What The Cameras Don't Show You On Dancing With The Stars

"Dancing with the Stars" is bigger than ever, and while that definitely has something to do with the cast, it couldn't happen without the production staff. The below-the-line team makes the magic you see on screen come to life. And almost all of it happens live, with zero margin for mistakes. It's part of what makes it such a fun, high-stakes show.

"On live TV, there's no second chances. There's a total state of excitement, adrenaline is always running throughout veins throughout the show," executive producer Joe Sungkur told Business Insider in 2018. "Those few hours of high-octane live TV is why we do the job. We thrive on it and love it. That atmosphere is why we keep going." He added that it takes a massive team of experts to pull the whole thing off week after week. The technical and creative aspects of the show have to come together perfectly, and the crew's communication needs to be flawless. Not only that, but the show exists to entertain, and therefore, the producers need to keep coming up with new, fresh ideas to keep things interesting. "We've added more varied lighting, all different staging elements, so that we can really make each performance distinct and really reflect the narrative of the story in the dance and give the audience a variety of performances," he shared.

The show continues to thrive. That's partly because it took off on TikTok and, according to licensed clinical social worker Madeline Weinfield Shill from Be You Psychotherapy, because of the sense of community it creates. And hey, who doesn't love watching beloved celebs try something outside of their comfort zone — especially when they succeed? If you're curious what really goes on behind the scenes — and why wouldn't anyone be? — read on.

When choreographing routines for live episodes of "Dancing with the Stars," the pros have to consider the placement of the audience, the lighting, the stage setup, any props, and the actual ballroom floor space. On top of all of that, they also have to consider the audience at home and the cameras. They get to really iron out their position and placement on the stage with respect to the cameras, or camera blocking, a mere day before the live show. Nerve-wracking? Probably. Exciting? We can only imagine.

Longtime pro Witney Carson (who is known for her daring outfits on "DWTS") offered fans a peek behind the scenes at this part of the process in 2017 on her website. "Camera blocking is SO important because it ensures that Chris [Kattan] and I, along with all the props and arrangements we use during the performance, are exactly where they need to be for the many different camera angles," she wrote.

Producer Joe Sungkur told Business Insider that once cameras are blocked and the final dress rehearsal takes place, final tweaks are made. "We give a range of notes from lights, there might be a performance that is too dark, or it may be a straightforward wardrobe note," he said.

When you see a popular musician drop by "Dancing with the Stars" to perform one of their hits, there's a good chance they actually filmed the segment before the episode went live. This also goes for some of the big dance routines, such as elaborate group numbers. As Entertainment Tonight noted after attending the premiere in 2018, the opening routine was actually shot in three separate chunks ahead of the actual episode, and then spliced together ahead of showtime.

As Today's Anna Chan recounted after attending a live taping in 2012, the studio audience watched Carrie Underwood sing "Good Girl," but the performance was actually recorded and saved for a later episode. According to Chan, the audience was directed on when to clap and cheer, and also pointed out that, when Chris Brown took to the stage to tape his performance (which aired during the elimination episode), there were a few hiccups. "The singer did his set two and a quarter times. That quarter was thanks to the audio cutting out early in the second take. See why these performances aren't live?" she wrote.

Other examples of pre-taped "DWTS" performances include Pitbull and Ne-Yo in 2011, as well as Sia in 2014. This is actually relatively common on reality TV competition shows (see: Jennifer Lopez and Pitbull's rendition of "On the Floor" on a 2011 episode of "American Idol"), as the scheduling and logistics of live TV sure can be a tightrope. 

If you think the contestants on "Dancing with the Stars" have full control over their performance songs, you are sorely mistaken. While the dancers can suggest tracks they want to use, it's the show's producers — and the copyright holders — who ultimately decide whether a song is fair game.

As "DWTS" music director Ray Chew told Billboard in September 2026, quite a bit goes into picking tunes for the show. Once a song is finalized, the live band needs to start creating their own unique arrangement, while music supervisor Nancy Severinsen is tasked with reaching out to music publishers to ensure they get the green light to actually use the music on the show. "To clear one song, it could have two writers, [or] it could even have seven publishers. You got to contact everybody, and everybody's not waiting around on their phone to be contacted," Chew explained. And then, even if you do get permission, those same people need to approve the band's arrangement. 

