The announcement of the new contestants will be made Monday night, February 18, on the Dance War finale. New season starts on March 17.

Edited February 12, 200817 yr by applcin

Maks is sitting out this season. http://smallscreen.monstersandcritics.com/...with_the_Stars_

Looking doubtful for a Julianne threepeat. She's getting Adam Carolla as a partner.

Thursday Oprah will have the past celeb champs on her show, minus Apolo.

Edited February 19, 200817 yr by applcin

Marlee Matlin

Penn Jillette (eww)

Adam Carolla (ditto)

Marisa somebody from Hairspray (who?)

Kristi Yamaguchi

Cristian de la Fuente (again, who? I had to look the spelling up)

Monica Seles

Mario (one name....say it again...who??? some hiphop guy)

Steve Guttenburg (omg, somebody I might actually care enough to like, lol)

Jason Taylor (not into football, so the 4th person I've never heard of, lol)

Shannon Elizabeth (make that the 5th)

Priscilla Presley

I think I'm already bored.

I figured they would have bigger names than this, with it getting more popular each season.

Well I'm interested in seeing priscilla, Marlee, and mario. Mario has sort of fell off from the r&b scene, I guess this is a way to generate some buzz for him. The rest of the cast are just some has beens that just won't get that spotlight back that they used to have.imo

Here are the couples who will be partnered - I agree that Julianne will not be having a threepeat. I wonder how they decide who will be partnered with who? Is it random or planned or strategized?

Olympic Gold Medal skater Kristi Yamaguchi and Mark Ballas

Actress Priscilla Presley and Louis van Amstel

NFL star Jason Taylor and Edyta Sliwinska

Actor Cristian de la Fuente and Cheryl Burke

R&B singer Mario and Karina Smirnoff

Oscar-Award-winning actress Marlee Matlin and Fabian Sanchez

Illusionist Penn Jillette and Kym Johnson

TV and Radio Personality Adam Carolla and Julianne Hough

Actress Shannon Elizabeth and Derek Hough

Actress Marissa Jaret Winokur and Tony Dovolani

Former Tennis Champ Monica Seles and Jonathan Roberts

Actor Steve Guttenberg and Anna Trebunskaya

Thank you for posting who they are partnered with! I've been looking for that.

I definitely think it is strategy in who they are partnered with. I don't think they want any of the pros winning too many times, hence why I think Cheryl got Wayne Newton last year. I think the year before, Ian did better than they expected. This year they once again gave her somebody younger.

I'm not that impressed with the cast. I think they may be aiming for a woman to win. However if it is a man I think they may want Edyta to be the winning pro. I'm not familiar with Jason Taylor but seeing his picture he is a hunk and football players have done well by pulling in a lot of support. OF the women, I would think Kristi should do quite well with having figure skating experience.

I know not everybody likes Maks but I will miss him on the show.

Cheryl needs to take a break bc Im sick of seeing her. I like her but she's been in every season since 2

I saw this on Entertainment Tonight I think. It was one of those 7 o'clock shows that comes on after the Evening News. I would like to see Priscilla Presley and lets not forget about Steve Guttenberg! I was just thinking of him the other day because I realized that I haven't seen him in a movie in a VERY long time! And what d'ya know!! Here he is on Dancing With The Stars!

Edited February 20, 200817 yr by Noel

I'm not impressed with the cast at all. There's usually someone, but this season there's none. Hopefully that will change later on.

Steve Guttenberg... Last time I saw him was on Veronica Mars and I was so annoyed with him because he's such a poor actor and i can't imagine him being better at dancing. lol

I feel bad for Kym!! It's time for her to atleast have a fit partner.

Marlee Matlin could be interesting to see though. She can't hear the music so imagine this will be difficult for her.

Kristi Yamaguchi could be dangerus. She'll be graceful for sure and Mark is an awesome dancer.

I'm hoping Jason taylor will turn out to be a great dancer because Edyta deserves to win. She's been my favorite and she's been in every season.

I'm sad too see there's no Alec Mazo. Perhaps he got tired of getting unpopular partners. Too bad because he's so awesome and smokin hot.

Ohh, and I'll miss Maks and I'm sick and tired of Cheryl.

***************

Dancing Taps Presley, Carolla, More

By Joal Ryan Tue Feb 19, 7:00 AM PST

Elvis won't be in the building, but his former wife will.

Priscilla Presley and 11 other bold-enough-faced names were named Monday to Dancing with the Stars' sixth-season lineup.

All making the dance card:

• Howard Stern free-radio successor (and former Loveline and Man Show host) Adam Carolla • Former CSI: Miami lab tech Cristián de la Fuente; • American Pie exchange student Shannon Elizabeth • 1980s box-office force Steve Guttenberg; • R&B singer Mario ("Just a Friend") • Oscar winner Marlee Matlin (Children of a Lesser God) • Cape-eschewing magician Penn Jillette • Tennis legend Monica Seles • Miami Dolphins defensive end Jason Taylor • Tony winner Marissa Jaret Winokur (Hairspray) • Olympic figure-skating champ Kristi Yamaguchi

Eleven of the 12 pro dancers are vets of the show: two-time defending champ Julianne Hough, last seen hoisting the mirror ball with racer Helio Castroneves; two-time champ Cheryl Burke; Derek Hough; Anna Trebunskaya; Karina Smirnoff; Kym Johnson; Louis van Amstel; Jonathan Roberts; Edyta Sliwinska; Tony Dovolani; and Mark Ballas.

