THE DANCING With The Stars professional dancers have taken a major pay cut for the upcoming season.
Season 31 is set to air in September after the show announced it is moving to Disney+.
Dancing With The Stars pros have been told that if they want to return to the upcoming season that they will suffer a major cut in pay, according to OK! Magazine.
When the show aired on ABC, many professional dancers were receiving around $5,200 per episode, according to an insider for the publication.
Now they revealed that the new offer is only $1,600 per episode, due to budget cuts.
A source told OK!, "With the show moving from the network to streaming, the budget has been vastly reduced."
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"Sure, they would love to see as many familiar professional dancers return as possible but that isn’t likely to happen when the cast sees how big the pay cut is going to be."
The source continued, "After all these years, the fans of the show know the dancers better than the 'stars,' but the new economics of the show makes it impossible to pay them what they have earned in the past.”
Back in April, it was announced that the show would be moving to Disney+ after 30 seasons.
This pay shake-up comes amid rumors that Tyra Banks is out as host.
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DROPPING THE BALL
DWTS dropped the ball on ABC and will salsa its way to Disney+ on Monday, September 19.
While dropping the major bombshell news, the show also announced it was renewed for a season 31 and 32.
It was moved off of network TV supposedly due to low ratings, its Disney-theme competition nights, demographic reach, and major backlash over Tyra as host.
Dana Walden, who’s the Chairman of Entertainment at Walt Disney Television, said in the release that while DWTS has been a “beloved staple on ABC,” it’s time for a change.
“As we’re significantly expanding our unscripted slate at ABC, this is a great opportunity to introduce this show to a whole new generation of fans on Disney+," she continued.
Dancing will be the streaming platform's first live series.
TYRA'D OF HER
The change also comes after many fans complained about Tyra's antics on the show.
Tyra became DWTS' solo host for Season 29 after longtime host Tom Bergeron and his co-host Erin Andrews were let go, shocking some fans, and she remained at the helm for Season 30.
However, The Sun can exclusively reveal that the 48-year-old will most likely NOT be back for season 31.
"There is no official decision on who will be hosting next season but it doesn't look like Tyra will be back," a source said. "Which would be a network decision, not her decision."
The insider went on to reveal that she just didn't "fit in" and it showed.
Word that the model will likely not return is surely music to her critics' ears.
In a problem-plagued Season 29, the fashion icon announced the wrong bottom two couple during the elimination process, blaming the broadcast blunder on a cue card mistake.
The following season, critics lashed out at everything from her interview style to her "taking too long" to announce Iman Shumpert as the season's winner during the finale.
A fan petition to replace her on Change.org earned more than 14 thousand signatures.
FORMAT CHANGE
With the show moving to a streaming platform, DWTS is going to have to undergo a lot of change.
One of those changes is voting.
Judge Carrie Ann Inaba revealed last month that the voting structure will change drastically.
Talking to E! News, she said, "It's a little bit different. I think the difference is maybe live voting across the country."
What the changes will be exactly is still unknown as Carrie Ann hopefully stated, "Maybe there's gonna be some things that will come along with the scripts that I think people are gonna love.
"People don't always like change, but I think they'll adapt."
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She confirmed she will be back at the judge's table and fellow judges Bruno Tonioli, Len Goodman, and Derek Hough are all expected to return.
Conrad Green is returning as showrunner/executive producer, who ran the show from season 1 to 18.
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