Jenna Johnson isn’t ready to leave the Dancing With the Stars ballroom.
“I can’t confirm anything, but with my whole heart, I would love to be back,” Johnson, 30, exclusively told Us Weekly on Thursday, May 16, while discussing her partnership with Exuviance. “The show has been a dream come true for myself [and] my family. It’s really what I love to do.”
She continued, “I thrive on performing, I thrive on teaching. Nothing fulfills me more than on Monday nights when the countdown goes, ‘5, 4, 3, 2, 1,’ and you are live on air. There’s nothing like that feeling. So, I would love to be back. I’m so excited that they got picked up for a 33rd season.”
Johnson has been a pro on DWTS since 2014. She was last partnered with model Tyson Beckford for 2023’s season 32. They were eliminated during week 3 and Johnson’s husband, Val Chmerkovskiy, went on to take home the mirrorball trophy with partner Xochitl Gomez.
Mirrorball champs or not, Dancing With the Stars has featured some impeccable professional dancers in the years since the ABC competition series premiered in 2005. Derek Hough, Cheryl Burke and Maksim Chmerkovskiy are among the talent who have lit up the ballroom. Some of the show’s stars went on to achieve major success in their careers while […]
Johnson further teased whether Chmerkovskiy, 38, will be back in the ballroom this fall.
“I would assume we would want [this season] to be a family affair, yeah,” Johnson quipped.
DWTS is a complete “family affair” since Johnson and Chmerkovskiy danced alongside his sister-in-law, Peta Murgatroyd. The married couple also often brings son Rome, 16 months, to visit them at work.
Jenna Johnson ABC/Andrew Eccles
“He did come to set many times. It’s so funny, I have all of these little videos of him sitting on the judges’ table or there was … a lunch break on show day and no one was in the ballroom, but like the lights were flashing, lasers were going,” Johnson recalled. “We just like put him in the center of the stage to see what he would do and he just like started dancing and was loving it. I think we have a little performer on our hands.”
Johnson, however, is not pushing her son to follow in her and Chmerkovskiy’s footsteps.
“I will support him on whatever he wants to do, but initially I was really hesitant about wanting him to dance or I guess feeling that pressure that he needed to dance and like walk in our footsteps,” she said on Thursday. “We’re a very dance-heavy family, but there is something to say when it’s just like naturally in them and anytime there’s music, he is moving and grooving, he’s clapping, he’s smiling. So we’ll see. I want it to be like the most natural effect. I don’t wanna force him into anything or put him into it, but if he loves it, how can I stop him?”
Since its 2004 debut, Dancing With the Stars has awarded many mirrorball trophies — and has led to engagements, babies and lasting love. In 2017, former WWE wrestler Nikki Bella was partnered with Artem Chigvintsev. They started dating in 2019. “I have never met anyone who’s so supportive and I have no fear that he’s […]
Before Johnson is ready to return to the DWTS stage, she makes sure her skin is performance-ready with Exuviance’s Performance Peel AP25.
“[As] a choreographer and a dancer, there is nothing worse than showing up to set with skin that is broken out, has terrible texture [and] is red,” Johnson explained. “I really have, over the years, had to figure out how to help my skin and to take priority in these little moments that I do have to find a routine that works for me.”
Johnson, who has struggled with sensitive skin issues for years, loves Exuviance’s cream cleanser that doesn’t “make [her] skin feel oily” and its Performance Peel AP25.
“This is a professional-level at-home peel that you can do,” she said. “If you do it twice a week, you’re going to see some amazing changes. Not only does it help wrinkles, fine lines, [and] it helps with the texture of your skin [and] refines pores.”
Dancing With the Stars season 33 premieres on ABC in the fall.
With reporting by Mandie DeCamp
