"Dancing With the Stars" just wasn’t the same without the bad boy of the ballroom, Maksim Chmerkovskiy, last season.
But on Sunday, ABC's president of entertainment, Paul Lee, told TODAY.com that the passionate dancer may be back for season 17.
“Maks is part of the family,” Lee said at the Television Critics Association's summer press tour. “He may well be back. We love having him be a part of (the show).”
Season 16 was the second time that Chmerkovskiy was not a regular part of the season since he joined the ballroom competition in season two. He also did not participate in season six.
The popular pro — who has been dancing in the Broadway production "Forever Tango" this summer — is known for his fiery passion. He's often butted heads with the judges when he disagreed with their assessments of his partners' performances.
ABC revealed in May that it was cutting the Tuesday results show and is focusing just on the two-hour Monday show. Lee did not give many more details about the change, but hinted that the elimination will occur at the end of each show.
Executive producer "Conrad (Green) has worked through a really interesting two hours" for Monday nights, Lee told TODAY.com. "It goes to a climax at the end."
But as exciting as the end of each episode might be, Lee didn't rule out the possibility of bringing back the results show.
"We haven’t made any decisions about whether we bring back results shows as it goes through," he told TODAY.com.
"Dancing With the Stars" season 17 kicks off on Sept. 16 at 8 p.m. on ABC.