The Dancing with the Stars ballroom is getting ready for a celebration.
In Week 9 of the competition, the seven remaining couples will take part in a special episode: Dancing with the Stars
’ 20th Birthday Party.
The show will honor two decades of the beloved reality competition series, which first premiered on June 1, 2005. Former host Tom Bergeron will return as a guest judge, while six original pros from the debut season — including Alec Mazo, Ashly DelGrosso, Louis van Amstel, Jonathan Roberts, Charlotte Jorgensen and Edyta Śliwińska — will join the opening dance.
What’s more: six former Mirrorball champions will return to the ballroom as they perform in the Relay Dance round with the current contestants. However, Whitney Leavitt, who earned immunity from the challenge after topping the leaderboard last week with her partner, Mark Ballas, will not be participating.
Here’s everything to know about Dancing with the Stars 20th Birthday Party Night, including the songs, dances and the former champions each contestant will partner with.
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Dancing with the Stars/Instagram
Jordan Chiles and Ezra Sosa.
Olympic gymnast Jordan Chiles and her partner, Ezra Sosa, will perform a cha cha to “Get Up” by Ciara featuring Chamillionaire. The routine will be inspired by Wayne Brady and pro Witney Carson’s season 31 freestyle.
Chiles will return to the dance floor for the Relay Dance round, where she will dance with season 4 winner (and fellow Olympian!) Apolo Anton Ohno.
“Please welcome our new member to US8!!! Apolo Ohno!!! #dwts,” Chiles wrote on a TikTok video of her, Sosa and Ohno.
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Dancing with the Stars/Instagram
Robert Irwin and Witney Carson.
Wildlife conservationist Robert Irwin and Carson will dance a foxtrot to “Footprints in the Sand” by Leona Lewis, a song that his sister, season 21 Mirrorball champ Bindi Irwin, performed to with her partner, Derek Hough.
Amid rehearsals, Irwin shared in a TikTok video that performing a dance inspired by his sister’s routine is going to be “really special.”
“She’s such a big reason as to why I’m here doing this,” he said. “It’s been great to get her advice. … she really just has so many amazing gems of wisdom.”
Irwin will partner with season 32 champ Xochitl Gomez for the Relay Dance round.
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Dancing with the Stars/Instagram
Mark Ballas and Whitney Leavitt.
The
Leavitt will not participate in the Relay Dance round, because she and Ballas were on top of the leaderboard last week and are immune from that portion of the competition.
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Dancing with the Stars/Instagram
Daniella Karagach and Dylan Efron.
The Traitors winner Dylan Efron and his pro partner, Daniella Karagach, will perform an Argentine tango to the late Bill Withers’ “Ain’t No Sunshine,” inspired by Milo Manheim and Carson’s season 27 freestyle.
For the Relay Dance round, Efron will be partnered with season 20 champion Rumer Willis.
Prior to the episode, Willis wrote on Instagram that she was “beyond thrilled to be back in my favorite ballroom” and that Efron and Karagach “have been a delight to hang and dance with so far.”
She added, “And getting to watch first hand as Dylan is stepping into this new role as leading man and leading me around the dance floor like a pro is awesome.”
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Dancing with the Stars/Instagram
Alix Earle and Val Chmerkovskiy.
Social media star Alix Earle and her pro partner, Chmerkovskiy, will dance a foxtrot to “Singin’ in the Rain” by Matthew Morrison. The routine will be inspired by the freestyle performed by Nev Schulman and pro Jenna Johnson — Chmerkovskiy’s wife — during season 29.
For the Relay Dance round, Earle will dance with the most recent Mirrorball winner, season 33 champion Joey Graziadei.
Ahead of the episode, Earle shared on TikTok that she was busy in the studio trying to “perfect a foxtrot,” adding that she, Graziadei and Chmerkovskiy are the “dream team.”
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Dancing with the Stars/Instagram
Alan Bersten and Elaine Hendrix.
The Parent Trap alum Elaine Hendrix and pro Alan Bersten will perform a salsa to “It Takes Two” by Rob Base & DJ EZ Rock. The routine follows Mario Lopez and pro Karina Smirnoff’s season 3 freestyle dance to the hit.
She will be partnering with season 24 champ Rashad Jennings for the Relay Dance round.
“Oh we’re here and we’re ready!!” Bersten captioned a TikTok video of the trio in the rehearsal studio.
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Dancing with the Stars/Instagram
Andy Richter and Emma Slater.
Comedian Andy Richter and pro Emma Slater will dance a quickstep to Robbie Williams’ “Puttin’ on the Ritz.” The routine will be inspired by the season 25 freestyle to the classic song performed by Jordan Fisher and Lindsay Arnold.
Richter and season 29 winner Kaitlyn Bristowe will dance together for the Relay Dance round.
“QUEEN ALERT! Our relay mirrorball champion this week is not [sic] other than @kaitlynbristowe!!!!” Slater wrote on Instagram. “I know I’ll be so proud watching them. Seriously can’t wait for this dance!”
Patricia Altschul has immortalized her longtime butler and fan-favorite, Michael Kelcourse, in her new memoir. The “Southern Charm” matriarch said that dedicating part of her book, “Eat, Drink, and Remarry: Memories from a Lifetime of Art, Class, and Southern Charm,” to him was an easy decision. “He was a family member,” Altschul said.
In Altschul’s new memoir, she details her 18-year friendship with Michael, who died in October 2024 after suffering a rare spinal stroke in 2021.
“He was the consummate professional, but we also felt like he was a member of our family,” she told Us Weekly. “He lived here and was with us practically every day. Even on his days off, he’d come over to make dinner or play with the dogs.”
“He deserved to be memorialized, and I wanted to do that,” Altschul said. “He was with me 18 years. 18 years is a long time.”
Altschul hired Kelcourse in 2004 after the death of his former employer, an “ancient dowager who maintained an enormous estate” in New York. “We met, and I liked everything about him,” she recalled. He quickly became a fixture in her Charleston mansion and later a fan favorite on “Southern Charm.”
“Michael became the resident expert on cocktails and everything domestic,” she wrote. “So many fans wrote to him for advice that we had to add an ‘Ask Michael’ button to my website.”
Altschul made it clear her relationship with Kelcourse was purely professional. “Did I ever have a romantic relationship with Michael? No … God, no,” she wrote. “The relationship between an employer and a butler is completely professional and built on trust and mutual respect. Period.”
In her book, she described the morning Kelcourse suffered his stroke. “As he fell to the floor, he pulled the phone down with him and pressed the ‘All page’ button. ‘Call an ambulance,’ he said into the speaker. ‘I’m having a stroke.’” Altschul’s son, “Southern Charm” creator Whitney Sudler-Smith, “raced” to Michael’s room and stayed with him until help arrived.
Kelcourse later moved to a long-term care facility in Florida to be near family. “Wonderful, dedicated, kind, and exceptional—these were the words people used to describe Michael,” Altschul wrote. “He was all that and so much more.”
“Eat, Drink, and Remarry” is available wherever books are sold.
Patricia Altschul returns in new episodes of “Southern Charm,” November 19 on Bravo.