It's once again time for an episode of Danielle with I am your host, Danielle Fischel, a podcaster, TV director, mother of two, and one time Kushling spokesperson to Panga Lawrence of Boy Meets World fame.

But for those of you who know what a passa doble is, you probably recognize me as a recent competitor on season thirty four of Dancing with the Stars.

In experience I consider to be one of the most meaningful of my life, and keep in mind, I only finished eighth Imagine if I won, I do every night anyway.

Here I am days away from the final show where I will dance once again, still recording this podcast, keeping you up to date on my ballroom adventures, just as excited as you are to find out who will hold that Len Goodman Mirror Ball Trophy above his or her head.

And I continue to talk to experts, former contestants, incredibly gifted pros, and instrumental crew members, hoping to give an inside glimpse into what it takes to produce a show as fun as Dancing with the Stars.

And today I have the honor of sitting with someone who has become synonymous with the program.

A sitcom star who began his Hollywood career as a child on shows like Silver Spoons and The Fresh Prince of bel Air, then began his own Dancing with the Stars journey in season nineteen, where he became one of the show's most iconic participants, taking home first place and forever reminding the world who exactly created the Carlton dance, now known as the Alfonso.

He would leverage his lovable nature on the show into a hosting gig on America's Funniest Home Videos, never knowing exactly how the ballroom could ever make its way back into his life, And then, in twenty twenty two, for season thirty one, Alfonso is named co host of Dancing with the Stars, a position he still holds today, becoming a face of not only the network, but proof of what Dancing with the Stars can do for not only your career but also your spirit.

He's the man who sees it all and isn't afraid to talk about it.

It's my fellow Team Chicago member, the great Alfonso Ribero.

He knows hello.

So good to see you, Alfonso.

I do want to start with a story I have never told publicly, which is this extremely odd coincidence of when my husband and I noticed that we were walking right next to you at Disneyland.

So nobody would even know that this had happened, but I had just started thinking, I wonder, I wonder if this is the year I do Dancing with the Stars.

I wonder, Like it was just kind of on my brain a little bit, and I knew I've wanted to do it for so many years, and I you know, it's summer, and I know the season's coming up.

I'm like, I wonder if this is the year?

And then Jensen and I are walking out of the Grand Californian and I hear this beautiful voice and I go, is that a fond so?

And sure enough, directly in front of me, by like just five steps, is you.

And you were there with some of the pro dancers from Dancing with the Stars and I come up behind you were with a tour guide and I come up behind you.

I tap you on the shoulder.

I'm like Alfonso, and you turned around, I'm like hi, and we had this beautiful reunion.

We hadn't seen each other in ages, and the first thing out of your mouth to me was, why haven't you done Dancing with the Stars yet.

Right, Yes, yes it was.

It was supposed to happen.

It was supposed to happen.

Yes, the universe finds ways to tell us our inner thoughts are correct.

Yes, to let you know you're on the right path.

You're on that path, like, hey, just just in case you're you're going down this road, but really you might go the other way.

Here's a little something to just push it over the edge exactly.

And you really were that thing for me.

You you were that person that moment that was like, this feels like it was intervention.

It was a divine It was a divine moment, running into you, talking to you, hearing that you I mean, and just it looks as though you're having the time of your life.

It just it was like, Okay, I really do think this was this was for a purpose, and it was yeah, well that was great.

I want to talk to you about your own dance journey.

Okay.

There was an interview this week with Dina Katz where she said that you had originally reached out to her about doing the show during season two.

What was it about Dancing with the Stars that made you know so early on that it was something you wanted to be a part of.

You know, I felt like this minute I saw the show after the first season, I was just like, you know, if there was ever a show that I could connect to that I would love doing and have fun doing, this was the concept, right, and it wasn't It was popular, but it wasn't like in its Hey they popular yet, right, and this would be perfect for me.

This is something that I would enjoy.

I watched, you know, I saw Apollo and I saw you know, Joey Fatone do it, and I saw these people and I was like, this looks amazing, Like put me on, put me, you know, put me in coach.

And I was, you know, shown no love in the beginning, you know that it was like no, no, no, no no.

And I and I had such a high and low love hate relationship with the show by time I did get on the show, because you know, I had wanted to do it, they wouldn't let me do it.

Then I didn't want to do it because I was like, get it.

You know.

It's like, you know, it's like a divorce where you go through all the different stages right on a break and like went through all of that and because I was you know, I was friends with a lot of the dancers of that at that point, right, because of my friendships of people who had done the show, I got to become friends with all of their pros, Right.

So I knew Karina through Mario, and I knew you know, Kim Johnson, and I knew Ryl and so I knew all of these people.

But I was like, you know, always on the outside, right, No, you can't get in.

You can't get in.

You can't get in, You're not part of the club.

And then you know, seventeen seasons later, right, and season nineteen, you know, Dina calls me.

I'd literally just gotten back from a vacation with my family, and she was like, now's the time we're asking you to do it.

And I was like, you know, fifteen pounds overweight, you know, just gotten off vacation in summer.

But I was like, there was nothing I was specifically coming back to specifically, So I was just like, all right, let's go and started that journey.

That's amazing.

I mean, I totally understand the love hate roller coaster you go on with something like that.

And so by the time you got it was season nineteen nineteen.

Yes, wow, Okay, Well, you and I have one big career distinction that we share, and I do think it's one of the major reasons why Dancing with the Stars can be really like transformative for us.

Ninety nine percent of strangers only know us by a fictitious name, yep.

And then here you get this opportunity to be Alfonso, right and to really let America see who you are outside of what they already know, for you to be, and for you to do it in a way where you get to be vulnerable through dance.

Did that resonate with you?

Did you see that right from the beginning?

All right?

Well I saw that from the beginning.

