The first season of “Dancing With the Stars” was fraught with uncertainty. Besides the unknown of whether people would watch the show, there were also concerns over casting. How could “DWTS” find that magic mix of celebrities when they’d never done it before?
‘DWTS’ Season 1 Casting Was Challenging
A July 2025 Entertainment Weekly feature on the oral history of “Dancing With the Stars” season 1 explores how they cast the celebrities, judges, and hosts.
Executive Producer Deena Katz said she didn’t know if the show would be successful, given the focus on ballroom dancing. “I wasn’t even sure the thing would ever go. They didn’t have these kinds of shows. It was so much ‘Fear Factor’ and things that were mean spirited,” she explained.
The first season featured six celebrities: Trista Sutter, Evander Holyfield, Rachel Hunter, Joey McIntyre, John O’Hurley, and Kelly Monaco.
Since it was the first season, it was hard to convince celebrities to join and train for a dance competition. “There was a sense of, ‘If you do this, you’re never going to work in scripted again. You’re never going to do a movie again.’ And that is not true,” Katz said. “People get movies, series, and hosting gigs afterwards because of being on the show.”
She added, “But it was really hard at first to convince people, ‘You should do this and I promise you it’s not going to hurt you.’ It’s live, which is also scary.”
DWTS’ Season 1 Had an Eclectic Mix of Celebs
Katz shared the strategy with casting the first season was to find a mix of celebrities who had enough of a fan following and were appealing to a range of people.
“There was no blueprint before season 1 and so you’re making it up as you go and having a little bit of everything,” she explained.
Katz continued, “At the time, ‘The Bachelorette’ was huge. Trista Sutter came on and that was our first foray into reality. ‘General Hospital’ was massive, and Kelly Monaco was a star of it. Daytime audiences are rabid fans. Joey McIntyre is one of the greatest boy-banders of all time and a teenage idol. You want to have that eye candy. John O’Hurley, you didn’t know anything about him. You knew Jay Peterman on ‘Seinfeld.'”
The EP noted, “One of the great things about our show is you might know who they are, but you don’t really know them. We wanted to try to look at people that have fan bases in different ages and backgrounds, so you’re not hitting the same note.”
Even though they were blazing a new trail in season 1, the casting process really hasn’t changed since that first year.
Katz shared, “It’s just trying to give the audience a little bit of everything. To this day we don’t audition anybody. It’s still a jigsaw puzzle, even 34 seasons later, of making it the right mix to make sure you’re reaching out to the biggest audience.”
