Dancing with the Stars’ 33rd season has kicked off on the 2024 TV schedule, and after last week’s double elimination, there’s already plenty of drama to be had. Anna Delvey ruffled some feathers by saying she would take “nothing” away from her short time in the competition, and there are already rumors of a showmance between model Brooks Nader and her pro partner Gleb Savchenko. One contestant who’s looking to stay far away from any such conjecture is former Bachelor Joey Graziadei, and he apparently made a specific request to that end before joining the show, which I had no idea you could do.
Joey Graziadei, who got engaged to Kelsey Anderson on The Bachelor Season 28, has been paired this season on Dancing with the Stars with Jenna Johnson. Johnson’s husband Val Chmerkovskiy, meanwhile, is also on this season, dancing with Phaedra Parks. It turns out the pairing is no coincidence, either, as Graziadei told The Ben and Ashley I Almost Famous Podcast he was hoping to avoid any rumors of a showmance. He said:
It was something I thought about coming in. I wanted to be in a situation where I was comfortable that I didn’t have to worry about a lot of this noise. So, I asked when I got on the show to be paired with someone that was in a successful and healthy relationship.
Maybe I’ve just been watching The Bachelor for too long, but it seems preposterous that you’d be allowed to request a partner in order to generate LESS drama. I figured when they paired the couples up, they looked at things like height, but I hadn't given much thought into how much potential chemistry goes into it. You want the dance partners to get along, but in some cases not THAT well, am I right?
I give so much credit to Joey Graziadei for thinking about that and taking action to protect his relationship, because it’s easy to forget he and Kelsey Anderson have only been public for about six months. Dancing with the Stars is infamously difficult, and showmance rumors are all but inevitable, which Graziadei knows. He continued:
I didn’t want there to be any chance of noise on this because I know that comes with the show and the territory sometimes. [I am in] such a great place in my life with everything that Kelsey and I have built that I didn’t want to have a distraction.
As honorable as it was to request being paired with someone in a healthy relationship, the rumor mill is strong and unrelenting. Despite Jenna Johnson and Val Chmerkovskiy being together for nearly 10 years and welcoming a baby boy in January 2023, Kelsey Anderson still received messages from fans who said Johnson shouldn’t be touching her man like that. Anderson responded to point out that it’s literally Johnson’s job to dance with Graziadei, which does require them to touch.
All involved hope that the showmance chatter is behind them, and they might be in luck, as eyes have turned to Joey Graziadei’s fellow Bachelor Nation alum Jenn Tran. The Season 21 Bachelorette has been super flirty with pro Sasha Farber on social media, and the couple have played it coy when it comes to defining their partnership. After Tran’s brutal season finale, one can only hope for good things to come her way, be that on DWTS or after.
Tune in to see how these celebrities’ skills and partnerships continue to develop, with new episodes airing at 8 p.m. ET Tuesdays on ABC and with a Disney+ subscription. Episodes are also available the next day with a Hulu subscription.