'DWTS' Season 31's First Two Stars Have Already Made History

The D'Amelios are taking a history-making step to the "DWTS" ballroom!

The dancing competition series officially unveiled TikTok celebrity Charli D'Amelio and her mother, Heidi D'Amelio, as its first contestants for its 31st season on "Good Morning America" on Wednesday, September 9. The mother-daughter duo will make history as the first family members to go head to head on the show.

In a clip shared to Twitter in the early hours of Wednesday, "GMA" host Michael Strahan welcomed Hiedi and her 18-year-old Charli to the set, and the three began a conversation. During their interaction, the 50-year-old mom revealed that they were in the middle of filming their eponymous Hulu reality show when they received the "Dancing With The Stars" call from their public relations reps.

After her mother pointed out that she thought Hulu was scraping their show, Charli added, "I thought they were joking; I didn't think they were being real." Towards the end of their conversation, Strahan wanted to know if Hiedi and Charli would be lobbying for votes from other family members.

The D'Amelios said that even though they would be lobbying for votes, it would be fun to see who their family preferred. It is already a no-brainer that Charli might be pulling in big numbers as ET reported that she has gotten over 146 million TikTok followers thanks to her viral dance clips. Additionally, the competitive dancer partnered with former "DTWS" professional and returning judge Derek Hough earlier this year.

The pair had recreated a scene from "Dirty Dancing" for Hough's ABC special "Step…Into the Movies with Derek and Julianne." As for Hiedi, the public figure is a former model and is currently a social media influencer. The mother-of-two has gained the attention of fans through her appearance on "The D'Amelio family" alongside her other daughter Dixie and husband, Marc. The page has well over a million on YouTube. 

"DWTS" home channel ABC is yet to announce which professionals will partner with the D'Amelios even though the show will return on September 19 with Tyra Banks as its host and Alfonso Ribeiro performing co-host duties. Longtime judges Carrie Ann Inaba, Bruno Tonioli, Len Goodman, and Hough will all return to the judges' table.

In June, judge Inaba spoke about the changes that will happen during the upcoming "DWTS" season. For starters, the dancing competition will be streamed exclusively on Disney+ instead of airing on the usual ABC channel. In a report by The Blast, it was noted that another thing that would change would be the show's voting style. Without revealing too much about how that would change, Inaba said that it would be a "little bit different." 

The structural change might have something to do with the criticisms that "DWTS" has suffered as regards its live voting structure over the last few seasons. During the run of its 30th season, voting was only open during the central and eastern broadcast times, barring west coast fans from voting for their favorite performers. As regards that, Inaba pointed out that: 

"Maybe there's gonna be some things that will come along with the scripts that I think people are gonna love. People don't always like change, but I think they'll adapt."

Even judge Hough shared his sentiment about "DWTS" transitioning from the ABC channel to Disney+. In his words, "At first, I was like, 'Wha? What does that mean?!' But within 10 seconds, I was very, very excited about it. I think that's where a lot of things are moving toward."

The professional Latin and ballroom dancer added, "Dancing with the Stars has always been a trailblazer, they've always been the first to do things. So to move into this area is very bold, very brave, and I'm very excited about it, to be a part of that new phase in television!"

Hough confirmed that the show would no longer include its usual two-hour commercial break. That, however, did not pose a problem as the 37-year-old sees the empty ad space as an opportunity for growth. He explained that it translated to more opportunities for "more performances, more dances, more creativity." Although the 31st season of "DWTS" is yet to kick off, it has already been renewed for the 32nd season.