Something I saw come across my Tik TOK feed as well was Jenna went on Jason Tardik’s podcast and he talks about. You know, money situations. And Jenna basically said, I only get paid three months out of the year. I only get paid during this show.
She goes, I can pick up some, you know, private lessons here, or maybe add to a choreography for a show or participate. She goes, but my main income throughout the course of the year is basically September to December for this show. Once the show is over, I don’t really make any money outside of the show.
And I found that to be interesting because we know for the longest time, there were two seasons per calendar year. So they had. Two, three to four month blocks to make money. Now, I don’t know what these, all these dancers do outside of the four months they’re on the show. I know some of them run studios and some of them might help with choreography in certain shows and get paid for that, or even appear in certain shows as background dancers.
But you know, maybe that’s 500 bucks, a thousand bucks a week. I don’t know. It’s nothing to write home about. This is their, this is their golden goose. This is where they make their money. And when I saw Jenna say that on Jason’s podcast, I’m like, Oh, I didn’t really I didn’t really think of that. You know, I, they’re not hurting for money, but they certainly don’t have an opportunity to make this twice a year anymore as they do just the one three or four month run.
Yeah. And if you think about it, when they were running twice a year and some of these pros are old enough where they were doing the two seasons a year, they were doing the tour in between. So they were doing dancing with the stars. I would say nine to 10 months out of the year, they’d have a couple of months off and then they would go on back to the show for the fall season.
Jenna was also someone who came out of, so you think you can dance and that show has, doesn’t appear to be picked up again, but she was doing all star stuff. And in choreography, I was interviewing her almost year round between dancing with the stars, and so you think you can dance. And that was really her full year employment, and that has fallen off over the past couple of years.
One season they even did Dancing with the Stars Juniors, and that filmed over the summer. So, it has been a really dramatic shift for all of them, and that’s why you’re starting to see them take, kind of like Bachelor contestants, taking on all of those social media campaigns. I think a lot of them really stepped up and realized, Oh, I need to get into the TikTok Creator Fund and really step up the content and crank it out while the season’s going.
And Some of them will do the convention circuit, which can be quite lucrative, you know, teaching the convention circuit, but I will also say that being on Dancing with the Stars helps with their visibility in order to get those lucrative teaching jobs. So you kind of have to do hand in hand. You can’t just go, okay, well, I won’t do Dancing with the Stars this season.
I’ll just teach. You kind of got to do both because you need to be on ABC.
I’ll let you answer this, however you feel, and maybe you have some insight to this. Maybe you don’t, but just your overall thought. And if you do have insight and you don’t want to share it, totally fine with that as well. But this season we had two showmances that everybody was talking about, which is Brooks and Gleb.
And Jen and Sasha and Brooks and Gleb, I mean, they have a fit. I mean, while it was happening, we assumed they were, and then the videos came out of them getting tattoos and him kissing her and then more video. It seemed like they broke up once they were eliminated from the show, but then they got back together.
And so they’ve acknowledged the fact that there was a relationship happening. And now it’s just like, Oh, we’re just, we’re having fun. The chemistry is great between us. The Jen and Sasha one has got everybody just like, why don’t these two just announce that they’re a couple because they literally spend from the second they, she was eliminated.
I’ve never seen, and maybe I don’t keep in touch with every single couple that’s eliminated from the show. But as far as I can remember, I’ve never seen a couple eliminated from the show that literally spent as much time together. Post elimination as these two did. It’s not like they got eliminated the week before the finals and they just had to go into prepping for their finals dance when everyone comes back and performs a dance.
Any insight you can share to this. Do you think they’re just writing out the engage at the not the engagement like they’re engaged, but like the, the engagement that they’re getting from the listening audience, they’re just having fun with it. But this seems to be more than just two people that are platonic friends, but that’s just my opinion.
Yeah, the last. Okay. I was being told, like, as the season was going on, like, this is just a friendship and that they are two people who have kind of gone through similar things in terms of heartbreak and everything else. And they just formed a bond over that and nothing was happening, but they were leaning into the rumors because why not?
It gets you more publicity and people go crazy over it. And then people are going, look, this is their hard launch. There’s been like 16 hard launches of their relationship reportedly. And I’m like, That doesn’t look like a hard launch to me, but people want it to happen. And then Alfonso Ribeiro’s wife, they always have the whole cast and crew over for Thanksgiving.
