Tyler Cameron on "DWTS" and Rebuilding His Career: One House (and One Dance) at a Time

The former "Bachelorette" star tells The Hollywood Reporter about returning to high-ratings days with ABC's dance reality series, building a life with fiancé Tate Madden, honoring his late mother on the dance floor and mocking his next HGTV show, "Let's Go Back to Your Place."

Tyler Cameron was introduced to audiences in his mid-20s in 2019 through ABC's The Bachelorette. Although she didn't walk away with a rose, she did win America's heart.

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Along the way, she dated Tate Madden, whom Cameron calls a "design genius." The couple now work together on their own business, TINKR, an ergonomics, design and home improvement and appliance brand. They got engaged in August.

A little later, Cameron says she got a call to join Dancing With the Stars. Given her popularity on Bachelor Nation, it might seem surprising that they didn't ask her to compete sooner. Hannah Brown, the season leader after her, won season 28. Now that Cameron has her turn in the ballroom, Brown has shared some advice for her journey.

"Immerse yourself in every moment and have fun with it. Don't take it too seriously," she says of Brown's advice. “So I listened to about half of it — I take it very seriously,” he laughs to The Hollywood Reporter .

And he has Cameron has experienced both highs and lows during her journey on the ABC dance competition, including nearly being eliminated in week three before returning the following week for her highest ratings of the season. Ahead of Thursday night's Super Bowl, Cameron spoke with THR about her time on DWTS, the surprises she encountered, why next week's dedication night feels like a Super Bowl for herself as she honors her late mother, and what to expect from her upcoming HGTV series, Let's Go Back to Your Place, which premieres in 2027.

You've been in the public eye for seven years now and have appeared on several reality shows. Realists know if they've watched The Bachelorette, they know you were pretty much a prom minor in college. So, what makes now the perfect time to go on Dancing With the Stars?

I think it's when you get the question, then you say yes. I never got an offer - I never got a request. They called me probably a week before we did this show and it was the fastest yes ever. I have some great partners who let me move some things around to do this. Dancing With the Stars is the best show on TV right now and in years. And when you're in it, you'll understand why. This is truly the most incredible experience I have ever had in any real environment. The fan base is just unreal. It reminds me of my time on The Bachelorette. Also, people play a bit too much into this whole thing which is almost a minor dance thing. It was broadcast as a joke. I was trying in class to get my GPA up, it was like a PE credit. People say, "He has so much experience." I'm like, "I'm not experienced. I'm not Harry [Schum Jr.] or Jenna [Dwan]." (Laughs.) I have no dance experience. Tequila is my dance experience.

I'm almost so thankful that it didn't happen then, and it's happening now, because I can throw myself back into this crazy TV world. It's been seven years since I've been on The Bachelorette and I've done some amazing shows since then. But it's like being back on the No. 1 show in America, and I can almost recreate or rebrand and tell everybody what I've been up to for the last seven years.

Tyler probably wouldn't have respected the opportunity at 26 when I walked off that show. I think I took it for granted. I've been drooling over LA right now, I'm locked in. It's an amazing opportunity to get myself back out there, to challenge myself and show how important dance is to self-expression. It made me feel things I had never felt before.

By week two, you've already gone viral with your off-campus dance. What made you want to do this? Was this your idea?

This was not my idea. The great ladies at Chicks in Office are good friends of mine and we chat all the time. When everyone found out about the show, they were like, “Oh my god, you have to play Girls Off Campus by The Kid Laroi for viral night.

We saw it as an opportunity to try and go viral. We found that the first week was a good dance, but no one was really talking about us. Everyone had to put on the show like a man seven years ago, now I'm like forgotten we were like, let's rumble and try to wake up the internet a little bit. The judges gave us a great score in the first week, but the online fans didn't mean much to us. We wanted to do that dance really online.

How have you taken the judges' criticism and used it to improve each week to get to the next round?

Judges are people who have been doing this for years. Derek [Hough] has the most Mirrorball championships ever, so he always gives you incredible notes. Bruno [Tunioli] gives me the best notes and Kerry [Anne Inaba]. It's up to me to go back, respect what they say, take it and build on it. Last week was the culmination of all this. They had notes for me and we wanted to work on them and make a whole dance together, which I'm very proud of.

You said you weren't thrilled with your third week performance. What did you learn from it and what are you still trying to improve?

I was very upset with myself. I messed up the entire top half of the dance and my timing was off. This was something that was never a problem the entire time I was preparing that week. With all the hits I was very worried about the bottom. I was in my head all week and it was very negative towards me. I think I have everything figured out.

I was very emotional and thought I was going home. I felt that this wonderful opportunity was about to be lost. I kicked my legs so hard trying to do these jives that I couldn't even lift my legs in the middle of the week. I had to have someone come in here and work on my body to get me moving again. So I took it very hard. Then I became very emotional because I was saved. I could not believe that I would go back to these exercises and the dance hall again. I told myself, "We're going to make the best of this. We're going to do it." Week 4 is something I'm proud of because we took all of that and built on it and got better.

Sharna [Burgess] is back as a pro this season, what have you learned from her along the way?

