Next Pro Recap — [Spoiler] Wins In Season 1 Finale

In less than 48 hours, the entire cast of “Dancing With the Stars” Season 35 will be announced — but a crucial name on the roster has been unveiled a little early.

With its freshman finale on Monday night, “Dancing With the Stars: The Next Pro” did exactly what its title promised it would, revealing which contestant will go on to serve as a professional partner on the upcoming “DWTS” season. Selena Hamilton, AJ Pritchard, and Adele Zaikman all remained in the running for the top prize, and they faced just two more rounds of dancing in front of the judges before one of them was crowned the victor.

For the grand finale, each finalist was paired with a celebrity “Dancing With the Stars” alum who either won their season or got close to doing so: Selena danced with figure skater Adam Rippon (who won Season 26), AJ with TikTok star Charli D’Amelio (who won Season 31), and Adele with “Catfish” host Nev Schulman (who finished in second place on Season 29… and who was crippled by jet lag for much of his rehearsal time with Adele). After first performing in a style of each finalist’s choosing — Selena picked the jive, AJ picked the Viennese waltz, and Adele picked the samba — the pairs closed things out with a no-holds-barred freestyle round, which is also how every regular “Dancing With the Stars” season ends.

In short? Everyone involved did a fantastic job with these final two rounds. I’d argue the judges — including returning guest judge Derek Hough — glossed over some of the celebrities’ shortcomings (Nev was messy in that samba, no?), because this finale had little to do with them. It was really about Selena, AJ, and Adele, and their ability to not only work with a celebrity, but to navigate two high-octane rounds of dance in one week.

And though all of the finalists got glowing feedback from the judges, only one could win — and that winner was Adele! Selena finished in third place, and AJ finished in second; we’ll learn which celebrity Adele will be paired with (for real this time!) when the full “DWTS” cast is announced Wednesday, September 2, on “Good Morning America.”

As “Dancing With the Stars” executive producer Conrad Green tells TVLine, Adele Zaikman won “The Next Pro” largely because “she was just the most consistent” of all the hopefuls competing.

“Of all the people in that finale, she never dropped the ball once. She was solid,” Green shares. “And as a performer, she was magnetic. You can’t take your eyes off her when she’s performing, she’s incredibly charismatic as a dancer. But she also knew her stuff.”

But even though Zaikman will bring “absolute chops as a dancer” to Season 35 of the mothership, Green concedes that “she’ll still need to learn about the other side” of the long-running reality competition once her stint as a pro gets underway.

“How do you manage celebrities? How do you deal with becoming a star yourself? How do you manage all of the social media hate that comes your way? Because it will. It always does,” the EP admits. “There’s a whole load of other things she’ll have to contend with, and we’ll be there to support her through those, and so will the other dancers. They’ve all got each other’s backs. It’s going to be a learning experience for her, but I’m very confident she’s going to make a great impact [for] as long as she lasts on the show.

Green adds that although some of the “Next Pro” contestants will reunite for a short performance on the “Dancing” season premiere, he doesn’t anticipate that Selena Hamilton, AJ Pritchard, or any of the other contestants will appear on Season 35 in a major capacity — in the show’s troupe, for example — so as to keep Zaikman’s victory distinct.

“I see all of those contestants from ‘Next Pro’ as part of the ‘Dancing With the Stars’ family now, and if we can see ways of involving them, we will,” he says. “Probably not in a bigger, official capacity on this season, because I think it’s important that whoever wins ‘Next Pro’ wins something discrete from what the people who didn’t win have. But I’d like to involve those guys.”

“Dancing” fans, how do you feel about Adele officially joining the pro roster? Will you be rooting for her when Season 35 begins? Drop your thoughts in a comment below!