It may seem like one of the most mundane reality shows on our screens, but it turns out that behind the sparkly costumes, cha-chas and rumbas there’s actually a lot of drama behind the scenes on Dancing With The Stars.
The upcoming season of your nan’s favourite show, which is expected to hit our screens sometime this year, features a whole new raft of celebs from all corners of the zeitgeist. I’m talking reality television, sports stars, chefs, athletes and comedians, to name a few.
According to Yahoo Lifestyle, the new batch of celebrities had a whole lot of sneaky secrets when they signed along the dotted line to appear on the show.
An insider source told the outlet that MasterChef icon Julie Goodwin was so keen to go on the show that she hid an injury during rehearsals.
“It was all very similar to Matt Preston from last year,” the source claimed, reflecting on when the former MasterChef judge turned radio presenter had to bow out due to an ankle injury.
“A lot of these celebrities don’t realise how hard this competition really is. An injury is usually really hard to recover from as the competition continues.”
Sadly for Julie, rumour has it she wasn’t able to make it to the dancefloor for the first episode of the season. However, she does apparently stick around for a little boogie later on in the season.
“Julie was persistent to stay in the 2024 cast and promised the producers she would be well enough to dance the following week. However, when you look closely during her dances you will see her wearing bandages that you would normally see on sports athletes,” the source said.
Makes sense honestly, the training for this show is ~intense~. The woman is an athlete!!!!
A surprising addition to this year’s lineup is short sparkly-eyed military king Ant Middleton. While I personally can’t wait to see the SAS Australia star sashay and shantay on the dancefloor, rumour has it that he only signed up to the show to win the favours of Channel Seven and lock in another season of the intense reality show after the ratings took a bit of a dive last year.
“Ant thought keeping Channel Seven happy with his commitment to the network would help get SAS back on the slate for 2025, which has actually worked and SAS has been commissioned for another series,” the source claims.
The next sip of tea involves Home And Away star James Stewart. He’s signed up for Dancing With The Stars this season and apparently, he’s been seeking out the sage wisdom of a fellow Home And Away costar and 2005 DWTS winner Ada Nicoudemou.
“It was easy to believe he would reach out to one of his co-stars who had previously taken part in the show. Home and Away stars do well in the competition and James had been quite vocal about the pressure he felt representing the soap,” production insiders said.
However, in recent weeks, James and Ada — who play lovers on Home And Away— have been spotted smooching IRL and are rumoured to be quietly dating too. How sweet!
According to the source, their romance kicked off around the time James started rehearsing for DWTS. However, since it’s still early days of their relo, don’t expect to see Ada cheering for her beau in the front row.
As for the contestant popping their pussy the most on the show? It’s beloved Aussie actor Lisa McCune!
“Many people wouldn’t know this, but Lisa is super competitive and she wants to win this really bad. She wants that Mirrorball trophy and friends are saying what Lisa wants she normally gets,” the insider spilled.
“Channel Seven executives were surprised by how competitive she was. Australia is set to see a very different side to the Blue Heelers star.”
Anyway, that’s all the goss so far. The upcoming season of DWTS is due to be a good one though, because this year former I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here host Dr Chris Brown is hosting alongside Sonia Kruger instead of walking expired Ken doll, Daryl Somers!!!