The two of them were over there and his wife was like the cutest couple. And then I was like, was that the launch? Oh But all the sources I talked to, like, at least leading up to, let’s just say, semifinals was like, this is platonic. Now, if someone’s living in your house and you’ve got great chemistry, which they seem to do, maybe a romance blossomed out of all of this.
And maybe they wanted to wait until the show was over. I don’t have any insight onto what’s really happening They’re either best friends forever or there’s more, but I, I think for Sasha, I’m not going to speak for him exactly, but I would say probably because he and Emma got engaged on the show, but maybe he just wants to take things slowly and announce if it is a relationship, announce it at his own speed, because, you know, I would be a little bit cautious.
I would understand that. And, you know, same with Emma and her dating situation, whether she is or isn’t dating Alan, I would say that they probably are both a little bit shy about that. And we should respect their privacy when they’re ready. They’ll tell us.
Yeah. And look, if Jen and Sasha eventually come out in the next.
Week, two weeks within the next month and say that they’re in a relationship. It’s not like anyone’s going to be surprised because I think a lot of people just assume that they already are anyway, but if they want to do it on their own terms, that’s fine. But I think it was just, you can get away with while they were dancing on the show because everybody, every couple that has good chemistry, people want to ship them, especially if they’re both single.
It’s from the elimination. The amount of time she spent with him doing tick tocks in the morning at his place, waking up and making breakfast. You’re just like, but you guys aren’t you guys. You guys have no reason to be together anymore. You’re not on the show. You don’t have to practice. Why are you still hanging out as much as you are?
You could be like, go to dinner as a group with everybody else, but it seems like they were just doing things. The two of them, the amount of paparazzi photos of them at the farmer’s market every weekend walking with Sasha’s dog. It’s just like, okay, this seems to be more than two people that just became friends during dancing.
Sasha doesn’t live far from me, so I keep waiting to see when I’m going to run into them because they’re like, we’re at Sephora, we’re at the Studio City, like, market. I’m like, okay, you know. It’s one of those things I’m like, I’m gonna run into them at one point, aren’t I? And maybe I can like, watch their body language.
Maybe I’ll get some insight. But the other thing I was thinking, and maybe you have more insight on this, is that Jen has been in this Bachelor bubble for a long time, like Bachelor to Bachelorette, and then she went to Dancing with the Stars. I, you know, and leaving the, the structure of like her schooling and everything else.
I’m just wondering if she feels maybe just a little lost. Like, do I go back to school? Do I do this L. A. thing? And so. Hanging out with Sasha, you know, allows her to that time to maybe explore like whether she’s going to stay on the West Coast or not.
At some point during the season, she did a Q and A on her Instagram and somebody asked her about the schooling and she had said, yes, I’m going back, but I don’t think she said, maybe she did give a date.
I don’t remember, but it does seem like With the amount of tick tocks that she puts out with the amount of stuff held just today, just looking at it today on her Instagram story, I guess her birthday is coming up and she was basically throwing it out there who wants to collab and or sponsor my birthday party.
Like she’s asking for sponsors now for her birthday party whenever that may be. So this doesn’t seem like somebody that wants to immediately get back into nursing. Maybe at some point she will, which is fine. You know, strike while the iron is hot. I don’t blame anybody for doing it. I know people do get mad at the contestants that, that do want to do this, but you would do the same thing if you were offered and had the ability to do it.
So I don’t fault her for it, but it does seem like this isn’t somebody that wants to jump back into nursing at the start of 2025. I have a feeling she’s going to ride this out a little bit longer as she probably should, if this is what she wants to do, whether it’s podcasting, influencing, but when she’s throwing out there, who wants to collab and sponsor my birthday party?
I have a feeling she’s not going back to nursing in 2025.
Yeah, it’s always going to be there for her. And I would say, like you were saying, strike while the iron’s hot. It’s kind of important if you just want to, you know, get a nice savings account going, I mean, this is the time to do it. You’re like riding high off of several reality shows.
So you might as well.
Yeah. I, I just have a feeling now, like I said, with the Sasha stuff, it’s however they choose to do it. If they do eventually come out and say, they’re a couple. Yeah. My gosh. I don’t think anybody would would be surprised at all, but
yeah, it’s on
their terms now. Brooks and Gleb.
Yeah, I, I don’t really know what’s going on between them, but again, if they say we’re back on, I don’t think anyone’s going to be surprised either. You know, it’s just like,
I mean, he spent Thanksgiving with them, with her family. think that they are having fun with each other and they are hot and sexy and they might as well.
