ABC announces ‘Dancing With the Stars’ cast
When the cast of each season’s “Dancing With the Stars’ cast is announced, I like to scan it and guess who’ll be the first eliminated. Want to play along? You usually can’t go wrong by picking a beautiful but unknown model who turns out to have no rhythm off the runway, or an older-middle-age man who has clearly been chosen to provide comic relief.
The cast announced today on “Good Morning America” offers us model Joanna Krupka (maybe she’ll turn out to be the next Ginger Rogers) and former House majority leader Tom DeLay (the next Gene Kelly, maybe). We also get a couple of legacies — Donny Osmond, following sister (and fan favorite) Marie, and Ashley Hamilton, whose dad, George, competed.
The two-hour premiere is Monday, Sept. 21, with eight of the 16 dancing that night and eight on Tuesday. Two will be eliminated on Wednesday, Sept. 23. After a rash of injuries affecting last season’s celebrities, new rules will limit their rehearsal time this season — suggesting that clunkers will be even more clunky this time around.
Here’s the full list of 16:
Singer AARON CARTER.
Olympic swimming gold medalist NATALIE COUGHLIN.
MARK DACASCOS, known as “The Chairman” on “Iron Chef America.”
Former House Majority Leader TOM DELAY.
Singer MACY GRAY.
Actor ASHLEY HAMILTON.
Actress MELISSA JOAN HART.
Model and fashion entrepreneur KATHY IRELAND.
MICHAEL IRVIN, former wide receiver for the Dallas Cowboys and member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Model JOANNA KRUPA.
CHUCK LIDDELL, “the face of the Ultimate Fighting Championship and the icon of Mixed Martial Arts.”
Actress DEBI MAZAR (”Entourage”).
Singer MYA.
KELLY OSBOURNE, daughter of Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne.
Singer DONNY OSMOND.
Professional snowboarder LOUIE VITO.
Ahhh…so the cast is revealed…and it’s a full list of reasons NOT to watch this show…again!
Guess the websites reporting that Lou Ferrigno and Vera Wang were participating were wrong. I was disappointed by this cast. You would think by now as popular as the show is…they could get some bigger names. My first pick to go is Tom DeLay. I think Natalie Coughlin could go far.
Right you are Kevin! What are we becoming?
Dancing with the has-beens and never-weres.
lol @ Kevin. Kelly Osbourne and Macy Gray? LOL. Hope they aren’t doing any lifts. Maybe Donny will faint like his sister?
I love this show–the cast aren’t stars — but you get to know them. At this point I think the professionals are the stars.
First to go: Tom Delay or Joanna Krupa (unless one or both are REALLY amazing dancers.
Wow, so I guess Delay was getting a little jealous of Blago.
I love DWTS and was really looking forward to hearing who was going to be on this coming season. As is typical, I am not terribly familiar with several of these people. (The word “stars” is used very loosely in this case.) But what I’ve found since I started watching the show regularly in season 6 is that it’s often the ones you know little or nothing about who turn out to be the most interesting. And I enjoy watching the progression of the dancers and how much most of these “celebs” seem to really get into the spirit of the show. The one that I have a real problem with in this group, however, is Tom DeLay. I think DWTS really sank to a low by putting him in there. Hopefully, he’ll be the first to go. He’s a sleaze and a crook and doesn’t belong on a show like this. Bad move.