Season 33 “Dancing With the Stars” duo Daniella Karagach and Dwight Howard posed for a promo photo that got fans talking. The ballroom pro stood on a bedazzled box to help negate their major height difference.
Howard stands at 6-feet-10-inches tall, which is a solid foot and a half over the 5-foot-5 Karagach.
Regardless of the height difference, Howard is ready to take on the competition.
“We’re going to just go out there and really give it our best. I know everybody’s expecting us to do so many great things, but it starts with day one,” he told Us Weekly. “Practice makes perfect. We’re gonna go out there and I’m gonna make sure I do whatever I can to give my partner the best opportunity for us to shine out there,” he added.
Karagach won her only Mirrorball Trophy on season 30 with former NBA star Iman Shumpert. Shumpert is 6-feet-5-inches tall.
Daniella Karagach Is Completely Dwarfed by Dwight Howard
After the couples photos were released, many fans took to Reddit to react. There has been a lot of chatter about Karagach and Howard’s pic for obvious reasons.
“The poor woman’s gonna need stilts to have a snowball’s chance in hell of being able to get him in frame for the dances that require it,” one person wrote.
“Geez, I hope the height difference really doesn’t screw them. I want to see this team do well!!” someone else said.
“It legit looks photoshopped,” a third comment read.
“Can’t wait to see how these two dance. Dani gonna need 10″ heels,” a fourth Redditor added.
Dwight Howard & Daniella Karagach Are Hoping to Make Their Height Difference Work
In an interview with Us Weekly after the official cast announcement on September 4, Howard and Karagach discussed their height difference.
The duo was asked about their first impressions of each other and Howard responded, “how tall I am.”
“But, after that, our like, energy, our chemistry and everything just shined through. So, I don’t even see our height as being a problem,” he said. Then, Karagach weighed in.
“Just you wait!” she said with a laugh. “Honestly though? All I could ask is for him to just an open mind to this whole process. And he already does. He is already the most amazing partner. So, I’m just excited to get started,” she added. She went on to say that she’s going to have to be quite creative when it comes to choreography for season 33, given that Howard’s even taller than Shumpert.
Showrunner Conrad Green weighed in on the height difference between Howard and Karagach as well. Overall, Green seems to think the partnership is going to work quite well regardless of the height difference.
“She’s got a history, which is good, but Dwight is 4 inches taller than Iman. He’s like 6′ 10″ or something. Obviously, that’s not an advantage in this show, but he’s very well proportioned and still very athletic. You couldn’t pick someone better than Dani to work with someone tall because she’s done it before and she’s made it work,” Green told EW in an article published on September 6.
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Effie Orfanides has more than two decades of experience in entertainment journalism. She has been a contributor with Heavy since 2017 covering entertainment news. Effie is based in Tampa, Florida. More about Effie Orfanides
