New Dancing with the Stars Cast Heavy on the Athletes

The season 18 cast of Dancing with the Stars was announced on Good Morning America Tuesday. And not that anyone thought this show was “fair,” but man there are there are a lot of athletes or former athletes in this bunch.

The cast this season has five athletes or former athletes, an all-time high:

The Price is Right host Drew Carey
Big Time Rush singer James Maslow
Paralympian snowboarder Amy Purdy
The Wonder Years actress Danica McKellar
Full House actress Candace Cameron-Bure
Star Wars actor Billy Dee Williams
Pop singer Cody Simpson
Long-distance swimmer Diana Nyad
Olympic ice dancing pair Charlie White & Meryl Davis
Real Housewives of Atlanta star Nene Leakes
Former NHL hockey player Sean Avery

I know this isn’t a real competition and the judges give out tens to really subpar dances, but doesn’t it just seem like the odds are stacked against anyone who isn’t Charlie White or Meryl Davis? They did just win an Olympic gold medal in (ice) dancing.

Most previous seasons of the show had a couple athletes; season four, season nine and season 16 of DWTS all had four. In season eight, Olympic gymnast Shawn Johnson became the youngest person to win the competition, returning in season 15 for the all-star edition and finishing in second. All told, former athletes have won the show seven times. If you add in actors/singers with previous dance experience, that number rises to nine. So they don’t exactly dominate the competition, but they do as well as every other career combined.

This new season of the show is sans these secret former dancers, which was always the most glaring part of past seasons. Like when Mya competed in season nine, coming in second. The woman might have said she was a singer, but anyone who knows anything about Mya (or has seen the video for “My Love Is Like…Wo“) knows she’s been dancing since forever. Ditto for Nicole Scherzinger, who competed in season nine. Hellllllo, she was the lead in The Pussycat Dolls?

Anyway, congrats to everyone and enjoy your Erin Andrews-induced “young male” audiences. In other news, Brooke Burke stopped by GMA on Monday to talk about the Oscars (why she was chosen for that task is unclear) and to mention that the only surprising thing about her firing “was the way it went down.” She’s good and happy and the show is “only as good as its cast.” So this season should rock!