You know what I mean? They are both single, so they’re not hurting anyone. And I think they’ll ride it as long as they want to.
I think with with Brooks and Gleb, I think obviously they enjoy doing Tick tocks, and they’re tick tocks are very funny. Hell, even the show played into it by putting them on the finale and having a basically a double team dance with Sasha and Jen and Brooks and Gleb, you know, dancing to reunited, you know, it was just like the show is playing it up, and I think both of them probably enjoy the hell out of it because it does increase engagement.
And if you are going to be an influencer. You want people and I think, you know, I don’t know. It just seems like if you would just say that Sasha and I are together, I don’t think people would be mad at it. I just don’t understand if they are together, what they’re waiting for. At this point, everybody thinks you are already anyway.
You might as well just give them what they want. So it makes me, so it’s like. Well, maybe they aren’t together, but it’s like, if you aren’t, why are you constantly sleeping on his couch? Doesn’t she have her, her own place? Like, I don’t get it. I’m so confused.
I don’t know. Maybe they’re planning a hard launch date with a brand.
We don’t even know that could be happening behind the scenes. Yeah.
All these hard launches that have already happened. You’re just like, huh? Wait, what about that one? Was that the hard launch? Was this the hard launch?
I’ve seen so many TikTok videos are like, this is their hard launch. And I’m like, no, there was a hard launch last week, supposedly, you know?
And so I’ve just said, you know. Maybe they should literally just say, this is the hard launch as their caption and be done with it.
Yeah. I, I, I don’t know. I guess we’ll just wait and see and find out the, the one thing that I wanted to end with, with you. And I don’t even know if you, I’m sure you’ve covered this in S in some extent, and I don’t know what your background is.
In terms of the play and the movie the phenomenon right now that is wicked. Have you had coverage for it? What have you covered about it? Have you interviewed Cynthia and Ariana? Where have you been in your coverage with wicked? And I guess asking personally. Were you someone that obsessed with the play?
When I saw the movie, the first one that came out, where are you at with it?
Well, I saw a press screening of wicked a few weeks before it came out. So I was already prepped for this like explosion of pink and green. And I know the choreography team. So I had done a lot of interviews with Christopher Scott, who’s worked with the director, John shoe for years.
They go all the way back for anyone who’s a dance fan. If you go back to the LXD, which was the early days of web series. They were all performing together and they did step up too. I mean, we’re going way back and a lot of people know Chris Scott from So You Think You Can Dance. He’s an Emmy nominated choreographer from that show and on that choreography team were two So You Think You Can Dance.
Dancers was comfort Fido, who was from season four and Emilio Sal from season 11 and just the bubble that they were in. And I think this, you know, if you talk about like Symia and Ariana and you’ve seen their press tour and you’re like, what is going on? They’re so emotional and they’re, they’re bonded together.
They were literally in this bubble of Emerald City Munchkinland and everything else. ’cause, ’cause they filmed both of them back to back. Wicked part one and wicked part two. And I think that they just created this wonderful cast and team. And they knew that they were making something special. And I think that you’re just seeing the release of emotion, knowing that you have a really good film, but also maybe the sadness that you’re never going to go back to little moment in time, it’s like, if you ever went to summer camp and had that, like end of summer situation, you’re like, Oh, I’m never going to get this moment back.
You won’t, you only have the memories of it.
Did you see the play?
Yes. Yeah, I saw the original cast of Chris’s. Would you like a
miss, would you, would you like, Multiple times seeing the play and you were just like waiting for this movie to be released. So you can see how it came out.
Yeah, I was thrilled.
I had seen the original cast on Broadway with Kristen and Adina. I saw the LA cast out here which I believe was Eden Espinosa and Megan Hilty, if I recall, cause they sat down here for a couple of years. It’s, you know, it’s a show that just, I think speaks to a lot of women in particular and the bond of friendship and then how French female friendships often fall apart.
So we, and you know, the consequences for all of the choices that you make. And I was a little hesitant that it was being dumped into two different movies. You know, part one and part two, but I understand what they did. You’re essentially getting act one in the first one, and then act two will be coming out next year.
And you know what? Don Chu is so amazing. I don’t know if people have seen In the Heights, if you, of course, Crazy Rich Asians, he has always has such a vision with his films. It was in the right hands to begin with.
Yeah, he will absolutely be up for Best Director. I would, I would assume, I would think Cynthia, well, Cynthia is 1000 percent going to be up for Best Actress.