In season two, right right, exactly right.

I was like, Oh, this this dance that everybody knows me for, this character that everybody knows me for.

I continued for years and years and years to continue to say, that's not who I am, right, Like, I'm this kid who grew up in the Bronx in New York, Right Like I wasn't this bel air kid that everybody thought of me as.

And all I wanted to do was show that I wasn't that.

I think that you know, once again, like you know, saying, like your situation, the universe finds the right way in the right time.

It wasn't the right time, right, I wasn't in the right space yet to present myself as who I truly was versus who I wanted people to see me as.

Yeah.

Oh what a great distinction.

Yeah, And so being being able to do it in season nineteen, because I'd gone through the ups and the downs and the ins and the outs and the highs and the lows, I was truly capable of saying, I'm just going to give you me, yeah, and I'm just going to go on this journey.

I'm going to go on this you know this this eleven week, you know, fourteen week, really journey.

Hopefully I get to fourteen and just give people me and if it works, it works.

If it doesn't, it doesn't.

But at least it was truly me and that's who That's who it was I was.

I was so in my out of my head, in my body and just being that.

I think that it elevated my performances because it was really me.

It was really just a love and a joy of and feeling so blessed to be on the show.

To be able to do the ship'd have finally been given the chance to be part of this family that I so longed to be a part of Before that, that joy, I believe came across it, and I think it helped elevate me amongst the competition.

Yeah.

Absolutely, while you're there, I'm sure you never imagine that Tom Bergeron is going anywhere.

But while you're dancing on the show, did the hosting of the show ever cross your mind?

Like, wow, I bet this is a fun show to host.

Yes, okay, yeah, absolutely, yeah, Now that was This was like many years later, right that.

Obviously things came into play, of course, but Tom Bergeron is the reason for my hosting career, like in general, in its success, right because I had hosted before.

But it turns to me on week seven or eight, and you know, personally, he goes, no, I'm leaving America's Funniest Home Videos, And I said, I did not know that.

Why are you leaving?

Like it's a great job, why would you leave that.

It's just time.

It's time for me to start, you know, slowing down, And it's it's a it's a hard job with the family because we lived back east and back and forth, and we constantly have to come back out here to do tapings and they want us here for voiceover or not be able to do it from a studio elsewhere, and it's just become too much for me.

And so I think, and he's saying this to me, I think you would be the perfect replacement for me.

And so I'm going to go to Vinde Bona and ABC and let them know that this is my feeling.

Not that that feeling had a lot of weight, but it absolutely had weight because it made Vinda Bona, who didn't know me, who didn't really know that much of me, take a look right, and that became, you know, literally the launching pad for my career.

And it's funny because you know, obviously people are always like offonsin you keep taking Tom Bursrun's jobs.

I'm like, no, Tom Bersroan keeps giving me his job.

Exactly.

You keep saying you're the person.

You're the guy, You're the guy, You're the guy.

And so you know, of course I looked at every hosting, every all shows.

Right when you're trying to be a host, You're like, oh, that would be something that's good for me, Oh that would be that wouldn't be so good for me.

I don't think I could really do well at that.

And you're looking at all of it, and I'm thinking this show would be amazing, but I'm like, Tom is never leaving.

There'll never be a time that Tom's not on this show, so like, don't even think about it, right, And then you know people know of this, but like Tom's parents got sick.

Yeah, and I got a phone call from Dina one Sunday afternoon saying Tom might not be able to do Monday night show because back then it was on Mondays, right, And you're the one we'd love to come in and have and do this for Tom.

And this was how many seasons after yours?

This was like three seasons after after I think it was two seasons after.

I think it was season twenty one, and and I'm like wow.

So I talked to Tom and he's like, dude, I you know, really appreciate if you could do that for us.

Like I'm you know, we're not sure what's going to happen.

Hiating it up not missing that episode.

But then his mom did get sick, and so the next week I came in and so I hosted the show.

So before I actually hosted the show, I had already hosted the show and I had an experience, and but once again it was like that was cool, that was awesome.

It's never happening, right or.

Even in your mind thinking well, that's a nice position to be in.

Anytime they need somebody to fill in for someone they know they can count on me.

I'm absolutely great news.

I'm the guy.

Right.

So that's so then we read of Tom no longer being on the show.

It was like the immediately I'm like, no, right, no, it's it's not for me right now.

This is not the right move, right.

Yeah, especially not on good terms.

Yeah right, Tom is.

Leaving, handing it over, right, And I went, nope, nope, nope, nope, not that they offered me the job.

But it was still like Newton, I don't even want to get into that.

Obviously, Tyra was hired.

She had done a couple of seasons, recognized that it wasn't necessarily working out well, you know, for all parties, And so I called up Dina Katz one day and I said, hey, you know, let's go to dinner.

And so, you know, all four of us, right, Jerry and Angela and I and and Dina went to dinner and I said, I just want to let you know that i'd like to throw my name in the hat.

I don't know what's going to happen.

I don't know whether she's leaving.

I don't know what you guys are deciding.

I don't know any of that.

What I do know is I want you to personally know that this is what I want to do.

And she was like, I'm really happy you said that.

I never thought you would actually want to do it because of your relationship with Tom and and so I was like, yeah, but I think enough years have passed that it's not me taking his gig, it's me coming after him want a gig heat which is a difference.

You're right, absolutely, you know.

And I said, this would be really awesome if that would happen.

And then a few weeks later, I get a phone call from Conrad Green, who had just then been hired to come back in, and it was, look, here's what's happening.

The show is no longer going to be on ABC, It's going to be on Disney Plus only.

Is this still something you want to do?

And I'm like, absolutely, even if it's you know, doing this show on the way out.

I would still love to do it.

And because it was moving to Disney, plus it could no longer be a single host show.

