Kym Johnson and Robert Herjavec’s DWTS Pairing Was No Accident

When Dancing With the Stars’ longtime casting director Deena Katz sat down for dinner with Robert Herjavec before season 20, she wasn’t sure who should be his pro partner.

But once dinner was over, she knew exactly who he needed to team up with and thought Kym Johnson could be more than a dance partner. 

“Robert left the house, he got in his car, and I looked at Jerry (her husband) and said, ‘I’m bringing Kymmie back. They're going to be together.’"

Kym Johnson left DWTS after season 16 to become a judge on the Australian edition of the show. But Katz knew she needed to bring her back for season 20.

Katz and Johnson told the story to hundreds of fans at a panel at the DWTS Convention in Palm Springs on August 1. 

“I remember that you were on the tour in Las Vegas,” Katz said to Johnson. “And I went up to you and said, 'Will you come back?" There is somebody – like it was just one of those nights, Jerry and I just knew there was something there.”

While their relationship has played out in public since day one, DWTS fans learned that it was more than fate that brought them together.

“Actually, Deena, I’m totally grateful to you. As the pairings happened, I ended up getting partnered with my now husband,” Johnson said. 

“I play Cupid too over here,” Katz said with a laugh.

Johnson and Herjavec only made it to week 8 on the competition, but they recently celebrated their ten-year wedding anniversary and are raising twins together.

Katz saw their potential but knew that just pairing them up wouldn’t make it easy for them. 

“You really are throwing these people together in the most intense relationship immediately. Like, here’s your partner. Okay, go.”

“And then you’re five hours a day in the studio with them. Like I said, the crying, the emotion. These celebrities are so out of their comfort zone.”

Always cool in the Shark Tank, Johnson says Herjavec was nervous on the dance floor. 

“We were rehearsing in another state,” she told the audience. “We never saw any of the other couples until camera blocking, and that was the first time Robert saw the other couples.”

“I had made him think that he was so good, he thought he was going to win the Mirrorball. And then he got onstage and saw Rumer Willis, and he was like, ‘I can’t do this.’”

Johnson admitted that their first rehearsal together didn’t go as smoothly as their marriage, but the pressure of appearing on the show helped strengthen their bond.

“And so he had a freakout. And then they tell you, ‘Okay, it’s your time to go off and camera block.’ And then you just get there, and they’re like, ‘Go.’ And it’s all a little crazy.”

“And when he finished, he’s like, ‘I had a freakout.’ And he’s like, ‘I can’t do it.’ And you have to talk them off the ledge.”

Katz has overseen casting for DWTS since season one and is currently working on her 35th season. And while her formal role is casting director, a more appropriate title might be chemistry professor. 

While she doesn’t usually play the role of matchmaker, she is constantly trying to understand which pairings will make for the strongest partnerships and the most compelling television.

“I mean, it’s fun, I guess. You know, it is one of my favorite parts, but it's also so stressful. And it’s like thinking, and then overthinking, and then sort of thinking. And even, like, last season, we switched at the last minute, and it was the right thing to do.”

Katz admits she can’t always be certain of a partnership's strength; but she was always confident in Kym and Robert. 

“Like, that one I knew.”

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