Why Is AJ Pritchard Competing on DWTS: The Next Pro After Already Being a Strictly Pro?

AJ Pritchard’s presence on Dancing with the Stars: The Next Pro comes with an obvious question: hasn’t he already done this job? Yes, essentially. AJ spent four seasons as a professional dancer on Britain’s Strictly Come Dancing, partnering celebrities from 2016 through 2019. But that experience does not automatically transfer him into the American DWTS lineup, and The Next Pro is his route to earning a specific professional position on Season 35. ABC has never said AJ was forced to audition because of a special rule for former Strictly dancers. Instead, he entered the same competition as everyone else for the one job the spinoff is designed to fill.

AJ Pritchard really was a Strictly Come Dancing pro

AJ is not simply a contestant with some previous television dance experience. He joined Strictly Come Dancing as a professional in 2016 and spent four consecutive seasons partnering celebrities on the BBC competition. His partners included gymnast Claudia Fragapane, singer Mollie King, Paralympian Lauren Steadman and YouTuber Saffron Barker, with AJ reaching the semifinals during several of those partnerships. That means he has already experienced many of the responsibilities The Next Pro is supposedly testing, from teaching a celebrity to choreographing routines and performing for a large television audience.

That background is precisely why AJ stands out in this cast. ABC introduced The Next Pro as a competition featuring 12 dancers going through a demanding audition for a Season 35 pro spot, but AJ arrives with something unusually close to the finished job already on his resume. Strictly is the British show from the same wider format family as Dancing with the Stars, and the basic professional role is familiar: take a celebrity partner, teach them ballroom and Latin routines, choreograph performances and survive the pressures of weekly television. AJ therefore isn’t learning what this kind of job looks like for the first time.

Why doesn’t his Strictly experience automatically get him on DWTS?

Because a successful run on Strictly does not come with an automatic place on the American show’s professional roster. ABC has not announced any system allowing professionals from international versions of the format to transfer directly into Dancing with the Stars. For Season 35, The Next Pro is specifically offering its winner the available professional position, and AJ chose to enter that audition process. His Strictly history strengthens his application, but it does not replace the competition ABC created to decide who receives the job.

There is another important distinction. Producers are not judging only whether someone can execute ballroom choreography at a professional level, because nearly everyone selected for the show is already an accomplished dancer. Executive producer Deena Katz has explained that DWTS pros also need to teach inexperienced celebrities, communicate on camera, choreograph, mentor their partners and handle the unusual pressures surrounding a television partnership. Katz described The Next Pro as a more extensive audition than even many existing DWTS professionals had to complete when they joined the franchise.

Related: Is DWTS: The Next Pro Live or Pre-Recorded? How the Competition Works

Why did AJ leave Strictly in the first place?

AJ left Strictly voluntarily in March 2020 after four years with the show. At the time, his representatives said he wanted to explore television presenting opportunities alongside his younger brother Curtis Pritchard rather than continue with another Strictly season. His departure therefore was not presented as him losing his professional place because he could no longer do the job. He made a career decision, spent the following years working across television and entertainment, and is now attempting to return to this particular type of high-profile dance partnership through the American franchise.

That history makes his appearance on The Next Pro more understandable than it initially sounds. AJ isn’t competing because he needs the show to prove that he has ever been capable of working with a celebrity. He is competing because the opportunity he wants now is specifically a professional role on Dancing with the Stars in the United States, several years after leaving his equivalent position in Britain. In other words, this is less about starting his dance career and more about trying to begin a new chapter of it in a different version of the franchise.

Does AJ have an unfair advantage over the other contestants?

He certainly has an experience advantage in some areas, but the judges have rejected the idea that this makes him an automatic winner. Mark Ballas was directly asked whether AJ’s Strictly background, along with Stephani Sosa’s previous DWTS troupe experience, gave them an advantage. Ballas said simply having worked on one of these shows does not necessarily put someone ahead because becoming a successful DWTS pro involves skills that cannot be fully understood until the person is actually doing the job. His comments fit the philosophy producers have described throughout the season: the competition is testing much more than technical dance credentials.

If anything, AJ’s resume has also created a higher standard for him. During the premiere, Mark explicitly reminded AJ that he had already done this job on Strictly and therefore faced additional pressure to prove he could compete at the level expected from established DWTS professionals. Derek Hough also criticized his opening performance for lacking some of the energy he wanted to see. AJ’s previous experience therefore functions as both an advantage and a burden, because mistakes that might be understandable from a less experienced contestant can look more significant when they come from someone who has already spent years doing similar work.

Why has AJ’s experience become controversial on The Next Pro?

The debate intensified when longtime DWTS pro Val Chmerkovskiy criticized the attitude he believed AJ was displaying during the competition. Val argued that every contestant arrived with accomplishments and that AJ still needed to prove himself in the present competition rather than relying on what he achieved on Strictly. He specifically questioned the impression that AJ might be thinking he had already done the job and should not have to go through the process again. That was Val’s interpretation of AJ’s behavior, not an official finding that AJ believes he deserves the position automatically.

The criticism actually gets to the heart of why AJ’s casting works for the show. The Next Pro becomes a much more meaningful test when someone with AJ’s resume has to demonstrate that previous success is not enough by itself. He knows how to dance, choreograph and work on a celebrity ballroom program, so the competition can examine whether he still has the adaptability, teaching ability and television presence required by the current American show. If he succeeds, his Strictly experience will look like preparation rather than a shortcut. If he fails, the result will reinforce the producers’ argument that being a great DWTS professional involves considerably more than arriving with the strongest resume.

AJ is competing because the DWTS job is the prize he wants now

There is little evidence that AJ views The Next Pro merely as another reality television appearance. During the competition, he became emotional while discussing how much the opportunity meant to him and the sacrifices he had made to pursue it. The show’s larger prize also gives that reaction some context: executive producer Conrad Green has described winning as a genuine career opportunity rather than an abstract television trophy, while Katz confirmed that the eventual winner will move directly toward a celebrity partnership on Season 35.

So the apparent contradiction is not really a contradiction. AJ Pritchard has already been a Strictly Come Dancing professional, but he is no longer part of that show’s pro lineup, and his former role does not guarantee him employment on Dancing with the Stars. The Next Pro gives him a route back into the kind of job he left in 2020, this time in the American ballroom. His previous experience may make him one of the most recognizable and qualified contestants, but the competition is asking a different question: whether AJ can prove, years later and against a new group of dancers, that he deserves the specific DWTS Season 35 position.