It had to have two hosts.

Okay, because no commercial breaks, there was no time.

There's no other ways to move the stuff in and out of the set, so you had to go off of the stage to create that space.

Right.

So I said yes, they said yes, I start.

I start with Tyra and I absolutely loved that was in the skybox, I was with celebrities and the pros and I had a blast and it was great.

And then ultimately, you know, there was a parting of the ways between Tyra, ABC and the show, and I got a phone call and we're moving you downstairs and we've hired Julianne to be upstairs and a co host with you, and the rest is really history.

It's been incredible.

I love my think my favorite part of that story is when that you made the decision to call Dina and say let's go to dinner, and then you actually saying I just want to throw my name into the hat.

Because so often we assume that if if something is right for us, or we go well, I've already, I've already hosted.

Dina probably knows that I maybe they're already, and you don't.

You don't say anything, you don't make the extra effort, you go.

If they wanted me, they probably would have asked, we make all of these bad assumptions.

And yet then when you actually decided I have I want to let her know that I would love this, this would be a dream for me.

Her response was, I would have I would never have thought you would do it, and so you could have been sitting around thinking, well, of course they know I want it, and yet it's the exact opposite.

They're thinking, he would never do it.

Let's not even ask.

Right.

So I love that you.

You took this upon yourself, your you made your dream come true.

You manifested that for you.

But that's the way I've always looked at everything.

Right, assume nothing right for granted nothing.

Yeah, right, you are?

You know.

Look, I think I've been incredibly lucky and fortunate to have incredible reps my entire career.

Right, But they're reps, right, they're not a US.

Right.

There's no one who is going to fight for you more than you, right, And no one can be a cheerleader for you more than you.

Right.

We allow our egos to get in the way of our passions, right we like, you know, I mean I can't really like go in and say I want something because if I didn't get it, then like my heart would be broken and then and.

Then I would feel desperate because I said I what I wanted.

Yeah, none of that, Yeah, right for me, you know, switching gear slightly, It's like I hit on my wife, right yeah, Like I was like, I'm interested in you, I want to take you on a date.

I would like this yeh.

And you know, almost to the point where it was like.

Whoa, he's so so forward, sir.

Okay, like really all of that, Like, well, my thing always was, well, how is she supposed to know?

Yeah?

How is anyone supposed to know what I'm feeling and thinking and wanting and desires?

And no one could ever know that, So it doesn't you're not you know, there's in the dating world, right, like you know, you know, shoot your shot, right, Like there's so many guys who are like I can't shoot my shot, Like, I mean, she might turn me down.

Well, you already turned down if you don't shoot your shot exactly.

Yeah, you missed one hundred percent of the shots you don't take, Yeah, one hundred percent.

So I'm like, hey, this still could have been zero, right, you know, But but I wanted to put my name in there, and I felt and I feel like even now still when I want to do something, I make phone calls, right, you know, Like last year I hosted the Disney Parks Christmas Parade.

They're special in Orlando.

I called up my team and said, hey, still want to do this again this year?

Let me know, make some calls.

We want to do this.

Yeah.

They're like, are you sure?

You know it's like and I'm like, absolutely, I'm sure.

Yeah.

It was fun.

Right.

It was a tough week because of the different things that were happening here and there, But still I wanted to do it.

And so for me, it's always about go get what you want, Go at what you want.

The worst that could happen is you don't get it and you didn't have it anyway, and it's not for you.

It wasn't made for you, it wasn't designed for you.

Right, yep.

It wasn't your gig.

It was someone else's gig.

Yeah.

Fine.

It also is like, it may not happen this year, but it could happen next year.

You know, you don't know, You.

Never know when, you never know how, and you never know how someone is going to get the idea, right, so you just always present that in hopes that they do get the idea they do like go oh wow, that actually could work, and then find a way to make it work rather than find a way for it not to work.

Yeah.

Really smart, really smart.

I love that.

I love that.

I want to talk now about this season of the show in particular.

You have been around, You've been paying attention since season one, so you are a historian of the show.

Some might say it's the.

Twenty year anniversary, and everyone keeps saying it's one of the most stacked casts we've ever seen.

You and I were we are now just chatting a few days before the finals.

If you had to write out season thirty four year twenty a report card, You're going to write a report card for the season.

Okay, where are we at?

Well, if we were writing this at the beginning of the season, some things would be very different.

Yeah, let's hear let's hear it.

Well, I mean, obviously, you know, being incredible friends with Emma Slater, Right, So my wife Angela are like best friends and so, and she goes on vacations with us, and like she is a member of the family, and I know how incredible she is, and I know what she can do with someone, especially utilizing the social media space.

But could never have guessed that Andy Richter would have gone as far as he did, right, could never have seen that, right, but yet it happened right at the start of the season.

I never could have imagined a world where Whitney Levitt wasn't in the finale, yep, right, Never when we did our dance, our team dance, that we would win, and yet one of our members would go home, right, right, Like, these are things that knowing the show, knowing the history of the show, knowing the tendencies of the show, could you ever imagine that these things would have happened?

Yes, I think.

That this season is remarkable because you can take let's say seven through nine, seven through nine, seven through ten, that group of the contestants in terms of order, right, yep, Like, so we're gonna have five, right, so seven through nine or ten, how good they would be?

But be seven through ten, Yeah, because every one of everyone in that group in most years would be in the final, right, like, without question.

Right.

I think the only other season that I would say that that wouldn't be the case would be Charlie Demilio season right just stacked, yep.

Right, But I wouldn't say that that that last season, which was very good, yeah, could even prepare to the quality of dance the quality of growth that this season has had.

Right.

The social media impact has thrown the show on its head, yep.

Because it isn't about what you do on the stage anymore fully, it is a lot of how you handle and guide your season online.

