“Dancing With the Stars” has boomed within the last several years with a rise in Gen Z viewership and social engagements. Katz admitted that this show was a much “more thorough” audition process than any of the professional dancers on the show went through. “Our professional dancers are a coach, a mentor, a choreographer, a big brother, a therapist,” she said. Just one week before the premiere of the spinoff series, “Dancing With the Stars” received its first primetime Emmy nomination in over a decade. (Katz said “The Next Pro” host and Season 34 mirrorball champ Robert Irwin broke the news to her).