EXCLUSIVE: Harry Garside spills on pre-recording this year’s season.

Dancing With The Stars’ Sonia Kruger / Harry Garside performing.

Dancing With The Stars’ Harry Garside has called out one of the show’s most significant changes. Photos: Channel 7

It’s been 21 years since Dancing With The Stars first premiered, making it one of the longest-running reality shows on Australian TV. While Sonia Kruger has remained in the hosting position and original judge Helen Richey is still on the judges’ panel, there have been a handful of changes to the series over the past few decades.

Arguably, the most significant update occurred in 2020, when Channel 7 began pre-recording episodes rather than airing the performances live. This format has been used for the past five seasons; however, viewers still often take to social media to criticise the change.

“Very disappointing that it’s already been filmed and isn’t live like it once was,” one person recently commented, while another added, “Come on @DancingAU, bring the original format back! 10 weeks and live shows!”.

“The show is now a shadow of its former self, pre-recorded band, no longer live,” a third remarked, followed by someone else who wrote, “Why can’t it be live like it used to be, not a fan of pre-recording these shows”.

Dancing With The Stars’ Harry Garside performing.

Viewers have said it’s ‘disappointing’ that the show isn’t live. Photo: Channel 7

It’s not just viewers who have requested that the show return to its live format, as one of this year’s contestants shares the same opinion. Olympic boxer Harry Garside tells Yahoo Lifestyle that he would have loved not only to have had more time to rehearse, but also to perform live each week.

“I know that in seasons prior, they had a lot more time. I think this was a condensed version. And then also the added layer of it being pre-recorded. It would be quite amazing if, as we were dancing, we were almost semi-live,” he shares. “But it was still incredible. It definitely exceeded my expectations of what I got out of it.”

Harry adds that although this season was pre-recorded earlier in the year, the contestants filmed their performances as if they were live.

“No one got a second shot. The only time someone did, I think, was when Brittany [Hockley]’s dress fell off or something happened. That was the only time, and that was understandable,” he says.

“So it kind of did feel live, although it’s crazy to think that it’s only now going on TV, and now all my family and friends back home can watch. Whereas for me, I feel like it happened almost years ago, like it was so far away.”

http://vt.noithatnhaxinhbacgiang.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/ty345y4w5u.jpg

While viewers only get to see a snippet of the contestants rehearsing on TV each week, Harry shares that he and his partner Siobhan Power had five weeks of training before their first performance.

“In that time, you’re learning your four dances, and then when you start filming, you’ve got about three to four weeks to film potentially five dances if you make it all the way to the end. So it’s quite intense,” he details. “You’re learning a dance a week, and then you’ve got to try and maintain what you’re learning and get better. It was quite hard to get really good, but I think everyone did quite well.”

The athlete reveals that Dancing With The Stars is a show he has always wanted to appear on after seeing fellow boxer Danny Green compete in 2008, and the experience has had a profound effect on his life.

“Dance is such an incredible thing to do, so I’ve done a few dance classes since, and I think it’s like a language. Once you stop, you’ll probably forget it. So I’m just gonna make sure I maintain it as much as I can,” he remarks.

Dancing With The Stars continues at 7pm Sundays on Seven and 7plus