Mark Ballas joins judging panel for Dancing With the Stars spinoff

Mark Ballas has moved from one of Dancing With the Stars’ most familiar competitors to a permanent judge on the franchise’s new spinoff, a shift that turns long-running performance into official authority. ABC launched Dancing With the Stars: The Next Pro on Monday, July 13, with Ballas and his mother, Shirley Ballas, on the panel as 12 dancers fought for a pro-dancer slot on Season 35 of Dancing With the Stars.

The casting gives the spinoff a built-in credibility test. Ballas is a three-time Mirrorball champion, an 11-time finalist and a Primetime Emmy Award nominee for Outstanding Choreography, credentials that make him more than a nostalgia hire. Shirley Ballas, whom ABC calls “The Queen of Latin,” brings a parallel résumé as a ballroom champion, dance teacher, adjudicator, bestselling author and the head judge of BBC1’s Strictly Come Dancing. Together, the pair embody the show’s bet that expertise is part skill, part brand recognition, and part continuity with the franchise’s history.

ABC structured the series as a proving ground rather than a simple talent showcase. The dancers live in one house and go through an audition process designed to determine who can join the core cast of Dancing With the Stars next season. The premiere episode, titled The Journey Begins: Technique With Derek Hough, put the emphasis on fundamentals, with the judges testing jive and samba technique.

Robert Irwin hosts the series, extending his own DWTS connection after winning the Season 34 Len Goodman Mirrorball trophy. ABC also said the spinoff includes rotating mentors and guest judges drawn from returning pros, a choice that keeps the format anchored in the franchise’s existing roster while still making room for a new hierarchy.

The production setup shows how carefully ABC is managing the franchise’s succession plan. BBC Studios produces the series, and Conrad Green serves as showrunner and executive producer. With Ballas now on the judging side, the show turns one of its most durable performers into an arbiter of who gets to inherit the pro-dancer brand. That is the central business logic of legacy reality TV: credibility comes from keeping the old guard visible, while freshness comes from making the next generation compete for the same spotlight.