While contestants don't have sole control over which songs they dance to, that doesn't mean they don't have any say. When reality TV personality Ciara Miller, who has been known to give her unfiltered thoughts on exes like fellow Bravolebs Austen Kroll and West Wilson, performed to "No Broke Boys" by Disco Lines and Tinashe on "DWTS" in 2026, she definitely seemed to connect with the track. Per Parade, when the judges asked her if she was trying to send a message with the smash hit, Miller quipped, "One time a broke boy ruined my life — or he tried. But we're here tonight, so it didn't work!"

Commercial breaks might be annoying for the viewers at home, but they are a must-have for everyone who is a part of the live TV machine that is "Dancing with the Stars." For one thing, that's when the crew changes up the set and gets the stage ready for the next performance. What's more, the brief breaks give the contestants a chance to have a quick rest and reset. Entertainment Tonight's behind-the-scenes coverage of the show in 2018 noted that everyone who appears on camera, from the dancers to the judges, get their hair and makeup professionally done before the episode, and the makeup team regularly touches everyone's glam up throughout the episode. 

And those touchups are crucial, especially after dancers have worked up a sweat on the dance floor. In her behind-the-scenes coverage in 2012 for Today, Anna Chan noted that the makeup artists rush to fix up the contestants after performances. "[They have] their brows wiped down by the crew and makeup reapplied," Chan wrote.

Competition is fierce on "Dancing with the Stars," and the rehearsals are no joke. The show is a major time commitment, and the grueling practice schedule is one of the reasons some celebs have turned down the chance to be on "DWTS." While there may be an official limit on how much time contestants and the pros can clock in at the rehearsal studio (more on that later), it seems they are permitted to make the most of any spare minute they can get during the live show. 

Dancers and pros alike spend time behind the scenes trying to get their performances just right, even after the episode begins. As Today reported in2012, contestants got a quick last-minute rehearsing in during the ad breaks. Evidently, some of the contestants who utilized that time to get one last practice in ended up scoring higher than those who did not.

If you've ever thought some of the folks on "Dancing with the Stars" were more glowy than usual, it's probably because they got a spray tan... per show tradition. Frankly, those harsh and glaring stage lights can really make a contestant look washed out. As spray tan specialist Julie Nistrand once told Yahoo! (via Screenrant),  "As far back as I can remember, it's just always been a big show for spray tanning because it gives them just that beautiful, polished, flawless look on stage when they're dancing. They have so much skin showing that it's so important to have."

Former "DWTS" contestant Carson Kressley told Page Six in 2016 that he was a little thrown off by the show's love of spray tanning. "One of the weird things ['DWTS'] is that you always get a spray tan every week," he observed. "I thought it was a weird cult." Sarah Jane Nader, who got the boot during the first week of "DWTS" Season 35, gave her show spray tan a shoutout after her elimination, quipping to Cosmopolitan, "I didn't expect my spray tan to last longer than I did on 'Dancing With the Stars.'"

When Olympian Stephen Nedoroscik's partner, Rylee Arnold, suggested he get what would be his very first spray tan, he was on board. "I can't be looking this pale if I'm being Hercules," he said on "The Squeeze." "The tanning people, they were so nice and so excited they got to give me my first spray tan ever."

As every true fan knows, there are indeed some "Dancing with the Stars" partners who dated after the show, but not every pairing is a match made in ballroom heaven. While some contestants might appear to get on swimmingly, what you see on screen oftentimes don't translate to real life. There have even been contestants who revealed they hated working with their partners in the aftermath, even though the audience remained none the wiser while the show aired.

In 2012, Olympic champion Hope Solo alleged in her memoir, "Solo: A Memoir of Hope," that her "DWTS" partner, Maksim Chmerkovskiy, was physically aggressive during rehearsals. "He manhandled me in rehearsals from the start, pushing me, whacking my stomach, bending my arms roughly," Solo claimed, before alleging that he even slapped her at one point. Chmerkovskiy denied the allegations. Chmerkovskiy also reportedly clashed with his Season 25 partner, Vanessa Lachey, behind the scenes. 

In her book, "God Bless This Mess," former "The Bachelorette" star and "DWTS" winner Hannah Brown opened up about the apparently contentious relationship she had with her partner, Alan Bersten. She recalled that while they acted as if they got along when the cameras were rolling, behind the scenes, their relationship was rocky. "He'd push me too far in rehearsals, and I'd say, 'Get out of my face. I'm not doing this,' and he'd say, 'You're lazy! You're not trying!'" Brown wrote.