It's a godsend that we're partners because I think we're both at a stage in our lives and careers where we're rebuilding. He hasn't been on the show in five years and I haven't been on this type of television in seven years. We are both reintroducing ourselves to this world. TikTok and social media weren't big when Sharna was on the last show, and the same is true for me. Completely changed. I've been pushing Sharna to put herself out there more because Sharna's legend is all over TikTok, but people still don't know Sharna. He is a genius on the dance floor. His dancing is amazing. I was a challenge for him, and [after Mariah Carey's night], after we got our scores, he cried at me because he was so worried that he'd let me down the last few weeks by dancing right on top of me. It means a lot to him too.

To finally make it all come together, I felt, I'm doing this. I am the old Sharna. It's still here and I can still do it. I think we all have these doubts when we return to this world. I have a lot of negative thoughts and I thank God for them. She is the hardest working woman I know. I don't think people realize that you're doing Dancing With the Stars today. It is versatile, you wake up, you think about dancing. You are practicing, you should be doing social media. You should dance more, break your dances and think about dancing when you sleep. Sharna does all this while being a wonderful mother. He is the greatest person I could have done this with.

At the week four dance, you gave your fiancé, Tate, a rose. Why was it important for you to do this?

Tate has put his whole life on hold to be here. We have many things at home. We have many jobs together. He stopped all of that to just be here and be the best support system I could ask for. He gets up with me, helps me work on my steps, and stretches me when I'm sore and beat up. Sharna gives me homework and Tate and I go to work on it. He is with me every step of the way. When I was super emotional after Jio last week, he ran to me from the audience.

The song [on our issue] was called "Beautiful," and I thought, That song really encapsulates what Tate is to me. She is beautiful to me in every way. I wanted to find a way to make her feel special after all this because it's called Dancing With the Stars, but a career is so important, and so is your support system back home. I think I would have been eliminated already if he wasn't here.

You guys recently got engaged, is there a timeline for your wedding?

We're probably looking at the end of 2027, possibly early 2028. We haven't really looked into it. We're going to put this experience behind us, and then my next show, Let's Go Back to Your Place for HGTV, starts filming right after this show. I think that's when we start thinking about how we're going to do things and really plan.

Week 4's episode ended with another shocking elimination as Ciara Miller returned to the house. What was your reaction and did you get a chance to talk to him afterwards? Do you know how he is?

Ciara is someone I've only been around a few times, and every time I've met her, it's been a lot of fun. This show lets you see people in their true, raw element because we work hard. Every time I see him, he brings a smile to my face. He always has something funny to say and is always crushing. He is someone I will truly miss being around.

From week one to where we are in week four, I feel like we've seen such a transformation in his confidence and his pride in who he is. I hate to see her go, but we all know Ciara is back and on to bigger and better things. I can't wait to see what the future holds for him.

Week 5 is Super Bowl night, which seems fitting given your football background. What are your plans?

This week is going to be a jazz dance and the dance is The Time by the Black Eyed Peas. A nod to old Patrick Swayze dirty dancing, but in a fun modern version. Jazz scares me because I've been dancing next to Sharna and on Sharna's hips the whole time I've been in this show. I feel like a boy whose hip I've grabbed, and now I'm being driven and I have to figure out how to dance myself. There is a lot of solo dancing, but I take it as a challenge. I want to show that I can have fun on my own and look great dancing.

I'll be wearing a shirt that will be a shout out to my old college team that really helped me get on the right path: Florida Atlantic University, which they say is the Harvard of the South...nobody says that. (Laughs.)

You've said that you continued Dancing With the Stars to honor your mother, because she always wanted you to be on the show. As dedication night approaches, do you know what you still want to do?

I definitely want to do something in honor of my mother. He loved this show. My mom didn't even die a year after I went on The Bachelorette, and I feel like she finally lived her best life. It was a sudden loss and it was very hard. We are still grieving to this day.

For me, Dancing With the Stars is 10 weeks—it's like a football program. You hope to reach 10. You always have a circular game. This is my favorite game of the year for me, dedicated to that night. I think if I can receive the dedication night, it will be one of the greatest gifts I can give my mother and a way to honor her. Sharna is an incredible storyteller and I get chills when she tells me how she wants to tell this story. In the second week, he told me how he was going to do it, and I almost started crying. For me, it's like my Super Bowl coming up that night.

You started working in construction before The Bachelorette, and now you've built a construction company, gotten your real estate license, and expanded into construction and development. What is the bigger vision you want to create for yourself in your home and real estate space?

Before this I was a football player, got injured and went into construction. My father was a builder. My mother was a real estate agent. It was always my life. Then one day, I was randomly called to be on The Bachelorette. It changed my world and gave me all these opportunities, but it was very important to come back and do what I love, which is construction and real estate.

Losing my mom made me feel like I needed to get grounded again and come home. Covid also changed the world, where you don't have to live in Los Angeles or New York to have fun. You can be anywhere. So I took it as an opportunity to build my business and career. Now we build, flip and rebuild.

Tate is my partner in all of this. He's my design genius, and he's also very good at DIY and doing useful things. It's our job. I got my real estate license because I was buying houses all the time and people were asking me about houses. We've put social media in and tied it all together. Everyone needs a home. Everyone wants to build a house or renovate their house and this world has become very expensive. People can't go hire someone to renovate their place. So we want to show you some fun ways to revamp your place that aren't expensive. We will be introducing a fun brand [TINKER] that comes with amazing products for your home, as we continue to renovate, create beautiful spaces and grow our business.