The "Dancing with the Stars" pros salary may have been a big determiner on who has decided to stay and join the forthcoming Season 19 of the hit ABC reality dance competition.
Just this Wednesday, ABC finally dropped the official lineup of professional dancers who are joining "Dancing with the Stars" Season 19. Along with the great news of returning faces however, some fans were in distraught after it was revealed that apart from DWTS Season 18 champ Maksim Chmerkovskiy, three other familiar names are not gonna be returning on the reality show's dance floor.
With this came speculations that the "Dancing with the Stars" pros salary may have affected the decision of the other dancers to exit the show for good.
So how much is the "Dancing with the Stars" pros salary? According to Examiner, this info has long been kept secret from the public, but insiders have been generous enough to share how much dancing pros such as five-time champ Derek Hough makes every season.
For the most part, all of the dancing pros give up their personal lives for the show, by working up to 10 weeks of air time aside from the pre-season rehearsals that usually last for months before the season premieres on TV.
While the celebrities or stars make as much as $200,000 per season, regardless if they are eliminated early in the competition or not. Plus, they also get to keep bonuses every time they advance to the final round.
On the other hand, the "Dancing with the Stars" pros salary is reportedly playing around $1,000 to $5,000 per week.
The given figure is said to only be applicable to newbies on the show. Veteran dancers like Tony Dolovani, Cheryl Burke, Derek Hough, Karina Smirnoff, Mark Ballas, and Maks allegedly get more than what the show pays for its newbie pros.
The professional dancers salary has reportedly gone up from $1,000 per week to $5,000 per week. They are still required to fully cater their schedule to the 'stars' training needs during the run of the program," a 2009 statement from the Ballroom Dance Company read.
Given the length of time since the statement was issued, surely there have been significant changes on the "Dancing with the Stars" pros salary over time.
In the upcoming season, the dancing pros who are not going to be competing for the Mirrorball Trophy include: Henry Byalikov, Sharna Burgess, Kym Johnson and Tristan McManus.
The said pros have not revealed the reason why they are not joining the dancing show this fall season, but could they have really decided to leave the competition because of the not so reasonable "Dancing with the Stars" pros salary?
If so, then how come veteran dancers Cheryl Burke and Tony Dolovani are still appearing on the reality show despite being with it for every season except for the very first one?
Other returning dancers and champs include Hough, Smirnoff, Ballas, and Peta Murgatroyd. Maks' younger brother, Val Chmerkovskiy, who is yet to win his very first trophy, is also part of the lineup for this season.
Relatively new pros Emma Slater, who is on her third season, and Whitney Carson, who is just on her second season, are also joining the competition.
Finally, DWTS has enlisted three new professional dancers: Allison Holker, Artem Chigvintsev and Keo Motsepe to complete its lineup of 12 pro dancers, reported Entertainment Weekly.
"Dancing with the Stars" returns with Season 19 on Sept. 15. There will be a two-hour pilot episode of the series, which airs on ABC.
