Dancing with the Stars Trio Round Review + Personal Dream All-Star Cast

Last night’s episode of Dancing with the Stars featured the fan-favorite trio round. But this time, it came with a special twist. Instead of adding a second professional dancer to each pair, former celebrity contestants were added to turn each pair into a trio. There were five former mirrorball champions: season one’s Kelly Monaco, season six’s Kristi Yamiguchi, season nineteen’s Alfonso Ribeiro, season twenty three’s Laurie Hernandez and season twenty four’s Rashad Jennings. Only one runner-up, Corbin Bleu, was included in the festivities.

I was ecstatic for this night and looked forward to it all week long. But when it actually happened, I felt like this round was underwhelming; honestly, it kind of back-fired. I felt like certain pros (Emma and Val) choreographed dances that fit their former partners (Rashad and Laurie) rather than their current partners (Drew and Victoria). I also felt that the judges put a lot of stock into comparing the current season’s celebrities to the all-star they were paired with. While I understand that comparison has always been a part of the trio round since its inception, this season it seemed to be all the judges could focus on.

Last night proved to me that the only proper way for former contestants to come back to the show is if they are competing against each other in an all-star season. I’ve been wanting a second one for at least the past five seasons. Since ten seasons have passed since the last one took place in season fifteen, now is the perfect time to do it again.

It got me thinking and I decided to craft my dream all-star cast. The only pre-requisite that I established was that each celebrity had to have appeared on a season of Dancing with the Stars since the last all-star season; so no one from seasons 1-15 was eligible. As was the case in the first all-star season, some celebrities would be paired with their original partners and some would be paired with new partners.

With all of that being said, here is who I came up with for my dream all-star cast:

Valentin Chmerkovskiy and Zendaya (Season 16 — Runner Up)

Emma Slater and Rashad Jennings (Season 24 — Champion)

Lindsay Arnold and Corbin Bleu (Season 17 — Runner Up)

Witney Carson and Alfonso Ribeiro (Season 19 — Champion)

Mark Ballas and Sadie Robertson (Season 19 — Runner Up)

Allison Holker and Riker Lynch (Season 20 — Runner Up)

Keo Motsepe and Jodie Sweetin (Season 22 — 6th Place)

Gleb Savchenko and Jana Kramer (Season 23 — Fourth Place)

Artem Chigvintsev and Bindi Irwin (Season 21 — Champion)

Sharna Burgess and James Hinchcliffe (Season 23 — Runner Up)

Sasha Farber and Laurie Hernandez (Season 23 — Champion)

Maksim Chmerkovskiy and Heather Morris (Season 24 — 8th Place)

Peta Murgatroyd and Nyle DiMarco (Season 22 — Champion)

What do you guys think? Did you enjoy the trio round with the all-star additions? Who would you include in your all-star cast? Let me know in the comments below!