Yes, and that's a whole new can of worms that no one ever really had to deal with until this.

Right, there's little bits of it last season, like you saw it with Alana mar and you saw it with Stephen and Aerozak, Right, you saw that their social media campaign created a little bitz and got them further along than they might have otherwise.

This year, it's everything.

Yeah, you're right, it makes such a difference.

It's it's everything, Like you can't say you know, And I'll say this because I believe this, and I would say this in every world but Whitney Levitt was the best celebrity dancer on.

The show, agreed, se Yeah, I said it too, like.

You can't deny like Alex Earl and Robert have gotten they're close, They're very close.

They're yep.

And and we could discuss other aspects of why some of those might even be above her in different ways, but in terms of pure on the floor dance, not even close?

Correct could part that no one gets to actually understand and see what's the difference in the choreography, what is the level of choreography?

That's right?

You know, there are moves that look that are easy, and then there are moves that don't look great that are really hard.

And the professionals can see the difference, but regular eyes can't.

And you question whether, well the choreography almost so hard that they couldn't show more flair in their routines.

Right now, That's that's a lot of insight, right, But at the end of the day, you could never imagine that she doesn't make the finale, No, I know, right, So the report card is man a tough one, right, I shee as the host, I can't criticize certain things, but consistency, right, being a little all over the place in terms of scoring and numbers and theories.

Right, So the theory of judging, not the not them actually judging the theory.

Right.

Are we all being judged on the same scale or are there different scales for different people?

Right?

And I don't think I don't know the answer, right, the world doesn't know the answer.

Only the judges know that answer.

Right.

But that kind of consistency is difficult for the show.

So doing a report card, I say, execution of dance a plus, A plus plus Right, execution of the show a plus plus.

The things that Conrad Green has implemented this season with the celebrities and the host being part of the team dance, and that all of the different things bringing a past championing back to dance belong with the celebrity only mind blowing that we accomplish this and it was.

Fantastic, exactly and it was so great.

Right, like wow, you know, I think that there are some things that the show still needs to look at, elevated even further.

And I think, and I've pitched some ideas to Conrad.

I won't get into all of those things, but like things that will I think help tell the story from the beginning to the end even better.

But I got to give the show an a plus plus on this season.

It really has been a phenomenal show.

I think, I think you're all laugh at it.

But there's only one real negative so far, and that was our Rock and Roll Night, Hall of my rock and Roll Hall of Fame night judged that was kind of all over the place, right right, Those things have happened, those things have happened before, and technically it was better than the season before.

The person I heard I heard saying names for themselves, right, But I really think the show this season has been It's been absolutely phenomenal.

I think that the relationship with Julianne and I hosting the show together has grown to a really wonderful level of consistency and connection.

And I think all I think, you know, our celebrities, you and and and the others like brought so much to this season.

People have asked me, you know, why is this show so successful right now?

And I think many reasons, but one of the main reasons is obviously, we have an incredible cast and tells an incredible story and engaging and so many of you guys opened your heart up, you know, to the world.

To be vulnerable, to go through this journey, you know, purely has been amazing.

And I think that there's there's no way to script it.

There's no way to write it, to to put the pieces together, to manipulate it, right, Yeah, it just has to happen organically, and that just comes down to people really opening themselves up.

I think one of the most amazing things is to watch someone like Alex Earl, who at the very beginning was yep, there was no entrance, right, not allowed in here.

Yeah, there were a lot of walls, a lot of walls came across as.

Cold, right, but those were security right.

Correct, masks, yeah, protection, those.

Were protection for herself.

Right.

She lives in the social media world where you know one wrong word and they're coming after you, right, So those walls are up.

But to see where she's at now, yeah, it's beautiful.

I said the exact same thing.

Her journey has been maybe my favorite of the people left in the finale.

Her journey has been my favorite for exactly that reason.

And even behind the scenes, it was very similar.

You know.

It wasn't just the persona she was representing to people in the first couple of weeks was very guarded.

Behind the scenes, she was very guarded, and over the weeks there has just been a thawing and a defrosting and her personality is oozing out of her now and she it's just it's beautiful to see.

So I now why she has the followers that she has.

Yes, even though she doesn't really give them this that we've been so blessed to see.

You know, when I first met her at that party in New York, and she just came and hung out with me, she just stood with me for like almost an hour, right, But it was like, I'm not getting.

In here, Yeah, why do I what do we like?

We're talking, but I'm not I'm not getting in now.

When I have a conversation with her, I'm like, there she is, yeah, right, And those kinds of journeys are are what makes this show special.

And when people give of themselves and go through it and we get to witness it, that's that's that's TV brilliance.

Yeah, you mentioned the party in New York and I saw you there as well, and actually you told me that there was one piece of advice you give to all of the contestants when they start the show.

Are you comfortable sharing that with our audience?

Yeah.

I mean the advice that I give is literally I kind of give a lot of advice.

But you give good advice.

I sometimes say the one thing and then like the next day, I say another one thing.

Here's one thing, but there's tomorrow, there'll be another.

One thing is to truly give of yourself, yourself up, go through the journey, let people truly see who you are.

And I've always described this show as a reality show encased in a dance competition, but not a reality show that we're used to seeing.

Right, It's not the fake reality where we're going to create drama on It's true reality, where we're going to see you live on air in your most vulnerable state.

Give the audience, give of yourself, and we will be with you on that ride.

Yeah, that was the one thing that I said.

That was the thing you said.

My piece of advice is this is a reality show, and therefore you have to be your most real Yes, and and that Yeah, I mean it isn't you know?

That is the thing I loved about it is you know, in all the otfs and in the master interviews, there are prompts.

You know, they want they're trying to they're trying to weave a story.

They don't want the story to be false, but there has to be a story.

