Dancing With the Stars hosts Tom Bergeron and Erin Andrews announced the new season’s cast a few days ago, leaving some fans to ask, “Where are the stars?” Of course it was pretty likely from the inception of the show that they would eventually run out of real stars–but Tommy Chong? He and Cheech Marin made up the duo famously known as ‘Cheech and Chong.’ The two smoked enough pot back in the 1970s to leave them with a life long case of the munchies.
In addition to Tommy Chong, who will be paired with dance pro Peta Murgatroyd, is a lineup of cast members who might become stars by appearing on Dancing With the Stars, but really aren’t stars as of yet. A few were stars, but haven’t had that claim to fame for a very long time.
Sadie Robertson is Phil Robertson’s granddaughter and she sometimes appears on Duck Dynasty, so that makes her a ‘sort-of’ star–maybe even a ‘star in training.’ Sadie will compete on Dancing With the Stars with Mark Ballas.
Michael Waltrip is a star if you’re a pro racing fan. He will temporarily trade in his race car for dancing shoes and is paired with DWTS pro Emma Slater.
Dancing with the Stars will be waltzing back on to ABC in 9 days! #DWTS pic.twitter.com/fEENZWKMFM
— Official DWTS (@DancingABC) September 6, 2014
Lolo Jones is an Olympic star, unless you count her efforts on the bobsled during the 2014 Winter Olympics. She will dance with Keo Motsepe, and can at least outrun everyone on the show if she feels she’s too embarrassed to continue on with the competition.
Jonathan Bennett joins Dancing With the Stars following (no one said ‘following soon thereafter’) his appearance in the 2004 film Mean Girls. He won’t be dancing with Lindsay Lohan, but rather with dance pro Allison Holker.
If you loved Back to the Future, you’ll remember Lea Thompson, who played Marty McFly’s (Michael J. Fox) love interest Lorraine Baines. She has come back to the present to dance with Artem Chigvintsev.
Antonio Sabato, Jr. earned his stardom on General Hospital and Melrose Place, meaning when the drama gets ridiculous on Dancing With the Stars, he just might be involved. Cheryl Burke–his dance partner-in-crime–will likely hold him accountable for his actions, however.
Randy Couture is a champion mixed martial artist who is trying to become a star as part of The Expendables franchise. In the meantime he is dancing with Karina Smirnoff on Dancing With the Stars.
Janel Parrish plays the role of Mona Vanderwaal on Pretty Little Liars. Hopefully she leaves Mona’s cunning personality on that set as she comes to the DWTS set to compete alongside the very handsome Maksim Chmerkovskiy.
Designer Betsey Johnson is a star in the fashion world. Might she be there to help out with the costumes she and partner Tony Dovolani will wear during this season’s competition?
Bethany Mota comes to your TV straight from YouTube. She is a beauty expert with more than seven million followers. How does that even happen? She is dancing with just one Dancing With the Stars pro, however–Derek Hough–whose sister Julianne Hough will be sitting at the judge’s table this season.
Alfonso Ribeiro comes from 1996–the last year The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air aired. He played the role of Carlton Banks opposite Will Smith. Will couldn’t be his dance partner on Dancing With the Stars (oh–he wasn’t asked?) so Alfonso is dancing with pro Witney Carson instead.
Rounding out this season’s contestants is Tavis Smiley. The talk show host (most of us don’t know where he did that talking) will dance with Sharna Burgess.
Will you be tuning in to watch this season of Dancing With the Stars? It premieres on September 15th on ABC. How many of this season’s ‘stars’ do you recognize?