Dancing with the Stars' sixteenth-season celebrity cast and professional dance partner pairings have been formally announced by ABC -- at least most of them.
|
ADVERTISEMENT
|
The male celebrities announced by ABC are actor and comedian Andy Dick, actor and comedian D.L. Hughley, NFL football player Jacoby Jones, boxer Victor Ortiz, and soap star Ingo Rademacher.
Notably absent from the cast -- which Dancing with the Stars host Tom Bergeron and co-host Brooke Burke announced live on ABC's Good Morning America this morning -- is a sixth male celebrity participant.
ABC will reportedly announce a twelfth "mystery" celebrity at a later date -- prompting speculation it will be The Bachelor star Sean Lowe, whom TMZ had reported would be part of Dancing with the Stars' sixteenth-season cast (along with Judd, Pickler and Raisman) this past weekend.
Dancing with the Stars' sixteenth season will premiere Monday, March 18 at 8PM ET/PT on ABC -- one week after the finale of Lowe's currently-airing The Bachelor edition airs in the same time period on March 11.
In addition to Judd, Pickler and Raisman, the participation of Dick and Ortiz had also leaked out prior to ABC's official announcement. The network also announced Jones' participation during Sunday night's broadcast of the 85th Annual Academy Awards.
Eight of the eleven celebrities will be paired with returning professional dancers while three will work with first-time pro partners.
Coleman will be paired with Val Chmerkovskiy while Hamill will be partnered with Tristan MacManus. Chmerkovskiy and MacManus both joined Dancing with the Stars three seasons ago and will be participating in their fourth editions.
Judd will be partnered with Tony Dovolani, who will be back for his fifteenth season and just won his first Dancing with the Stars championship with Melissa Rycroft during last fall's All-Stars edition.
Pickler will compete with Derek Hough, who will be participating in his eleventh Dancing with the Stars edition and is the show's only three-time professional champion, and Raisman will be paired with Mark Ballas, who is returning for his twelfth season and has two mirror-ball trophies of his own.
Vanderpump will be paired with Gleb Savchenko, the season's only first-time male professional partner.
Hughley will be partnered with Cheryl Burke, who is returning for her fifteenth season and has won two Dancing with the Stars titles.
FOLLOW REALITY TV WORLD ON THE ALL-NEW GOOGLE NEWS!
Reality TV World is now available on the all-new Google News app and website. Click here to visit our Google News page, and then click FOLLOW to add us as a news source!
Jones will compete with Karina Smirnoff, who won Dancing with the Stars' thirteenth edition with J.R. Martinez and will be competing in her thirteenth season.
Rademacher will be paired with Kym Johnson, who will be participating in her thirteenth Dancing with the Stars season and is another of the show's two-time professional champions.
Dick and Ortiz will each compete with first-time female professional partners.
Dick will be paired with Sharna Burgess, who has been a member of Dancing with the Stars' dance troupe the last three seasons, while Ortiz will be partnered with Lindsay Arnold, who competed on So You Think You Can Dance last summer.
Absent from the cast announcement are veteran professional partners Maksim Chmerkovskiy and Chelsie Hightower. While Chmerkovskiy reportedly opted to quit the show, Hightower recently revealed she was not asked to participate in Dancing with the Stars' sixteenth season.
"Not my choice... Sometimes we take breaks, seasons off," she told TMZ this weekend.
About The Author: Steven Rogers