And I would regularly go, well, no, I'm not gonna say that, because that's that's not that's not resonating for me.

They sometimes hated me on my season because I was like, I ain't saying that, right, I'm not, I'm not doing that, but never coming out of my mouth right like badly do you want to win?

You want to win this?

Like I'm never saying that.

I'm not.

I'm not doing that because now I'm creating expectation, and that expectation can come off cocky, yes, come off arrogant.

That there's all kinds of layers underneath those words that I'm like, nah, I'm too smart to know about how this all works.

So I was guarded but open.

Yeah.

Right.

The other thing that I always that I said to everybody, and I didn't know whether it was going to be one of the two things, right, was when you get up to the skybox, you have this is the only moment in the show that no one has control over you, right, right, No other moment Everything in the package is edited, everything on the floor is choreographed, Every every moment of the show that you're scene is produced correct.

Yeah, that's the moment that you get to say to America, why me?

Why are you voting for me and not someone else?

This is your moment?

Yep.

And I love that.

I love that, and I love that Julianne has gotten you know, over the last couple of seasons, so good at making that connection, right, Like, I don't think in the beginning it was truly understood how important that moment was the celebrities journeys.

But now it's like she gets it, and that's why I think even it's the elevation of the show.

The show is that much better because everything has been elevated and the understanding of the importance of these moments.

And you know, the other night, like yeah, I don't you know, the judges didn't recognize it, but Jordan and Ezra had a crash in the routine where he got hit on one of the lifts and she came over to me and it's like I'm off mic at this point, like I didn't put them up to my mouth, and I'm like, are you okay?

Right, I'm seeing her eyes well up and right.

So I'm holding her hand in that moment, and those are the moments for me that I truly enjoy the most, where I'm making this human connection.

Yeah, there's a TV show happening, and we know, and it's the lights and the glamour and you know, Bruno jumping up, and you know, all of the judging and all of the theatrics.

But at the end of the day, like and I said this to every one of you guys coming in, I got you.

Yeah, I'm there with you.

My heart is connected to yours when you come to me, and I'm like, are you okay?

And she was like, and she had like a kind of but not really moment that I thought was like, wow, okay, I got you.

Whatever they say right now, whatever energy's coming, like, I'm putting my protective bubble around you, I got you.

And then they stood up and they were like, I was like, well, and I looked out in my hand.

I looked at her.

We both looked at each other and we just let go of each other's hands.

Like they just went off.

Right, It's no big deal, nothing happened.

I didn't make a face nobody even knows.

Yeah, but it's those beautiful moments for me on a personal level that is, like, I love it when I come over and I get like a moment with you guys, even if it's just a look, just like making eye contact of just saying how proud I am of what you guys have accomplished.

That's the part that makes it so special for me on a personal level.

Not the job.

Right do the job, We do the thing.

I come up with a line, I might say something funny, I might be whatever it is.

But for me, it's that moment because no one else on that stage knows that moment unlike like we all do, yes, know what it's like to stand over there and have given our heart, worked our butts off.

This is the last time we'll do that dance.

It's all it's all that work, all that work, every hour, every moment, all the pain, all the suffering that we go through to deliver that one moment, that minute and twenty seconds on that stage.

Yep, now it's done.

Yeah, nobody else can understand that moment like us.

Yep.

That's a special moment for me on a personal level that I get to share with all of our incredible celebrities like yourself every week.

Yeah, yeah, And it is a special moment because I always look forward to knowing that at the end of that dance, I get to go stand next to you and have that moment with you.

And having you stand there, you know, it's like you're with your pro partner, who's the person you have own the closest to and you trust.

I mean, assuming you have a good partnership most people do, you trust them as if they are a member of your family like you have you have learned to just totally trust them.

And then having you on the other side, I always felt like I am I am sandwiched between a fortress of goodness and so no matter what happens from this moment on, at least right here I feel good.

So thank you for making that such a safe space.

Robert has had such an incredible journey on the show, and it is no secret that he is the Veguus favorite to win his partner, Whitney, she has won her only mirror Ball with you.

What do you think makes Whitney such an amazing partner?

Well, you know we talk behind the scenes a lot, right, I am a life mentor to her in many ways, and my wife Angela is even more of a of a life mentor for her.

On a personal level, It's incredible to watch the growth of that little girl that I met twelve years ago.

Yeah, right, like she was a baby.

Wow?

Literally, yeah, how old is she?

How old is she?

Thirty?

Oh?

My gosh, thanks, thirty.

Yeah, maybe thirty two?

Wow, So she was like twenty.

Yeah she was.

She was twenty when when we when we work together, she's twenty, she's either thirty thirty one.

To see who she's become is incredible.

What I'm able to look at is her brilliance on the floor.

She's able to create weekly with her contestants.

You know, sometimes it's a battle, right for her, sometimes it's easy.

Mi low with her was the season that she should have gotten her second one.

They were incredible together, and I actually believe, and I think I'm saying something that I've never really said to her, but I believe that season broke her slightly because I believe that she put everything into that season and was still so young that to have not come home with the win created different emotions in her and a bit of separation between herself.

The pro and the show or Celebrity and the show.

Right, it's coming back, coming back with Robert, and I'm watching her give in a different way that she's done over the last several years of herself right and open up and allow people in.

This is a funny story about about who Whitney is.

She'll kill me, but it's true.

Our season, we win, We go to New York, we do GMA, we do the View, and that's it.

Right, it's over, and it's done.

There are no more obligations.

It's over.

And Whitney picks up her bag and says bye with her back to me as she's walking out the door.

Oh my gosh, I'm.

Like, hey, hey, come here.

It's like what I was like, come here.

She's like no, I'm like, Whitney.

Now we're going to have a proper goodbye.

Come here.

This is you are gonna give me a hug, You are gonna we are gonna say goodbye.

We're gonna share and have this moment.

You don't want it, I get it.

She doesn't like I don't like goodbyes.

Yeh, nope.

We are doing this and that is Whitney.

She is a ball of beautiful love.

Yeah, she's a competitor, tough young woman.

She is a go getter.

She is incredibly talented, but there's always a little nah, you're not a little out right, a little in the beginning, not letting in.

I think the Milo season kind of cemented that slowly.

I reinforced that wall a bit right and.

And I think she's recognizing we had a conversation, but I think she's recognizing that that has to go away for this to happen.

And it was beautiful to watch the difference this last week with Prince Knight sent my final week as it happened after our conversation, there was a difference and what she's able to accomplish with Robert never being a dancer, I know, I mean he's an athlete right like he is.

It was funny.

There was a video I was standing behind it when it happened of Robert and Alan burst in doing like seeing how high like the box jumps.

Right, they were doing it based on the judge's desk, and Alan would have busted his head on the desk.

Robert would have jumped up on the desk like from a like literally straight up.

His feet were well above the desk.

Oh my gosh.

She's an athlete, right, you know you wrestle in alligators and crocodiles and stuff.

You know you're going to be an athlete.

But to see his his texture start to come to life is and Whitney is the perfect person to do that.

Whitney knows how to make a coy, make a number, choreograph a number to be memorable.

Yeah, yeah, she definitely does that.

The trick that they just did this past week where she flips him over her back.

I thought it was so much fun.

I was like, that's just you know, stand up in apploud, like, yes.

They didn't show it at all on Monday, really never showed it on Monday.

Wow.

So they only did it during dress rehearsal.

They did onss rehearsal and then the show and we were like, what was that?

Oh my gosh, that's so cool.

We ain't got to show everything exactly, We've got to be prepared to do it.

And it was incredible.

It was an incredible move.

And like she barely does anything.

He just basically like.

Yeah, some resaults over her, yeah, backflips over her, whatever you want to.

I know, it's pretty incredible.

How how are you doing that so an incredible partnership.

And yeah, I think at the end of the day, I think that depending on what happens this week, mm hmmm, they're the favorites.

But I think Alex is right there.

Yeah, right there.

We'll see.

Now three hour finale going to be amazing, It really is.

It's gonna be.

It's gonna those last few minutes, as per usual, are going to be nail biers.

Yeah.

Can we talk for a minute about Team Chicago because it for me is a major life moment.

Really, that performance and the work we put into it and then pulling it off that night and all of us crashing to the floor and then standing up and celebrating like we had just won a Mirror Ball or won the Super Bowl is my I have so many favorite memories for the show, and it's not even hard for me to say that's my favorite moment, that's my favorite memory, and my favorite moment from my entire time on Dancing with the Stars.

It will be that moment that really sticks with me.

So why do you think that week and that and that group of people blended so well together.

Well, I think that a lot of it has to do with your your ability to pick the right team.

You and Dylan coming up with that.

You know, I saw your your podcast on that one and like devising a plan on how you're going to get these members together.

Yeah, was brilliant because really that was the right group.

Yeah right, everybody in that group was going to work well together.

Right, And I'll go into the whys.

Obviously Danielle and Pasha, right, so you guys are a foursome that were together, and and so that team had to be together, right.

So obviously Ezra and Jordan, Whitney and Mark were the outliers in that.

But Daniella and Pasha used to take from Mark's mom, Yep, they know each other incredibly well.

Right, Jordan and and Ezra were kind of the outliers, right.

But the beauty of having Ezra was Ezra was actually had great ideas but never had the wait a minute, I believe the seniority thing, the competitive He just would be like what about and everybody would go, that's even better, that's good.

And so what what was great about our group?

And this I think really brings it down to the core, is there's a there's a improv thing that people do.

If you do improv.

One thing that you have to do in improv, and that is yes.

And and our group was yes.

And all the time.

It was never no, but ye.

And that brought everyone together.

They felt like their voices were heard, even if it wasn't what was chosen.

It was always about improving for the team.

You can't ever understand from the outside how important teamwork is when you're trying to accomplish something as a group.

Yep.

And and I'd heard stories from the other group that that was not the case, that there was a lot of well, I think it should go like this, and I think it should go like that.

And we were working together and we were always improving.

Can I tell the audience something that happened with you that that I think is a beautiful thing.

So obviously the whole week it was great.

We get to the video is playing, we're.

On site before we're about right before.

We're ready to go, right, and it's a minute and a half, right, and we go over the celebrity only section, right, and you were struggling.

I called it a meltdown.

I did.

I talked about it on my I did.

I called it a melt down.

I had a foo blown melt down.

I was like, it was a full, full moment of oh my gosh, this is I can't.

I don't have it, and I will.

And you no longer were breathing.

I was like shaking, right, and you were shaking, and this was the most beautiful thing I have seen in all my time on the show.

MARKRK turning to you, who's not your partner, no right, turning to you, looked you in the eye and said, breathe, yeah, breathe, take a breath.

And you couldn't get your breath.

You couldn't just breathe, just breathe.

And he put his hands on my shoulders and he grabbed me into a tight hug.

And hugged you.

And when he hugged you, I was standing behind you, right, and I watched your body melt into his body like full, you're right too, I will do my best.

I will try to give in here, stop the demon from running.

Correct, And you melted into his body and you and you took a breath, your body melted, your hands stopped shaking, and he was like, you got this, You've got this.

Just breathe into it.

Relax, We've got you.

We're here.

And I walked around to you and I looked you and I said, we got this.

And then you guys separated and we did it one more time.

I think there was like fifteen seconds left on the top right, and you did it.

You did it perfect, right.

