Dancing with the Stars Exclusive: Get a Behind-the-Scenes Look at Tamar Braxton and Nick Carter’s TV-Themed Costumes!

It’s “theme week” on Dancing with the Stars, which means the costumes will be just as exciting as the choreography. This week, the duos will be dancing to famous TV theme songs, from Gilligan’s Island to Family Guy to Breaking Bad! And PEOPLE caught up with DWTS’ costume designers, Steven Norman Lee and Daniela Gschwendtner, for all the exclusive scoop on contestants Tamar Braxton and Nick Carter’s looks.

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“Theme weeks are always a favorite on DWTS,” Lee tells PEOPLE. “To me its always creative and always a challenge. The best part when designing costumes for a theme week is that the dancers and celebs get to become characters.”

Lee adds that every week the cast’s costumes are made from scratch, “so there will never be any restrictions when they dance.”

“This week Val [Chmerkovskiy] got Mad Men, and his costume was inspired by the character Don Draper,” Lee says. “I used vintage inspired charcoal grey and brown windowpane wool and an authentic ’60s red tie to compliment Tamar’s [Braxton] costume.” (Catch the sketches below!)

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The couple will be dancing to the famous song from the opening credits of the AMC hit, “Beautiful Mine,” and even though Val’s never seen the show, he’s excited to bring the characters to life — which includes combining characters for the best possible result. “Tamar [plays] a character who is certainly one of a kind,” Chmerkovskiy tells PEOPLE. “She’ll be inspired by Peggy’s hustle to be boss but with a hint of Joan’s seductive ways and sexuality.”

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Nick Carter and partner Sharna Burgess will be dancing to the Downton Abbey theme, and we can’t wait to see their ’20s styles on the dance floor.

“His costume was inspired by the character Matthew Crawley,” Lee says. “He finally gets to wear a classic black tail suit. Visually we want to create the romantic dances between Matthew and Mary on the show. Nick will have art deco buttons and rhinestone lapels to give it the DWTS twist. ”

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Costume designer Gschwendtner adds that Sharna is playing the part of Lady Mary Crawley at a formal ball.

“We thought it would be the most recognizable character and the right setting for a Viennese Waltz,” she shares. “Since we are doing a ball scene for our show as well, we looked at various scenes to create the same elegance and beauty. We definitely took a bit of inspiration from the beautiful gowns in the TV series. Sharna’s champagne colored gown this week would hopefully fit right in.”

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Burgess told People that since she never saw the show, she asked around for tips from people on set. “A lot of people said that Nick could really resemble Matthew Crawley so naturally I would play Lady Mary,” she tells PEOPLE. “The more I learned about their story, the more I was excited to tell a piece of it.”

So what can you expect from the other acts tonight? Possibly our favorite detail: Mark Ballas and Alexa Penavega’s Breaking Bad suits are real hazard protection suits, according to Gschwendtner.

“It was a bit of a challenge to make them danceable,” she says. “They ended up ripping every time they danced until we figured out how to fix them in a way to avoid that. They also have authentic gas masks!”

But the ripped hazard suits were nothing compared to making some of these TV themes glamorous and danceable. The two biggest challenges? “For the girls, it was a slightly sexy and cute DWTS interpretation of The Jeffersons for Bindi [Irwin] and a DWTS look for Witney’s [Carson] Golden Girls costume.”

Tune in tonight to see all the costumes brought to life. Which are you most excited for.

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–Brittany Talarico