While Dancing with the Stars pro Val Chmerkovskiy is currently partnered with Len Goodman Mirrorball Trophy Season 35 frontrunner Jenna Dewan on the 2026 TV schedule, he’s already looking to the future and wanting to shake things up. It sounds like he’s been inspired by his wife and fellow pro dancer Jenna Johnson, who made up half of the first-ever same-sex couple in Season 30 when she and Jojo Siwa made it all the way to runner-up, and is looking to make a bit of history of his own.
During promotion for their partnership with the household cleaner Fabuloso, Val and Jenna were asked about the kind of future partner they might want on the hit dance show, and previous winner Chmerkovskiy revealed that he’d like to challenge himself by pairing up with a male contestant. Here’s what he told In Touch:
I want to challenge myself creatively and also recreate and reinvent what I’ve done in that ballroom for the last 22 seasons. I’ve been around the block a couple of times. I would love to be paired up with a male contestant.
I think it could work, and there's two pieces of evidence to support this.
Why A Male-Male DWTS Pairing Is On The Horizon
The first? DWTS has proven it’s willing to break the mold when it comes to dance partnerships. What started with Jenna and Jojo in Season 30 continued in Season 31 when the first drag queen contestant, Shangela, partnered with Gleb Savchenko. And then, Hailey Bills, Val and Jenna’s niece, partnered with reality star Sarah Jane Nader this season, even though they sadly were eliminated after just one dance. Having a male-male team feels like the next step.
The former partner of Season 23 winner, Olympic gymnast Laurie Hernandez, and Season 20 winner Rumer Willis, daughter of Bruce Willis, Val has very rightly pointed out that a partnership between two men is on the horizon for DWTS. There had previously been some question of whether the ABC series would ever have an all-male pairing on the show, but now I really think it seems more like a matter of when and not if.
The second reason? We got a glimpse of how that could push boundaries and artistry when former pro/current judge Derek Hough teamed up with longtime friend/pro dancer Mark Ballas for a stunning same-sex tango in Season 33. Not only was it a significant moment in dance history, but it received widespread acclaim and is one of the best dances that’s ever been featured on the long-running series.
You can watch Dancing with the Stars on Tuesdays on ABC or stream it with a Disney+ subscription. While there is still some time until we learn who this season’s winner will be, I’m excited to know that the pro dancers are already thinking about future seasons and continuing to push themselves in what they’re offering fans of the show.