Maksim Chmerkovskiy, who took second place beside the Spice Girls' Mel B last fall, is sitting out the new season, which launches Mar. 17. But he told TV's Extra he'll be back next season.

"It's one of those things I need to attend to. My domestic studios and my students—their competitive careers," Chmerkovskiy said. "They [the producers] were kind enough to give me a break and let me do it."

Filling the 12th and final pro dancer spot is Fabian Sanchez. Sanchez will be joined on his maiden voyage by Matlin.

The other dance teams include: De la Fuente and Burke, Elizabeth and Derek Hough, Guttenberg and Trebunskaya, Mario and Smirnoff, Jillette and Johnson, Presley and Van Amstel, Seles and Marie Osmond survivor Roberts, Taylor and Sliwinska, Winokur and Dovolani, and Yamaguchi and Ballas.

Hough will go for her third consecutive win alongside Carolla, the unnoted hoofer.

The show's casting net for stars yielded its usual mix of sports standouts (Seles, Taylor and Yamaguchi), familiar faces (Elizabeth, Guttenberg, Matlin, Jillette and Presley), a few folks you might need to Google (Mario, de la Fuente and Winokur) and at least one guy who you guess does the cha-cha about as well as Tucker Carlson (Carolla).

The new lineup, though, does feature at least one innovation. For the first time since the gray-haired days of John O'Hurley, Dancing's elder statesman will be an elder stateswoman. At age 62, Presley, late of the King, Dallas and the Naked Gun movies, will be the oldest competitor. The 52-year-old Jillette is the only other dancer to fall outside the 18- to 49-year-old demographic.

Matlin will be Dancing's second resident Oscar winner after season-two's Tatum O'Neal. Winokur, Broadway's original Tracy Turnblad, is the show's first Tony winner, provided Jerry Springer doesn't have a deep, dark stage secret (or at least one involving a Tony—Springer did appear on Broadway in 2001's The Rocky Horror Show).

The show itself will sport one innovation: A double-elimination results episode on Mar. 24, featuring the expulsion of two dance teams.

No one said dancing with, or by, the stars was easy.

Edited February 21, 200817 yr by Cheyenne

All of the Dancing With The Stars Season 6 were on Oprah Winfrey today. I must say that they all were pretty good and even Priscilla Presley said that she has been wanting to do this for quite sometime.

I saw the show, too. It was nice to see the champs dance again. The Emmitt and Drew stuff was funny.

I was a little startled by Priscilla Presley's appearance. More botched plastic surgery....seems to be more the rule than the exception. I wonder how many weeks in (assuming she survives elimination) it will take before she's dancing to an Elvis song. You know it's gonna happen. Don't know anything about Mario but when I saw him I thought "oh, that guy was in Freedom Writers." I'm a little curious as to how Marlee and her partner will communicate during those long rehearsals, esp. if the interpreter isn't always there and she can't always see her partner's mouth. I think Steve Guttenberg's personality and humor will endear him to the viewers--I think he'll exude the same kind of warmth that Emmitt, Jerry S., and Helio did. The dancing remains to be seen. (Yeah, I'll still watch.)

Why all the Cheryl hate? I love her. She's what got me hooked in Season 2.

Edited February 25, 200817 yr by applcin

Why all the Cheryl hate? I love her. She's what got me hooked in Season 2.

I don't hate her. Hate is a strong word and doesn't describe my feelings about her. But I just find her a little fake, like when she smiles sometimes and stuff. I don't know, I get a weird vibe from her and I would be satisfied if she skipped a season (or two).

From motorsport.com:

Castroneves weighs in on next season of "Dancing with the Stars": Helio Castroneves, the reigning "Dancing with the Stars" champion, will be an "Entertainment Tonight" contributor when the sixth season of the celebrity competition premieres March 17. He'll be in the audience scrutinizing the contestants.

"It will be fun again to see friends and see the stars getting nervous like I was," said Castroneves, who teamed with professional dance partner Julianne Hough to win the mirror ball trophy in November.

Castroneves recently relayed some advice to Miami Dolphins 6-6, 255-pound defensive end Jason Taylor, who is paired with Edyta Sliwinska.

"You think your training camp is hard --," Castroneves joked. "I told him, 'Have fun and don't be too competitive because you're already competitive in your job, and just relax."

So who is the champ's choice to dance off with the mirror ball trophy?

"Right now, the early favorite is Kristi Yamaguchi," said Castroneves, referring to the 1992 Olympic Games figure skating gold medalist. "She has the experience ice skating so that might give her an early advantage. But remember, it's not only about dancing. It's the whole package."

Edited March 11, 200817 yr by applcin

I have no idea who Cristian is but he is beyond hot. That man is simply beautiful. I hope he remians just so I can look at him

Mario and Karina were hot last night, I think mario is the guy to beat in this competition. An why oh why do the judges and tom bergeron keep mentioning Mario lopez he was on like 2 or 3 seasons ago and I don't think karina is even involved with him anymore.