‘Dancing with the Stars 21’ spoilers: Why are there no guest judges turning up?

Come Monday night, the new season of “Dancing with the Stars” will be here, and it is going to feel rather strange almost from the get-go for one very simple reason: There is no Len Goodman this time around. The veteran judge decided to depart after season 20 in order to focus on “Strictly Come Dancing” in the UK, which is understandable since traveling back and forth between London and Los Angeles on a weekly basis has to be exhausting.

So with Len gone, why isn’t the show going the route of guest judges this year like they did during his absences in season 19? As executive producer Rob Wade tells TV Guide, the simple reason is that they want to establish some sort of consistency:

“Julianne [Hough], Carrie Ann [Inaba] and Bruno [Tonioli] are a great judging panel, and they’ve got a lot of experience between them … Sometimes if you have four judges, their comments can repeat themselves. And that’s not really entertaining for the viewer.”

Wade is still hoping that we are going to see Goodman back for the spring portion of the season starting in March, but we imagine that it will take a little bit of time before we get some other information one way or another in that subject. We’d like to see him back provided he wants to, even if he does just do a guest spot in the spring and the show wants to change things up a little bit.

Also in the interview, Wade promises that the show is going to do more when it comes to creating innovative theme nights, and you can also look forward to some interesting dynamics with there being such a diverse group of people on the show.

Want to get some other news right now when it comes to “Dancing with the Stars”? Then be sure to head over here, where you can see all of our contestant spotlights for this go-around! Also, you can sign up here in the event you want some other TV news sent over to you, courtesy of our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: ABC.)