'Dancing with the Stars' nineteenth-season celebrities and professional partners announced by ABC

Dancing with the Stars' nineteenth-season celebrity cast and professional dance partner pairings have officially been announced by ABC.


Dancing with the Stars' seven male nineteenth-season celebrities are actor and Mean Girls star Jonathan Bennett, comedian Tommy Chong, mixed martial arts and UFC fighter Randy Couture, actor and Fresh Prince of Bel-Air star Alfonso Ribeiro, soap opera and General Hospital star Antonio Sabato Jr., late-night talk show host Tavis Smiley, and professional race car driver Michael Waltrip.

The six female celebrities announced by ABC are fashion designer Betsey Johnson, Olympian Lolo Jones, YouTube fashionista Bethany Mota, actress Janel Parrish, Duck Dynasty star Sadie Robertson, and actress and Back to the Future star Lea Thompson.

Dancing with the Stars host Tom Bergeron and co-host Erin Andrews will return to the series as well as regular judges Len Goodman, Carrie Ann Inaba and Bruno Tonioli. Former DWTS pro Julianne Hough will also sit on the judging panel for the first time after previously serving as a guest judge a couple times.

The 13 celebrities and their professional partners were announced during Thursday's Good Morning America broadcast. Ten of the 13 celebrities will be paired with returning dancers, while three will work with first-time pro partners.


Bennett will be paired with newcomer Allison Holker, the former So You Think You Can Dance all-star who married former SYTYCD winner and fellow all-star Stephen "tWitch" Boss late last year. Holker previously performed on Dancing with the Stars as a guest dancer. 

Chong will be partnered with Peta Murgatroyd, who will be gracing the stage again for her seventh season. She made her debut as a pro on the series' thirteenth season and was the first pairing voted out, however, she went on to win Dancing with the Stars' fourteenth season with celebrity partner Donald Driver. Last season, she finished in fourth place.

Couture will be paired with Karina Smirnoff, who won the show's thirteenth edition with J.R. Martinez. Smirnoff will be competing in her sixteenth season. She finished Dancing with the Stars' last eighteenth edition in eleventh place.

Ribeiro will be partnered with Witney Carson, who made her Dancing with the Stars debut as a pro last season and finished in ninth place with Cody Simpson. The couple was the youngest pair to ever compete on Dancing with the Stars in the show's history.

Sabato Jr. will be paired with Cheryl Burke. She is returning for her eighteenth season and has won two Dancing with the Stars titles. Burke won Season 2 with Drew Lachey and Season 3 with Emmitt Smith. She finished in eighth place last season.


Smiley will be partnered with Sharna Burgess, who made her debut on Dancing with the Stars' sixteenth season. Before that, she was a member of the show's Dance Troupe for three seasons.

Waltrip will be paired with Emma Slater, who will be back for her third season on Dancing with the Stars. She appeared on both Season 17 and 18 as a pro. Last season, she landed in tenth place with Billy Dee Williams.

Johnson will be partnered with Tony Dovolani, who will be back for his eighteenth season and won Dancing with the Stars' fifteenth season, which was the show's first-ever all-stars edition, with Melissa Rycroft. He placed seventh last season.

Jones will be paired with newbie pro Keoikantse "Keo" Motsepe. He's the undefeated South-African Latin American champion in every age category for the last eight years and will be making his Dancing with the Stars debut.

Mota will be partnered with Derek Hough. He will participating in his fourteenth Dancing with the Stars edition and is the show's only five-time professional champion. Most recently, Hough won the show's sixteenth and seventeenth seasons with partners Kellie Pickler and Amber Riley respectively. He finished as the runner-up with Amy Purdy last season.


Parrish will be paired with Val Chmerkovskiy, who joined Dancing with the Stars six seasons ago and will be participating in his seventh edition. He finished as Season 16's runner-up with Zendaya Coleman.

Robertson will be partnered with Mark Ballas, who is returning for his fifteenth season and has two mirror-ball trophies of his own. He won Season 6 with Kristi Yamaguchi and Season 8 with Shawn Johnson. Last season, he came in third place with Candace Cameron Bure.

Thompson will be paired with newcomer Artem Chigvintsev, who served as a member of the Dancing with the Stars Troupe last season.

Dancing with the Stars' nineteenth season will premiere with a live two-hour broadcast on Monday, September 15 at 8PM ET/PT on ABC. One couple will be eliminated during the first one-hour live results show on Tuesday, September 16 at 8PM ET/PT.






About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski