‘Dancing With the Stars’ Pro Teases Return to Show for Season 35

Dancing With the Stars fans may have to wait until September to learn which dancers and celebrities will compete in Season 35, but one pro just teased their possible return to the series.

After competing on Dancing With the Stars Juniors back in 2018, Rylee Arnold became a DWTS pro during Season 32 in 2023, competing with reality star Harry Jowsey. Arnold went on to compete with Olympic gymnast Stephen Nedoroscik in Season 33 in 2024 and Pentatonix singer Scott Hoying in Season 34 last year.

In a Tuesday, July 28, Instagram post, Arnold hinted that she will return for her fourth season as a DWTS pro in Season 35 later this year. “Date night to celebrate starting long distance again,” she wrote over a video of herself and her boyfriend, Walker Lyons. In the post’s caption, she added, “I’m so very grateful for him and for what these next few months look like for us both.”

Many fans interpreted Arnold’s post as confirmation of her DWTS return, as the show films in Los Angeles and Lyons plays collegiate football for Brigham Young University in Utah. “I feel like some of the pros are giving hints for the new dwts season haha,” one user commented underneath the upload. Another added, “Hope this means you’re a pro.”

 

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Someone else shared, “Im picking up on the ‘next few months’ part of the caption and connecting it to you being back as a pro.” A different person posted, “Really shocked pros are even allowed to say anything this early on. normally they should be keeping this a secret so no one finds out until closer to the show.”

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One person expressed their desire to see Arnold partnered with Savannah Bananas baseball player Jackson Olson for Season 35, writing, “Hope this means you’re back as a pro and have jackson as your partner.”

While Arnold’s DWTS future is yet to be confirmed, she is set to appear alongside several past and present pros and contestants at the first-ever DWTS fan convention, DWTS Con, later this month.

Rumors about Arnold’s DWTS return come several months after reports spread online that she and Season 34 pro Jan Ravnik were at risk of being cut from the show’s pro lineup and were instructed to up their game with teaching their respective celebrity partners.

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“I definitely feel pressure. I think every single dance, I’m like, ‘This has to be good,’ and I feel like I have to present myself,” Arnold said on a November 2025 episode of Julianne Hough‘s The Morning After (Show) podcast. “There’s been a lot of just things this year, people saying that I’m not coming back next season, and I’m not gonna be asked back, or people saying that I don’t know how to teach or I don’t know how to do these things. I think I’m trying to just understand that that’s just noise.”

At the time, Arnold also noted that she and her fellow DWTS pros don’t know if they will be asked back for another season until a few months before production begins. “I would absolutely love to do another season, if not a bunch of more seasons in my life, if they want me there,” she told Hough. “And so, I think hearing that noise from sources that probably aren’t even true is super, super hard and was super hard on me this season.”

Dancing With the Stars, Season 35 Premiere, Tuesday, September 15, 8/7c, ABC