Season 20 Cast Announcements

Here's the line-up minus the announcement of Witney's partner, who is strongly rumored to be the Bachelor guy:

?????, with Witney Carson
NASTIA LIUKIN (Olympic gold medalist gymnast), with Derek Hough (who apparently had a change of heart/a Brinks truck back up to his home)
WILLOW SHIELDS (The Hunger Games’ Primrose), with Mark Ballas
NOAH GALLOWAY (Iraq war vet/double amputee), with Sharna Burgess
PATTI LABELLE, with Artem Chigvintsev
RUMER WILLIS, with Val Chmerkovskiy
SUZANNE SOMERS, with Tony Dovolani
RIKER LYNCH (of the band R5, if that helps), with Allison Holker
ROBERT HERJAVEC (Shark Tank), with Kym Johnson
MICHAEL SAM (formerly of the St. Louis Rams), with Peta Murgatroyd
REDFOO (of LMFAO), with Emma Slater
CHARLOTTE MCKINNEY (think: Carl’s Jr. commercials), with Keo Motsepe

Dear God in heaven, what do we have to do to get rid of frickin' Derek Hough?  This is like the 3rd season we've been assured he won't be on the show, and yet like the proverbial bad penny, he keeps cropping up.  Derek, sweetheart!  How can we miss if you if you won't go away!!!

No such luck.  Julianne is judging again this year.  And not only is he a Hough cousin, apparently he and his sister also used to dance competitively together.  Not sure in what category, but still . . . .  I also am not thrilled with the addition of Willow Shields.  Just read somewhere that she's only 14.  I had a hard enough time with Sadie; no way do I want to see a 14-year-old on the show.    Some of the others look great, though.  Patti LaBelle is a real catch.  Love her or hate her, Suzanne Somers is a big name.  I am most psyched maybe about Robert Herjavec - he's one of my favorite sharks, and I think he'll be great.  It'll be interesting to see if Rumer Willis can dance.  Or Michael Sam.  I'm not as jazzed about another amputee - missing one arm and one leg.  That's going to be tough for Sharna.

I agree with you, SLA, about a 14-year-old on the show.  Not a good idea.  In fact I don't think anyone under 18 should be cast.  JMHO.

I don't like seeing kids on the show either.

About Riker (never heard of him):  He may have a leg up with dancing skills but being partnered with Allison could be a huge drawback.  lol.

I don't watch The Bachelor but from comments I've seen it seems like a lot of folks aren't crazy about Chris?  If so, I'm surprised they'd want him to do it.  I was SO hoping Gronk would be on.  He's said he'd love to do it.  But if not this season, then it would be 2 more seasons before he could do it, since he's playing during the fall season.  He would have been great!    I also thought it was kind of interesting that it seems like for the first time the early rumors were all wrong.  From everything I'd seen, Roseanne Barr and Robert Kennedy Jr. were odds-on favorites for being on the show.  But I don't think any of the final group were ones I'd seen 'spoilered' beforehand.

LadyMustang -- The general feeling about Chris Soules is that his dancing skills are even less than those of Sean Lowe.  If he has a pro that can loosen him up, maybe he will make it for a couple of weeks.

I think one of the reasons he was asked (if, indeed he was) is because he was the Bachelor and DWTS wants to appeal to a bigger audience.  Simple, and all driven by the almighty dollar.  JMHOFWIW.

Yikes.  I mean Sean set the bar pretty low. 

Well, just saw confirmation that Chris Soules is indeed going to be Witney's partner this season.  Fun times. 

Early word is that Val/Rumer and Emma/Redfoo look good.  Michael/Peta are rough, but he had potential.  Model with Keo looks bad. 

Apparently they are streaming live footage of rehearsals from time to time through the week, and those are some of the ones that people have seen.  Over on the ABC site there's supposed to be a schedule of who will be streaming live when, but they're not all doing it (obviously Derek/Nastia are in New York and Suzanne/Tony are in Las Vegas).  I haven't checked it out but it sounds like some of them may also be up on youtube.  It would be a long watch - each streaming session is an hour.  But folks who have watched them say it's interesting to watch as the pro/celeb forget the stream is there over time and settle down to a real practice session so you can get a much better idea of how they interact and how a pro really teaches.

Well, I finally saw Chris in a promo.  Just a "blink."

I've heard of some of the stars this season, just have never actually seen them.  Like Rumer Willis.

I'm curious to see that lithe gymnast, Nastia.  Don't recall who her pro is.

And Suzanne Sommers is MY age, if I recall correctly.  I can't imagine enduring the rigors of this show with my body.  But I believe she's always been a fitness nut, so we shall see.

Singly -- I think Nastia is with Derek.

Sounds like the winner is apparent.  lol.