In a twist that sounds more desperate than anything else, Dancing with the Stars will force its cast of celebrity contestants to switch professional partners mid-season based on viewer votes. The 18th season’s cast has been announced, and includes Olympians Meryl Davis and Charlie White, who will dance with pro partners, not each other. The show’s ratings have been declining in recent seasons, and so producers fired its co-host and band.
ABC calls the twist “The Switch Up” and says “America will be given the power to vote and change celebrities and professional dance pairings. This new rule will affect all couples as they will be required to switch partners at a point in the season. Never before have dance partnerships been split up during the course of competition.”
This sounds like it’ll definitely create drama—and work against one of the things that works best about the show, which is watching the relationship between the celebrity and pro develop over the season.
Here’s the cast:
Pro hockey player Sean Avery with Karina Smirnoff
Full House Star Candace Cameron Bure with Mark Ballas
Comedian Drew Carey with Cheryl Burke
Olympian Meryl Davis and Maksim Chmerkovskiy
Reality star Nene Leakes with Tony Dovolani
Nickelodeon star James Maslow with Peta Murgatroyd
Wonder Years star and math book author Danica McKellar with Valentin Chmerkovskiy
Swimmer Diana Nyad with Henry Byalikov
Paralympian Amy Purdy with Derek Hough
Disney Channel star Cody Simpson with Witney Carson
Olympian Charlie White with Sharna Burgess
Billy Dee Williams with Emma Slater
No comments:
Post a Comment