Dancing with the Stars' twelfth-season celebrity cast has been announced by ABC.
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Dancing with the Stars' five female twelfth-season celebrities will be actress and former Kirstie Alley's Big Life star Kirstie Alley, Disney Channel star Chelsea Kane, model and former A Model Life star Petra Nemcova, Kendra and former The Girls Next Door star Kendra Wilkinson, and daytime talk show host Wendy Williams.
The six male celebrities will be Loveline radio show host Mike Catherwood, WWE wrestler Chris Jericho, retired boxer and former The Contender host Sugar Ray Leonard, actor and The Karate Kid star Ralph Macchio, rapper Romeo, and NFL football star Hines Ward.
Dancing with the Stars' host Tom Bergeron and co-host Brooke Burke revealed the identities of the celebrity cast live during Monday night's The Bachelor broadcast. Except for Nemcova, all of the celebrities appeared live on stage with the Dancing with the Stars' hosts as they were announced.
"One contestant who couldn't be here tonight because truthfully, she's speaking at the U.N., supermodel survivor Petra Nemcova," Bergeron said as he announced Nemcova's participation.
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Romeo -- who used to go by Lil' Romeo -- will be the first contestant in Dancing with the Stars history to attempt one season, withdraw from the competition, and then later return to participate in another edition. Romeo withdrew from the show's second season, which aired in early 2005, due to a basketball injury and was replaced by his dad, Master P.
In addition, Kirstie Alley previously turned down numerous offers to compete on prior seasons of Dancing with the Stars, but has finally decided to accept the opportunity.
"Kirstie, we've asked you to be on before. Why now?" Bergeron asked Alley.
"Hmm, why? I don't know. Pass that to someone else," Alley joked.
"Ooh," Burke said,
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"Bam!" Alley teased.
"So you're already acing the group participation part," Bergeron said.
"I know!" Alley laughed.
Dancing with the Stars' twelfth season will premiere Monday, March 21 at 8PM ET/PT with a two-hour broadcast.
All 11 celebrities will perform a foxtrot or cha cha routine with their professional partner during the premiere, and the couple with the lowest combination of the judges' scores and home viewer votes will be eliminated the following week on Tuesday, March 29 at 9PM ET/PT during Dancing with the Stars' twelfth season's first one-hour live results show.
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ABC won't formally announce the celebrities' professional partner pairings until Wednesday, however according to TMZ, Jericho will work with Cheryl Burke, Romeo will dance with Chelsie Hightower, Wilkinson will be paired with Louis van Amstel, Kirstie Alley will be partnered with Maksim Chmerkovskiy, Williams will dance alongside Tony Dovolani, and Kane will work with Mark Ballas.
In addition, Leonard will reportedly be paired up with Anna Trebunskaya, Ward will be partnered with Kym Johnson, and Macchio will dance with Karina Smirnoff.
About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski