Robert Irwin and Mark Ballas Preview What to Expect From "Dancing With the Stars: The Next Pro"

Robert Irwin and Mark Ballas are excited to put the focus of the new Dancing with the Stars spinoff on what it takes to be a pro... and to do it in Australia!

What's Happening:

• As announced last month, a new summer spinoff of Dancing With the Stars, Dancing with the Stars: The Next Pro, will be debuting in July and now the show's host and one of its judges are previewing what to expect.
• EW.com spoke to Robert Irwin and Mark Ballas about The Next Pro, which will focus on 12 young ballroom dancers competing to be one of the professional dancers on original recipe Dancing with the Stars.
• Irwin, who won Dancing with the Stars Season 34, will serve as host, with the show filming in his native Australia.
• Irwin tells EW, "We needed a place where 12 incredible dancers, 12 of the best dancers on earth, the biggest and brightest, up-and-comers [could] come together to all live together, to train together, to really create talent that's forged in the fire of adrenaline — the excitement, and the highs and lows of what dancing is all about. What better place to do that than Australia?"
• He continued, "To take people out of their element, out of America, to take people all into one place where they can all really have this immersive experience, where they're completely disconnected from reality... and are just in this bubble, in this world of pure dance."

• Longtime DWTS pro Ballas meanwhile says he likes that The Next Pro can go more behind the scenes, explaining, "I don't think we always see the grit, the determination, the challenges of what it is to be a pro. It's one thing to be a great dancer, a great executor of choreography. But to be a pro on the show, there's a lot of things you have to do between creativity, choreography, being a friend, being a mentor and staying on a schedule, pivoting on a dime."
• Ballas will be joined on the judging panel by his own mother, acclaimed dancer Shirley Ballas, along with a third slot for rotating guest judges.
• Ballas tells EW, of working with his mom, "To be alongside my mother, who is one of the elite in her field, and has been for the last 50 years, is a pleasure. I always say, my whole time on Dancing With the Stars, whenever I wanted a really brutal, straightforward, honest opinion on, like, 'How was this dance? Was this fair?'... It's my mom that I call. Just because she's my mother first and foremost, at the end of the day, she's the best at what she does for a reason. She doesn't sugarcoat or any of that."
• You can read more in EW's full report about the new spinoff.
• Dancing With the Stars: The Next Pro debuts Monday, July 13 at 8:00pm ET/PT on ABC, with episodes available on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+ the following day.