I would, I would hope that Ariana gets a Best Supporting Actress nod for her role because, Both of them absolutely killed it. And maybe I, I would think this should be up for best picture as well. I have everything that it’s gone through. I do think it sucks that we have to wait a year for part two.
Maybe you could have done it six months later. Maybe you could have done it next summer instead of making us wait until November. I get it. Cause it’s basically going to be a five and a half hour movie, just split up into two parts, because this first part was two hours and 40 minutes. I’m sure the part two, it’s probably going to be around the same time, but yeah, having to wait a year and then having them having to do the press junket a year from now, they’re going to have to go through all of this again.
It’s interesting to say the least. We’ve seen it with other franchises, but it’s for this one, because of how emotional they are this time around, you wonder, are they just going to be able to conjure up those emotions again? A year from now, is it going to be like, wait, didn’t we just see them do this a year ago, but it’s
like, how many more pink and green outfits are there out there?
I feel like they’ve hit the gamut of all the different fashion designers. So we’ll have to see what they do for their next press tour. And I’m also curious about Ariana’s relationship with Eden Slater. Where is it a year from now? Because that allegedly. Maybe, possibly was an affair, although they say it wasn’t, but the timeline looks a little messy and I’m curious to see where they are in a year from now.
Yeah, I mean, again, I mean, that’s the thing. I haven’t every interview that I have seen in any press junket has been Ariana with Cynthia. I haven’t even seen her doing press with him. Maybe she arrived with him, but I’ve never seen her standing next to him or sitting next to him. In any press junket for this.
And maybe I, maybe I haven’t seen all of them, but I feel like I have seen everything on my, for you page. Cause it’s either wicked or dancing with the stars stuff. And I swear, I haven’t seen them together. I know they are together still as a couple, but they haven’t done much press together. Every time I see him separately, he has talked about her and said, Oh, she was great and she’s phenomenal in this film.
And I’m so proud of her, but. Have you seen them together in a interview?
Not in an interview. And you know, Bach is a secondary character, so it does make sense that she was paired with Cynthia for the press truncate. I will say that he’s been very well press trained every time. A reporter asked him about Ariana, he spins it and says, well, the whole cast, you know, he really kind of takes the focus off of the Ariana question.
So they prepped him very well for this press tour.
Yeah. And I mean, you talk to anybody who’s close to the situation. There was definitely some sort of overlap. And you can say the reason, you know, the reason he is no longer with his wife is because of her. Now you can sit here and debate. When did it start?
When did it was a physical cheating? Was it emotional cheating? Only they know, but anybody. That has been involved and is aware of the situation. I even had someone come forward to me and say, though, ex wife is devastated of what happened. Like he literally left his children high and dry. Not that he doesn’t see them, but he left his wife for Ariana.
Wow. And I
think the son was, it was only about a year old when it was all coming to light and this press tour, while it’s been entertaining for people like us, we get to see it, we get to see the movie. It’s exciting and it’s gotta be very painful for her. And I, I do. Have tons of empathy for that because you can’t avoid it.
You can’t avoid any of it. You’d have to be off social media this entire time.
And maybe that’s why we haven’t seen Ariana do interviews with Ethan. Maybe they are well aware. Like, look, even though we are together, we don’t need to be. If anybody sees us doing an interview together, hand in hand, arm in arm, they’re going to think that maybe we’re rubbing it in or people just don’t need to see that.
We’d rather focus on the movie itself. So, you know, it does, it does make sense. But yeah, they have not done one interview together that I’ve seen. Even though they are a couple. So anyway, Kristen thank you so much for the dance with the stars recap. It was a great season. Can’t wait to see who we get as our cast next season.
Obviously this casting is going year round and this season just ended. So they’re not even talking to anybody right now for the fall season of 2025. I don’t, I don’t think there’s feelers out. I’m sure among the Hollywood types and stuff like that, but. Have you heard names that have, cause obviously, you know, Tori Spelling said I got asked every year and I guess just kept, kept just kept saying no.
And who’s the other one that says she gets asked all the time and says no. Oh, she did so many interviews at the beginning of this season. Blanking somebody. It was a female. So
no,
it was somebody that says. I just don’t want to do it. I don’t think I’m good enough. Somebody, is it from
the Lacey Chabert?
I interviewed and she said, yeah, I interviewed Lacey Chabert and asked her about dancing with the stars. And she said, I get asked every year. I don’t want to do it. I, she said, live this pressure’s too much with the live TV show. And she’s just, even though she does a lot of Hallmark had dancing type of movies, dancing detective, and I think Christmas waltz, but she was like, nope.
