the finals.”
Celebrities can request pros, but Katz “can’t guarantee it”
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Katz told Glamour in May 2015 that she and her producing team decide “100 percent,” but that doesn’t mean some pros and celebrities don’t make requests.
“There are some celebs that have wishes, and we always say we can’t guarantee it,” she said. “That’s why we meet all the celebrities and know all the dancers because some celebs think they know better. We are never ever going to try to pair people that we think won’t get along. We always want the best pairing because we know them so well.”
Sometimes, those requests come to fruition. Ahead of the official pairings announcement, Higgins was campaigning to be partnered with Ballas, whom she competed against on The Traitors season 4.
“I feel like [Mark] would be able to handle me,” she told StyleCaster in August 2026, a few months after telling USA Today Entertainment, “Mark! Mark! I want Mark Ballas!”
In other scenarios, celebrities have made more general requests.
Joey Graziadei — who won season 33 alongside his pro partner Jenna Johnson — shared during a September 2024 appearance on the Almost Famous podcast that after being cast a few months following his engagement to Kelsey Anderson on The Bachelor, he asked to be “paired with someone that was in a successful and healthy relationship.”
“I didn’t want there to be any chance of noise on this because I know that comes with the show and the territory sometimes,” Graziadei said.
Ballas said they try to make them “compatible” based on personalities
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In September 2015, Ballas told E! News that several factors are considered when the behind-the-scenes team chooses who to pair together.
“They pair us on height and size, so it feels comfortable for the women and vice versa for the women when they’re dancing,” Ballas said. “They also try and make us compatible based on personality, and what they think will work well.”
The pro dancer continued, “Each one of the pro dancers has a different way of teaching, choreographing, and also just different personalities, as well as time-stamps on patience. They kind of try to pair us accordingly.”
Alfonso Ribeiro said Katz knows how to “create magic” with her pairings
Credit: Eric McCandless/Disney via Getty
Dancing with the Stars co-host Alfonso Ribeiro, who also won season 19 alongside Carson, has full trust in Katz to make successful pairings.
When asked how they keep the show fresh during a September 2026 appearance on Good Morning America, Ribeiro responded, “It’s Deena Katz.”
“She’s capable of putting such incredible celebrities together and really the magic […] is she knows exactly how to pair them up,” he said. “She puts the right pro with the right celebrity, which creates magic.”
Ribeiro explained that it’s not as easy as putting a piece of paper on a bulletin board and “[figuring] it out,” but rather it’s something Katz “feels in her heart.”
“She gets to know the celebrities, she knows all of our pros, she puts magic together and the world gets to experience it,” he continued.
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