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'Dancing With The Stars' Season 27 Will Be Well Worth The Wait

by Zakiya Jamal

With Dancing with the Stars: Athletes coming to an end, it's no surprise that fans of the popular reality competition are already wondering what's next. Thankfully, Dancing with the Stars has already been renewed for another season so the only question now is, when does Dancing with the Stars Season 27 premiere?

Although the series was renewed back in March, there hasn't been an official premiere date set yet for the next season, but ABC has confirmed that the series will continue to air during its regular Monday night airtime of 8 p.m. EST. Along with the return of DWTS this fall, fans also have a new series to look forward to! For the first time ever there will also be a Dancing with the Stars: Junior competition series airing this fall on Sundays.

However, there hasn't been a lot of info revealed about the the new series, what it will look like, or potential competitors. In the past, there have already been a number of younger competitors on DWTS, like Zendaya, Sadie Robertson, Bindi Irwin, and Laurie Hernandez, who were all just 16 years old when they competed, and Willow Shields, who was only 14 years old. So many fans are wondering if the competitors on DWTS: Junior will be even younger, or if it means that teens will no longer compete on DWTS and only appear on the junior edition moving forward? Additionally, who will judge the new series? So many questions!

Although there are still a lot of questions surrounding DWTS: Junior, most fans are excited for what the new show will bring as well as the new season of DWTS. Many fans are also hoping for another athletes-only edition of the show as well.

Dancing with the Stars: Athletes has arguably been the most competitive season of the series to date, which shouldn't be surprising since athletes are, in general, competitive. Although the season was condensed and went by way too fast, fans loved every moment of the competition and the show stirred a lot of buzz -- not just because of the dancing, but also because there was a bit of a controversy towards the end of the season.

Softball player Jennie Finch-Daigle refused to dance to "Make Me Feel" by Janelle Monae because she felt the song was too "risque," and went against her Christian values. The song, which is a huge hit for Janelle Monae, has been hailed as a bisexual anthem. Ultimately, Finch-Daigle asked the producers for a new song, something that had never happened on the show before, and the duo had to rework their whole dance with a brand new song. Though they still made it to the semi-finals, they were then voted off the following week.

Now the final three are Olympic ice skaters, Adam Rippon and Tonya Harding, and NFL player Josh Norman. Rippon is the projected winner for the season, but I wouldn't count Harding and Norman out. All three of these competitors have had incredible dance numbers over the course of the season, and there's a good reason why they've all made it this far. They are all incredibly talented and all three of them are hoping to walk away with the Mirrorball trophy.

Unfortunately, at the end of the day, the winner really just comes down to who has the biggest fan base. Viewers get to vote for the winner and, as has been seen in seasons past, sometimes it's not the best dancer who wins but the one who has the most fans. Still, it's fair to say that Rippon, Harding, and Norman are all incredible and any one of them would deserve to win the Mirrorball trophy.

To see who wins it all on Dancing with the Stars, tune in for the live finale on Monday night at 8 p.m. EST on ABC.