Dancing With The Stars has grown into one of the most popular competition shows on television. It shows the vulnerable side of our favorite celebrities and gives us two hours of fun entertainment to watch each week!
We watched as Simone Biles spoke about how grateful she is for her parents.
We cried during a raw moment of emotion from Laurie Hernandez when she broke down in tears after the death of her grandmother.
We held our breath when pro-dancer Maksim needed surgery after an injury.
And we raised our voices when Ryan Lochte was attacked on stage during a protest.
As the show nears its 25th season, we're all waiting to see who the "Stars" will be. Before we got that announcement, we got a big surprise.
Fan-favorite Mark Ballas will be returning as a professional dancer this season!
Ballas, who left DWTS before season 23, says he's "happy to be back" on the hit show. He appeared in 22 seasons of the show, winning the title twice.
But some simple math will tell you if Ballas is coming back, that means one other pro dancer is leaving. So who is it?
In addition to Mark Ballas' return, Alan Bersten is being promoted to professional dancer this season instead of his usual role as background dancer or sub-in if someone gets injured. This is making for too many male dancers on the dance floor, so someone has to go.
That someone is Sasha Farber.
Farber has been on the show since season 14, appearing as a troupe member. He was promoted to professional dancer in season 17 and appeared with contestant Snooki. Farber was moved back to troupe for 4 seasons before becoming a pro again in season 22. He competed for two seasons after that and became another fan favorite.
When the news of Farber's departure was announced, people were not happy.
Sasha himself just tweeted out a sad face after the news, then sent his well-wishes to Mark Ballas.
This is the full list of pros this season:
- Mark Ballas
- Petra Murgatroyd
- Maksim Chmerkovskiy
- Emma Slater
- Gleb Savchenko
- Keo Motsepe
- Sharna Burgess
- Val Chmerkovskiy
- Lindsay Arnold
- Artem Chigvintsev
- Witney Carson
- Alan Bersten
Are you okay with Sasha leaving so Mark can return?