Have you've ever wondered how much money the stars on "Dancing with the Stars" make? Well, in 2019, sources told Variety that contestants earn a whopping $125,000 for rehearsals prior to the show's start. That salary also covers contestants' initial two weeks competing on the show. The longer you last, the more you earn. Radio personality and Season 27 winner Bobby Bones revealed on a 2025 episode of the "Trading Secrets" podcast that he brought in a good chunk of change when he was on the show in 2018. "I ended up making close to $400,000 from that show," Bones said.

Pro Jenna Johnson, who's taken the mirrorball trophy home twice, revealed during an episode of "The Morning After" podcast that the pros who manage to make it to the finals "get a nice bonus" for their efforts. "You're getting paid the whole season — which is amazing — and you get a bonus on top of that," she clarified, adding that there is, however, no cash prizes for the winners. And as for how much the pros make? "There's different contracts, so I can't speak for everybody," Johnson said.

Contrary to what some fan forums might lead you to believe, the pros apparently do not get to call dibs on the stars they want to be partnered with. The official pairing process is handled by the producers and casting director, and their decisions are based on a range of factors.

"[We pair them] based on height, build and personality, and compatibility," former showrunner Rob Wade revealed in a 2015 interview with E! News. He added that they try their best to put couples together who will get along well but that mistakes have been made in the past.

Speaking to "The Morning After" podcast in June 2025, choreographer Jenna Johnson confirmed this and also revealed that they don't know who they're paired with until they meet them live for the first time. "[The producers] want that genuine reaction," she said.

When "Dancing with the Stars" host Alfonso Ribeiro asks the judges to lock in their scores ASAP, he means it. In 2008, former MSNBC television editor Andy Denhart did some digging to answer fans' questions about how the scoring for the show works behind the scenes. "[The judges] first enter the scores into a computer on their desk, which is transmitted electronically so someone can do the math in advance for [the] co-host," Denhart reported for Today. "But the judges also write down their scores on paper in case the electronic votes don't register or they screw up while keying in their scores."

Executive producer Joe Sungkur elaborated on this during a 2018 interview with Business Insider. He confirmed Denhart's reporting, adding that the piece of paper on which the judges pen their scores is rushed to the control room while the cameras focus on the team interviews. Once the control room gets hold of the scores, they double check them and make sure they are impartial before sending them back to the judges. "[Then] we double-check that the score they hold up reflects the score they wrote down," Sungkur added.

As previously noted, the stars who compete on "Dancing with the Stars" are expected to practice a lot. It goes without saying that the rehearsal schedule on "Dancing with the Stars" is pretty brutal, but it actually used to be even more intense. 

As Witney Carson told TV Insider in August 2026, in past seasons, the pros were allowed to set the schedule, but that is no longer the case. "Back in the day, it was however many hours you wanted, all day, every day, all night, however much," Carson shared. "Now it's limited to four hours a day until a certain point in the competition." This does, however, change the closer contestants get to the finals. "I want to say the quarterfinals, you can rehearse as much as you want," Carson said. During Season 34, she and Robert Irwin didn't waste a single moment before the finale. "The last four weeks of last season, my kids didn't see me. I was [working] 24/7," she said. The two ended up winning the season, so hey, it paid off. 

TikToker Alix Earle, who also competed on Season 34, told E! News in September 2025 that, despite having danced before, the process really pushed her. "I'm so out of my comfort zone doing this stuff," she admitted. In 2023, actor Mira Sorvino acknowledged that she pushed herself so hard during rehearsals that she ended up with an injury. "I just wiped out because I was... overdoing [it]," she told Fox News.

Given how much time "Dancing with the Stars" contestants spend rehearsing and performing, it's to be expected that injuries will occur at some point during any given season. Broken bones, deep bruises, and sprained muscles are all part of the game, and many contestants try to push through regardless.

So far, Season 35 has seen its fair share of toe-related mishaps. Food Network star Giada De Laurentiis revealed on Instagram that she hurt her middle toe during rehearsals before the season premiered. It was eventually revealed that her toe was broken, but she still danced during the first week of "DWTS" Season 35. Pro Emma Slater also suffered a toe injury during rehearsals, taking to Instagram to share that her toenail literally fell off. "This one was painful," she said in the caption.

This only scratches the surface of "DWTS" injuries. In 2012, for example, former "Extra" host Maria Menounos suffered a broken rib during rehearsals, which resulted in her wearing a rib brace during performances. But no one knew, because it was expertly hidden beneath her costume. And in 2025, actor Danielle Fishel tore a hamstring but continued dancing. And then, in an attempt to relieve the pain, she got a deep tissue massage, which left her with very nasty bruising — which she had covered up with body makeup for the show.