That’s a big no for her.
That’s the one that came to my mind. Then I’d probably your interview that I saw, but yeah, if she’s said it and she’d been, yeah, I get asked all the time. I just, I love the show. I’ll watch it every week. I just don’t want to do it. And they asked me every year. May, I mean, they asked Tori every year and she kept saying no.
So maybe they’ll somehow convince Lacey. Who knows? But yeah, Tori was
out so early too. After all of that, I kind of felt bad.
I know. But anyway, Kristen, thank you so much for coming on. Really appreciate it. Hope you had a great Thanksgiving. Thanks Happy holidays coming up and obviously we’ll be in touch.
Absolutely. And just to confirm, Gabby, Wendy was season 31. It was 31. So she
finished second.
Cause I was like, of course, cause last year when we talked about charity, I was like, of course, charity was last year. So that’s where contestants blend in my brain.
And charity law. Sochi won last season, right?
So she won last season.
What place did charity end up finishing now that I think about it,
let’s see, we had Ariana was third,
Ariana, who?
Ariana Maddox from Vanderpump Rules.
Yeah, she was third. Who was second to Xochitl?
That’s a good question. Now, is it, was it charity?
I don’t think charity finished second. Did she?
Let’s see.
Wait, let’s look at the fourth. Let’s look it up. Susan. Cause it all blends finale.
Top of my head. Cause there were five.
Alison Hannigan, I think was fifth.
Okay. Yeah. Cause she made it.
Oh, Jason Mraz. Of course.
Oh God.
I remember he was
on it, but I never would’ve remembered that he finished second. Very good.
He was with Danny. He was a really good dancer, but he said in the aftermath of all of this, like, I don’t Was done about halfway through. And I was telling my friend, don’t vote for me. He’s like, I want it to be home with my cats. And I was like, Oh, I get that. And so what’s your
charity finished fourth?
Charity
would have been fourth. Let’s see.
Yeah. Because if, if Alison finished Alison finished fifth, then charity must have been fourth, unless she didn’t make the finals, the charity not make the finals.
Charity made the final. She was in the top five.
Yeah. So she had to have been fourth because you said, because Jason was second.
And then you said who the third person was and I already forgot.
Yes. Yeah. So it should have been Sochi, Jason, Ariana,
Ariana. That’s right.
Charity,
Allison. Yeah. Allison. Got it. All right. We got that settled. Thank God. All right. Thank you, Kristen, so much for coming on. Really appreciate it. And obviously we’ll be in touch.
Sounds good. Thank you. Thank you so much to Kristen for coming on. Always a good talk, really good insight to dancing with the stars. And man, I thought I had something there. I was like, wait a second. I actually thought of it during the podcast. It wasn’t something that I’d even had in my head, but when we were talking about different ways and the scoring system, I’m like, Wait a second.
Why not just do half points? I didn’t remember they had done half points one season a while ago, but I guess they did. Why not go back to it? Because jumping from an eight to a nine seems like a big jump. It’s like, how much better? And what does constitute jumping from an eight to a nine? To me, it’s just.
Deeper into the show, honestly, because if you do eights for four straight weeks and you don’t jump to a nine, you’re probably getting eliminated. It’s like you have to go up, but it’s like jumping from an eight to a nine. It’s like, okay, now you’re only one point away from a 10. What’s considered a 10? I thought she brought up great points in regards to maybe you have Carrie Ann judge certain parts Of the dance and Derek judge is another part of the dance.
And then Bruno judges, another part, as opposed to just randomly throwing out these numbers based on your own discretion. It just doesn’t seem like it’s productive. Then again, I also don’t think the point system even really matters. It comes down to the social media, which I wanted to spend a lot of time on.
And we did. So thank you to Kristen for coming on. Thank you all for listening. Please follow me. On Apple podcasts, rate and review. If you can interview is also up on my YouTube channel, reality, Steve 24. You can check that out, go subscribe, go like, go comment. You’re also going to be seeing clips of it on your Instagram reels and on YouTube shorts.
So again, if you ever see it, come across it, like it, leave a comment, subscribe, all that stuff. Really. Again, thank you to Kristen for coming on. Thank you all for listening. I will talk to you tomorrow.
Send all links and emails to: steve@realitysteve.com. To follow me on Twitter, it’s: www.twitter.com/RealitySteve. Instagram name is RealitySteve, or join my Reality Steve Facebook Fan Page. Talk to you tomorrow.
