Fan-favorite professional dancer Rylee Arnold is returning for Dancing with the Stars Season 33 and expressed disappointment that her sister isn’t there too.
Rylee joined the cast last season as she partnered with reality TV star Harry Jowsey, and the duo’s noticeable chemistry sparked romance rumors.
With those rumors laid to rest, Rylee is back for her second season, focused on winning the Len Goodman Mirrorball Trophy with a new celebrity partner.
However, she indicated she wanted Lindsay Arnold to return for the cast and was “sad” she wouldn’t be part of the show.
Lindsay, a former DWTS winner, last appeared in Season 30 but has since been on a hiatus.
That was due to her decision to focus on being a mother to her two daughters, Sage and June. Still, Rylee believes her sister will return for DWTS.
Rylee says she tried to get Lindsay back on DWTS
Speaking to US Weekly after the official DWTS 33 cast reveal earlier this week, Rylee said she tried “so hard” to get her sister to return for the show.
“I think there is probably a future with Dancing With the Stars and Lindsay,” Rylee said, adding, “I think that it will happen one of these days, but it wasn’t this year.”
“It’s sad, but I think it should happen eventually,” she said.
As mentioned, Lindsay announced last year that she would embrace motherhood to raise her young daughters. In a TikTok video, she expressed concerns about separating the family while she was away for DWTS, with her husband, Sam Cusick, doing the parenting back home.
“I don’t want to put my kids through that right now. I feel like this time of their life is so precious and is moving so fast and I want to cherish every single moment. I don’t want to miss a beat,” she said.
Lindsay appeared on 10 seasons of DWTS, with Season 16 as her first and Season 30 as her most recent. In all but one season, Season 30, she’s finished in the top eight, and in half of her seasons, she’s finished in the top five.
That included her winning the show in Season 25 alongside actor and singer Jordan Fisher.
Rylee gushed over working with Olympic gymnast
While Rylee won’t have her sister onboard for DWTS Season 33, she will have an exciting new partner to work with: Olympic medalist Stephen Nedoroscik.
Nedoroscik was part of Team USA’s men’s gymnastics team at the Paris Olympics last month and captured a bronze medal with his pommel horse skills.
He and Rylee appeared on Good Morning America as part of the cast reveal. The reveal included basketball star Dwight Howard, The Bachelorette Jenn Trann, and convicted con artist Anna Delvey.
Rylee shared an Instagram carousel post (below) showing photos from the GMA appearance.
The pair also appeared in multiple interviews for the ongoing promotion before the Season 33 premiere.
During several of those interviews, Rylee and Stephen expressed their excitement about working together.
Rylee said she is “seriously so excited” and felt she “got such an amazing partner” to work with in her second season.
“We’ve just been having so much fun together, and I can’t wait for this season,” she told The Hollywood Reporter.
“All I can say is I’m enjoying it. Rylee’s a great teacher,” Stephen said when asked to rate his dance skills before the premiere.
In another interview Rylee did several months ago on The Squeeze, she mentioned that she had looked up to her sister throughout her life and that becoming a Dancing With the Stars cast member had always been her dream.
During the upcoming season, she’ll attempt to win the Mirrorball Trophy as her sister did in Season 25. Having an Olympic athlete as her dance partner is a great thing, and it appears Stephen is just as excited to work with Rylee as she is to get on the dancefloor with the Olympic medalist.
Dancing with the Stars Season 33 premieres Tuesday, September 17 at 8/7c on ABC and Disney+.