Dancing With the Stars Announces Boring New Cast

The cast for the upcoming season of “Dancing With the Stars” was announced this morning on “Good Morning America,” to a collective national yawn. The producers have undeniably recruited from the D-list,  but not in a funny or ironic way. After sixteen seasons, there are only so many “celebrities” left who will agree to salsa on live television.

Here are the out-of-work entertainers and athletes that have signed up this season:

– Kellie Pickler, country singer and American Idol alumna (she came in 6th).

– Victor Ortiz, a professional boxer who once fought Floyd Mayweather, but has no other claim to fame.

– Wynonna Judd, once a fairly popular country star, but further proof that Dancing With the Stars producers had to travel all the way to Nashville for cast members.

– D.L Hughley, 1990s comedian most known for The Hughleys. Oh, and he once guest hosted Who Wants To Be a Millionaire? when Regis went on vacation.

– Zendaya Coleman of  Disney’s Shake It Up, clearly a B-grade plea to the tween set. She is also known for her song, “Swag it Out.”

– Jacoby Jones, Baltimore Ravens wide receiver who played in the Beyonce concert also known as Super Bowl XLVII.

– Andy Dick, former comedian now full time lunatic, who will probably get arrested halfway through the season.

– Ingo Rademacher of daytime soap General Hospital, which is apparently also still on the air.

– Aly Raisman, who was captain of the gold medal-winning U.S. women’s gymnastics team last summer in London.  One of the more interesting picks, but since Dancing is a show entirely riding on pop culture appeal…were McKayla Maroney and Gabby Douglas booked?

– Dorothy Hamill, former Olympic ice-skater. Again, The Olympics seem to be a theme. Why not go ahead and get Bruce Jenner?

– Lisa Vanderpump, of the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills and her Bravo spinoff Vanderpump Rules. Sadly, she is the most relevant star on the show.

The list just feels  generic and tired. And in many cases, they settled for “the next best thing” when the A-lister wasn’t available. I gave Dancing With the Stars another chance last season when they made the bold choice to cast Chaz Bono, Cher’s openly transgender son. But now, it seems they’ve entirely lost their spunk.

Hopefully, cancellation is imminent.

Still independent.

We hope this story was worth your time. For over 14 years, Atlanta Black Star has stayed Black-owned and independently run. We didn't get here by waiting on ad budgets that were never built to prioritize us. Our readers did that.

Corporate support for Black media has always been thin. Outlets like ours get roughly 1% of the $170 billion spent on U.S. advertising each year, and that margin is shrinking further as advertisers walk back the DEI-linked commitments they made in 2020. That's the backdrop. It's not why we're asking.

The wider picture isn't any steadier. Newspaper ad revenue has fallen more than 80% since 2005, and local newsrooms are closing at a rate of roughly two a week nationwide. When outlets go under, it's rarely the ones built to center a Black perspective from the ground up that get to stick around.

We know a request for support isn't why you came here. But without readers choosing to fund this work directly, the depth of reporting we can do at home and abroad shrinks along with everyone else's. If you're not in a position to give, that doesn't change how much we value you as a reader.

If you are able to, a recurring contribution does more for us than a single one-time gift, because it lets us plan the next investigation instead of just the next invoice. It takes about 30 seconds, no long form, no account. Thank you for continuing to support independent journalism and freedom of the press.

Back to top