We got in two hour circle, the music started, you're supposed to You're right behind me when we started, and like it was like because we were counting out our eight so you were in the third count of eight and I turned around and I said to you.

I looked in your eye and I went and I smiled and you smiled back.

We got this and yeah, yeah, and then we went out it and we did it.

Killed it, I mean killed it.

It was literally there was nothing looking back at it.

There was nothing that I could find.

No I would go it should be this, or it could be It was perfect and it was the most beautiful moment of taking where we were from the beginning, yes, right walking in there as a team, figuring it out the pros, having an idea, but like working through it after the first day, feeling like we only got halfway through this and we only got one more rehearsal, how are we even going to do this to that moment was one of my greatest moments on this show from my season and any other season.

Was really seeing that moment and I even just like I said it to Mark later that next week, and I was like, that was the most beautiful thing.

Yeah, we really we really cared for one another so much that it was like, what do we need to do for all of us to be together and succeed?

Yeah, it was beautiful.

I have that is why that That's why that dance, that's why that week of it's very easy for me to go favorite moment.

I know exactly what it is.

I know exactly what it is, and it's because of all of those it's because of all of those things that like, no one would ever know that no and no one would ever know or even imagine how much we put into every second that we are out there.

It is truly a complete giving of yourself.

And and you know, if you think about thirty four seasons of this show, if we were to we could figure it out easily.

How many people in total have done the show.

Let's say it's a thousand, whatever fight a thousand people.

Do you know how small it is to have a thousand people who truly know what this experience means.

And I would say a lot less than that because most don't ever get to that point in the show.

You're right, most are you know, a lot of them are gone.

Whoever's gone week one, we do.

Right to all of those you got thirty four.

Weeks gone right, right, And.

More than likely the first three or four never really get to that place of full connection and they're starting to like go from I'm absolutely terrified walk on the floor to let's go perform this.

Yeah, you know what I mean.

And so it's a very small number of people that really get to understand and feel what this journey, this experience.

Really Yeah, yeah, you're right.

I want to talk to you.

You mentioned it a little bit, and I want to talk to you about some of the judging because I think if it would be remiss for us to not touch on the idea that and maybe it's especially after this last week, it feels like maybe all three judges have a totally different approach to their job.

And in a lot of ways, that's great.

Who wants three of the same person up there?

You want three different approaches.

But with that said, when you've got different approaches, sometimes that means there can be some tension.

Yeah, what is your overall I know you said you had made you have some thoughts and some suggestions.

You don't have to tell us your ideas that you've pitched to Conrad, But what do you think about how difficult it is to explain how and why you are giving a score that you are giving week to week, person to person, and how is there a way to make it a little more straightforward for the audience to understand it?

Well, I think that's a very difficult question.

Yeah, first I would say, you know, I've guess judged on the show.

I've done it several times on Strictly Come Dancing, which is the UK the parent of the original show, and judging is incredibly hard.

The reasons why it's hard is because you're you're having to try to come up with something to say to starting with fourteen contestants for weeks and now add thirty four seasons for Bruno and Carrie, how do you stay fresh?

How do you stay relevant?

How do you stay sometimes self important?

And that is that creates a really difficult thing for each one of them.

When Len was on the show, everyone understood their roles right it was very clear, right.

Len was the technique right stickler, right, Carrie Anne was the emotion right judge, and Bruno was the show right.

So it's very clear with Len being gone, no one has filled that role.

So because that role is not being filled now, it's kind of everywhere everyone feels as if they need to cover the Len, but no one's doing Len.

Right.

Yeah, that, but they're all kind of but not.

And so there have been inconsistencies because on one hand, you're saying, oh, I love the story, but I'm giving it a seven because you had a hop or you had a and you're like, well, wait a minute, then why are you telling me it's the problem, isn't the scores?

The problem for me would be the explanation because now this is the bigger view we have social media, and social media is creating a difficulty for them to express themselves because they're getting hammered on social media.

Yeah right, So now no one wants to actually say they're trying to They're trying to say it, but not say it because they don't want to get killed in social media, and that to me is the problem.

Every one of those judges have a right to decide what they want to give and what they want to say.

That's their right, that's their job, whether we agree with it or disagree with it.

Plenty of times I'm like, what you know, what are you talking about?

Like, I don't know what you saw, but I saw.

But that's why.

That's why they're people and not mission right, and that is it is what it is.

And a lot of us could sit there and say that we would be better at it, or some people can say that be better at it and do this.

I guarantee you after two shows, you'd be really a lot of people be real quick to be like, I'm.

Good, I'm good, I'm good.

I don't want this job.

I want this job.

I agree with you.

It's it's the job that only brings hate.

Right.

No one sits there and says, we love.

You, we love you so much.

Yeah, I told this person that you didn't like their full week of work.

Right, So it's a thankless job.

I call it parenting.

Right.

It's just no one tells you that you're a good parent.

You just happen to find out later when they're adults, right, whether they go off and do something special.

Yeah, So to me, it's there are I think there are ways to create growth so that you can show the growth of contestants, but there's also a way for the show to explain what they're judging the world of Dan's tried to do it and it was way too complicated.

They have like it was, yes, it was like what is this right, Like, just give us a score.

The biggest problem is, in my opinion, is we start on week one and someone gets eights.

I know, right, yeah now, but.

Let me backtrack for a seconds.

The problem is is that it's not about the journey.

It's actually not about the journey.

It's eleven individual weeks.

Yes, now Robert has done the jive three times, so that's a little creek.

But when you do that routine, you're not doing it again, right right, So yes, it's possible that you on week one could actually deliver a.

Ten exactly, and then the next week you might get a six.

Absolutely, you can do the jive week one and get a ten, and then do week two and do the do the samba and be horrible.

