'Dancing with the Stars' season 22 news: Full cast revealed; Derek Hough will not join this season
On Tuesday, March 8, "DWTS" revealed the full cast and their professional dancer partners for the 22nd season of the dancing show on "Good Morning America."
According to E! News, the fans of the show will be seeing these following pairings:
Marla Maples, dancing with Tony Dovolani
Mischa Barton, dancing with Artem Chigvintsev
Antonio Brown, dancing with Sharna Burgess
Doug Flutie, dancing with Karina Smirnoff
Wanya Morris, dancing with Lindsay Arnold
Paige VanZant, dancing with Mark Ballas
Von Miller, dancing with Witney Carson
Geraldo Rivera, dancing with Edyta Sliwinska
Kim Fields, dancing with Sasha Farber
Ginger Zee, dancing with Val Chmerkovskiy
Jodie Sweetin, dancing with Keo Motsepe
Nyle DiMarco, dancing with Peta Murgatroyd
"The OC" star Barton revealed to Us Magazine that she decided to join this season's "DWTS" in order to try something new and push herself.
However, fans of the dance competition show are not in full celebratory mode after the recent announcement that professional dancer Derek Hough will not be competing this season because he will star in the Broadway production of "Singin' in the Rain." On top of that, it was also announced earlier this year that Derek's sister, Julianne, will not return as a judge for season 22.
Despite this, veteran Len Goodman is set to return to join Carrie Ann Inaba and Bruno Tonioli in the judges' table.
Sources from Hollywood Life, however, spilled that the producers are actually excited with Derek's temporary exit. "Everyone loves Derek, but everyone also knows he is the favorite every year and gets votes just because of that fact," the source said. "This year without him is getting the producers excited as they know the votes will be spread around and make the show more of an unknown. They love that the discussion will be on multiple stars instead of who Derek is dancing with!"
"DWTS" premieres Monday, March 21, on ABC.