Why The New Season Of 'Dancing With The Stars' Is So Short

Fans of "Dancing With the Stars" who feel like they waited a little longer than usual for the show's return this year aren't wrong, as the series was pushed back when it came to a premiere date. Now, they also have to deal with a season that is significantly shorter from a usual run as well. However, there are legitimate reasons behind the show's scheduling change.

Tom Bergeron revealed during the Season 25 finale back in November that the series was coming back for a shortened, all-athletes run in the spring, though a premiere date was not given until later. ABC confirmed the series would not return until April 30, and that the season would last a short four weeks—ending on May 21, the same day that the "American Idol" reboot is scheduled to come to an end.

It has been believed that ABC's pickup of the former Fox singing competition was why "Dancing" was pushed back and received a shortened season overall. "American Idol" debuted on March 11, around the same time "Dancing" usually begins its Spring run, which seemed to cement ABC's decision to try and give the show a prime timeslot.

In addition, the fact that the season was meant to feature all athletes meant that the network was likely planning to wait until after the 2018 Winter Games in PyeongChang, South Korea. That has since also proven to be true, with four athletes from those games—Jamie Anderson, Chris Mazdzer, Mirai Magasu and Adam Rippon—all competing in this new season.

Pro Keo Motsepe, who is dancing with former Olympic softball pitcher Jennie Finch Daigle in the new season, has also discussed the shortened season, telling Closer Weekly that he believed the show also opted to shorten things simply because the network wanted to make sure that the concept would work, and they also didn't want to push the cast too far.

"I think the athletes we wanted to have, they can only do so much. I think the show is also trying to see if the athletes season is going to work," he said. "They didn't want to do a whole season and have people be like, 'Only athletes. Are they gonna be good?' You never know. I think It's gonna do amazing. It's trying something different and new."

He also revealed that he thinks it will be a great season because the athletes will all bring their strongest game to the competition and that he and the other pros competing will have to work even harder to make them shine.

"I think it's an amazing season, to have all athletes. I think for all the pros and I, the pressure is on because there are no actors or anything—it's all athletes. I think the competition is going to be so high and expectations from the viewers will be so high. In normal seasons, when you have 12 weeks of shows, you can help them grow and build them up."

"Dancing With the Stars: Athletes" premieres Monday, April 30 at 8 p.m. EDT on ABC.