Conner Leavitt, star of Hulu reality series The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, will compete on the 35th season of ABC's Dancing With the Stars.
The 32-year-old joins the dance competition nearly a year after his wife, Whitney Leavitt, finished in sixth place on the same show. E! News reached out to ABC regarding the casting but did not receive an immediate response.
Leavitt will compete for the Mirrorball Trophy against a cast that includes Summer House star Ciara Miller, Love Island contestant Maura Higgins, Jimmy Kimmel Live! personality Guillermo Rodriguez and Jackson Olson of the Savannah Bananas baseball team.
Tyler Cameron from the Bachelor franchise and actress Jenna Dewan have also joined the cast, according to reports.
Conner and Whitney, who share three children, recently announced that the upcoming fifth season of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives will be their last. Sedona is 6, Liam is 4, and Billy is 22 months old.
The couple have been working on stage projects. Whitney, 33, recently starred as Roxie Hart in Chicago on Broadway, which broke box office records.
Conner made his off-Broadway debut in May in the dance production 11 to Midnight for a three-week run.
Mormon Wives drama
The new season of the Hulu show was abbreviated due to legal issues involving co-star Tayor Frankie Paul, Conner said on the Just Trish podcast on June 25.
"They've cut the season short, five episodes only," he said. "So, they're having everyone go back to basically do interviews, wrap up a couple of things."
"And I think that'll be a very abbreviated season considering all the things that happened publicly," he added.
Whitney said the couple want to distance themselves from the conflict.
"We've removed ourselves so far from it, like even physically," she said, "that I feel like it hasn't affected us as much as it may have other cast members."
Dancing With the Stars salaries
Dancing With the Stars contestants make $125,000 for the rehearsal period and first two weeks, and earn more each subsequent week up to a maximum of $295,000, Variety reported in 2019. ABC has not publicly confirmed the figures.
Bobby Bones said he made more when he won season 27 with Sharna Burgess in 2018. He said on a September 2025 episode of Jason Tartick's Trading Secrets podcast that he received a base salary of around $110,000 and ended up making close to $400,000.
"That show pays OK," Bones said. "Like, first episode, no money. Second episode, $10,000."
"I think it's like, $10,000, $10,000, $20,000, $20,000. It ends up being $50,000 an episode if you last," he added.
Professional dancers on the show also earn more the longer they stay, though little has been shared publicly about their pay. Jenna Johnson, who won season 26 with Adam Rippon and season 33 with Joey Graziadei, said pros are guaranteed pay for a certain number of weeks.
"I think there's different contracts though," Johnson said on a June 2025 episode of Kelly Stafford and Hank Winchester's podcast The Morning After. "I can't speak for everybody."
Pros do not get a larger paycheck for winning the Len Goodman Mirrorball Trophy, but they do get a bonus for reaching the finale.
"If you make it all the way to the end, you're getting paid the whole season, which is amazing, and you get a bonus on top of that for making it to the finale," Johnson said. "If you win, it's not like you win a $1 million and split it with your partner. You're just getting a cute trophy together."
Troupe members appear to earn less than pros. Lindsay Arnold said on a 2022 episode of Trading Secrets that her salary was cut more than in half when she was demoted from pro to troupe member.
How partners are paired
The professional dancers get little input when it comes to being matched with a celebrity.
"You get no say," Arnold said on Maggie Sellers' Hot Smart Rich podcast in May 2025. "It's very much just, 'Here's your partner. Make it work.'"
Johnson said the pairing is kept secret until the first meeting. They are not told who is in the cast and producers want a genuine reaction when they walk in.
"They really want to keep it a secret until you meet them live," Johnson said on The Morning After. "They want that genuine reaction."
"So I think people always think we know who we have and we're keeping it a secret. Absolutely not. They do not tell us," she added.
"They really don't even want us to know the cast. It gets leaked a lot, but they want it very hush-hush until you walk in and meet your partner," Johnson said.
"It's based on height, build and personality and compatibility," former showrunner Rob Wade told E! News in 2015.
"We don't pair people who aren't going to get on. It's too intense," he said. "It's not like The Bachelor or something, we couldn't do that. That would just be miserable experience for the celebrity, for us and the viewer."
"You don't want to see two people who don't like each other and, quite frankly, we have made that mistake pairing people up who didn't get on so well," Wade added.
Rehearsals and costumes
Rehearsals for the show run for four hours every day. Rylee Arnold, who partnered with Olympic gymnast Stephen Nedoroscik on season 33, said on the Lightweights Podcast With Joe Vulpis in September 2024 that the work does not stop when rehearsal wraps.
"It's either 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. or 5:00 p.m to 9:00 p.m.," she said. She added that she might then meet with producers, work on choreography or study dance videos.
"Literally my whole life is devoted to it, but it's my passion and it's what I love," she said. "So, it makes me so happy."
Show day is on Tuesday, followed by straight rehearsals from Wednesday to Sunday, and camera blocking on Monday, Arnold said.
Pros mostly choose the songs for their dances each week, though it is a collaboration with producers, Emma Slater and Britt Stewart said in an Instagram video in September 2025.
The costume department has a maximum of five days to make all the outfits, costume designer Daniela Gschwendtner told TV Insider in 2017.
"We meet with the set and lighting designers, dancers and talent and create a story," she said. "Then we sketch out ideas."
"We have five days, max, to make all the outfits. That's half a day per costume, not including all the rhinestones," she said. "The fitting and trimming we do later."
"We have about 20 people in our department and then we have a separate tailor shop. It's a big enterprise," Gschwendtner said.
Pairs usually try on their costumes for the first time just hours before showtime, costume designer Steven Norman Lee said. Everything is generally made custom each week, though they might reuse a pair of pants for the male dancers.
"We do reuse things for group numbers or promo shoots, but not for the competition," Gschwendtner said. "We don't reuse things unless there's a specific reason to do so. We try to keep everybody fresh and new in something different every week, so it stays interesting."