Or you could do a fox trot and you have no rise and fall and you're fish and you got heal leads when it's total leads in it, or it's the other way around, but right like, it's there.

You can you can go up and down and that's okay, but no one is explaining that.

I know, no one is saying that, and everybody thinks of it as the arc of a season, and.

Yeah, yeah, and I mean I know I felt it because I you know, I would sometimes see dances and the one dance would be seven seven seven, and then another dance would be eight eight eight, and I'd go, wait, are you telling me that those two dances are only three points apart?

How?

How could that be right?

And so in that would be that well, because really that one shouldn't have been a seven, it should have been something else.

But because the week before, for it was a seven seven seven, there's nowhere to go, but there is somewhere to go.

But that isn't what we're used to seeing as the audience, and maybe it's not what the judges are used to doing.

So there is a feeling that you cannot go backwards, right, But like you said that that isn't true.

And I do think although painful for maybe the fan base and the celebrity to go wow, it really hurts to get nine to nine to nine, and then the following week see six sixty six.

But they are individual dances.

You would walk away from that and go, you know what, the the Argentine tangos not for me with the three sixes, but I love the one where I got the three nines.

And that's just how it is.

Some were cut out for some dances more than others.

That's okay, but that is unfortunately that is an emotional Yeah, and the audience will literally kill the judges.

Yeah, if they did that.

So now we're in this very difficult arena of what do they do, what.

Can they do?

What should they do?

Right?

Right?

Well, they're doing the best they can, yep, exactly, and they will forever be criticized.

Because that is the job.

Yeah, that's the job.

Yeah, And so you know, I think it's been interesting to watch on social media people doing their own judging and you know, but it's been quite interesting to watch that.

But you always have to remember, as I started this interview, it's a reality show exactly in case in a dance competition, and so the reality show still has to exist.

It has to be a human experience and you have judges, like I remember Len would sometimes he'd be in a good mood and something would tick him off, and Len was not going to give anybody more a four, right, And you'd be like that one no four gave last week you gave a six four and it was first and the last week better.

And it would be like, I'm in a bad mood than I can right, all right, all right, you know what I mean.

That's a reality TV show.

If you want something other than that, go to a ballroom competition, you know.

Absolutely, And that's what this is.

And and by the way, it's the best that anyone has ever done it.

You're exactly right, exactly right.

It is so well done, it's it's the.

Best Conrad Green coming back to this show understanding what the core of this show is but still being able to bring it into this new generation and this new the show has been phenomenal and he's truly one of the best execs I've ever had a chance to work with.

But brilliant, brilliant and knows this show.

He's done an incredible job of developing this into into the number one show on TV.

The ratings this week was through the roof, through the one.

That's amazing.

It's amazing.

Yeah.

My final question for you, and I know you get asked this all the time, but with all the new online discourse, I think it's worth asking again, who is one celebrity you would love to see on the show?

You never know you may run into them at Disneyland.

Well, you know, that's such a hard thing because I recognize the reality of where the celebrities are at point doing the show, right, Like, there's been such a change in what is a celebrity uh huh days, you know, getting you know, getting that a list movie star that you see people you know this would be my dream partnerships, and you go, that person ain't doing this.

Tom Cruise is not going to do Dancing with the Stars.

I don't know.

I don't know what you're thinking.

Yeah, I mess around and say, will Smith stud do it?

Do it as lessons real?

Right, So it's been really difficult.

I think Dina has such a hard job, especially thirty four seasons in.

I have said Jennifer love Hewett.

Oh you know I just ran into her.

I ran into her at Halloween Fest and she was watching and she was a fan.

I think that's a possibility.

Well, the problem is she's her show is still going at the same time, so I know it until that show ends, and we never want shows to end.

So exactly, she can't do it for a while.

You know, we're looking at many seasons down the road.

Yeah, I think she'd be fun.

I think she'd be fun to do.

I think people the nostalgia, the talent, the joy.

She is a fan.

I've mentioned it to her in person.

Good.

I think she'd be really fun to do.

That's a great answer.

I think you're absolutely right.

She would be fantastic for the show.

Yeah, yeah, and then and then, I you know, I keep working hard on getting Ava's godfather to come do the show, which is Steve Young, oh forty nine or quarterback.

So I keep working on, yeah, saying all right, next year, next year, next year, next year, next next, next year.

We're gonna next year.

This has been four years now, so so when he watches this, we gotta put I gotta put him put him on, put him out there again.

Well, I I just sat behind Justin Turner at the last week's taping, and I am friendly with Justin and his wife Courtney, and I think he would be an incredible booking, a great get.

Yeah, absolutely, Alfonso, thank you so much for taking the time I talk.

I could talk to you forever, honestly, I I so enjoy your perspective.

I just think you're one of the most lovely, smart, uh driven, considerate, wonderful people.

I mean, you're such a family man.

There's I could say so many wonderful things about you, and I hope everyone knows.

I think they do.

You're also one of the most inspiring individuals in career wise that I have ever met, and I so admire you.

I look up to you.

I hope to do a fraction of the things that you have done.

So thank you for being here with me today, and I will I'll see you next week for the finale.

Finale, the finale.

We're here.

Those incredibly kind words.

Obviously, we've known each other for decades, long time.

Yeah, and it was it was such amazing.

It's so amazing to have you on the show.

And I'm so happy that we ran into each other at Disneyland.

Me too.

I think this happened because you brought a lot of joy to a lot of people this season and it was very special.

Thank you, Alfonso, so good to see you.

I'll see you in a couple of days.

A couple days.

Danielle with the Stars Produced and hosted by Danielle Fischl.

Executive Producers Jensen Carpenemy Sugarman Executive in charge of production, Danielle Romo, Producer, editor and engineer Tara Sudbasch.

Theme song by Justin Siegel.

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