What to expect from the season 31 premiere of Dancing with the Stars

Dancing with the Stars is back and the premiere is set to air today, Sept. 19, on Disney+. The season premieres live at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT only on the Disney+ platform. While the platform has only signed on for two seasons of the show, many changes are expected to occur. Here is your preview.

What to expect from the season 31 premiere of Dancing With the Stars

The first thing to highlight is the new format. Yes, the show is going to Disney+ but with it, comes longer episodes. The 16 competitors this season will learn much of what made earlier seasons a success.  The Disney+ episodes will clock in at a full 120 minutes.

Executive producer Conrad Green said in an interview: “As the show progresses through the season and we have fewer people in it, we can let the show breathe in different ways. We’re bringing our [supporting dance] troupe back and some of those transition walkovers will be putting the troupe in there to do little reprises of dances. And the reason for that is just to try and break up the flow a little bit. As the show progresses, and we have a bit more time in the show, we might get [judge] Len Goodman to do some little master classes in between dances where he points to a dance that’s being repeated a lot in a given episode, and he’ll show what he’s looking for and the details of people dancing in front of him.

“And then obviously in the later shows, we’re able to bring back some of the elements that we haven’t been doing in recent seasons because of COVID,” Green added. “So things like team dances, and potentially a dance marathon, group dances, things like that. So, we’re comfortable we can sort of break up the flow of those two hours.”

What has not changed, however, is the celebrity performances. Every performer is set to perform a dance routine styled by a specific style and theme of the night. The premiere will revolve around the theme of “party night”. While we do not know what style of dance has been assigned to the teams, we do know the songs they will be performing on the opening night.

Here are the songs for opening night:

Joseph Baena and Daniella Karagach – Pump it by Black Eyed Peas
Selma Blair and Sasha Farber – Time of Your Life by David Cook
Wayne Brady and Witney Carson – She’s a Mad Mama Jama by Carl Carlton
Sam Champion and Cheryl Burke – Hold Me Closer by Elton John and Britney Spears
Charli D’Amelio and Mark Ballas – Savage (Major Lazer Remix) by Megan Thee Stallion
Heidi D’Amelio and Artem Chigvintsev – Lady Marmalade by Christina Aguilera, Lil’ Kim, Mya & P!nk
Jessie James Decker and Alan Bersten – Sweet Home Alabama by Lynyrd Skynyrd
Trevor Donovan and Emma Slater – Dancing with Myself by Billy Idol
Daniel Durant and Britt Stewart – Barbra Streisand by Duck Sauce
Teresa Giudice and Pasha Pashkov – We Found Love by Rihanna ft Calvin Harris
Vinny Guardino and Koko Iwasaki – Titi Me Pregunto by Bad Bunny
Cheryl Ladd and Louis Van Amstel- Got to Give it Up by Marvin Gaye
Jason Lewis and Peta Murgatroyd – Get Lucky by Daft Punk ft Pharrell Williams & Nile Rodgers
Shangela and Gleb Savchenko – When I Grow Up by The Pussycat Dolls
Jordin Sparks and Brandon Armstrong – I Wanna Dance with Somebody by Whitney Houston
Gabby Windey and Val Chmerkovskiy – As it Was by Harry Styles

The skybox is a feature that is making a return. With Alfonso Ribiero making a return after competing and winning in 2014, the now cohost will takeover the skybox where celebrities will be interviewed before and after performing.  Tyra Banks is returning for her third season as the main host and executive producer, with the judging panel being compromised of Len Goodman, Carrie Ann Inaba, Bruno Tonioli, and Derek Hough.  Another addition is the dancing troupe, which usually helps teams during their performance as background dancers, and group numbers, and performs while the show goes to commercial. The troupe has often featured dancers who sooner than later get promoted to main dancers on the show.

Will you be watching this season of Dancing with the Stars?? What part of the show interests you the most? Who will you vote for? Sound off below in the comments! We would love to hear from you.