This season's new cast is:

Marlee Matlin (Oscar winner for children of a lesser god)
Penn Gillette (of Penn and Teller)
Marissa Jaret Winakour (of Broadway's Hairspray)
Adam Carolla (comedian)
Kristi Yamaguchi (Olympic figure skater)
Cristian de la Fuente (latin hearthrob)
Monica Seles (tennis player)
Mario (r and b singer)
Steve Guttenberg (of Police Academy fame)
Jason Taylor (from the Miami Dolphins)
Shannon Elizabeth (from American Pie)
Priscilla Presley (wife of the late Elvis Presley)

Interesting cast, not sure who I really like except for Kristi Yamaguchi and Steve Guttenberg (Hey, I grew up on Police Academy...lol)

• RE: New cast announced tonight on Dance Wars,Round Robin, 03:51 AM, 02-19-08
• RE: New cast announced tonight on Dance Wars,Loree, 07:53 AM, 02-19-08
  • RE: New cast announced tonight on Dance Wars,Estee, 08:09 AM, 02-19-08
    • RE: New cast announced tonight on Dance Wars,Loree, 08:43 AM, 02-19-08
• Problem areas.,Estee, 08:42 AM, 02-19-08
  • RE: Problem areas.,Loree, 08:51 AM, 02-19-08
  • RE: Problem areas.,keezrfan, 09:07 AM, 02-19-08
  • RE: Problem areas.,Snidget, 09:18 AM, 02-19-08
    • RE: Problem areas.,mindy23, 10:52 AM, 02-19-08
      • RE: Problem areas.,qwertypie, 02:46 AM, 02-21-08
• Pairings, per People.com,keezrfan, 10:59 AM, 02-19-08
  • RE: Question about Marlee,mindy23, 11:03 AM, 02-19-08
    • RE: Question about Marlee,Angel_K, 04:34 PM, 02-19-08
    • RE: Question about Marlee,PepeLePew13, 07:16 AM, 02-20-08
      • RE: Question about Marlee,observer, 01:34 AM, 02-22-08
        • RE: Question about Marlee,PepeLePew13, 07:27 AM, 02-22-08
          • RE: Question about Marlee,qwertypie, 04:36 PM, 02-23-08
• TV Guide info,Snidget, 08:58 PM, 02-25-08
  • RE: TV Guide info,twinkledance, 05:56 PM, 02-26-08
• When does the new season start? ,Karchita, 11:36 AM, 03-13-08
  • RE: When does the new season start? ,Snidget, 11:50 AM, 03-13-08
    • RE: When does the new season start? ,Karchita, 02:03 PM, 03-13-08
      • RE: When does the new season start? ,observer, 10:33 PM, 03-26-08

Go Kristi and Monica!

No idea if he is right. But Perez Hilton is saying that Julianne is paired with Adam Carolla.

Which will remove him with an injury after he slips in a puddle of his own drool.

OK I heard Adam had Julianne on his radio show and said they will be partners.

If Penn's schedule has stayed consistent, then he's got one of the most demanding regimes of anyone: showtime, showtime, showtime -- and that's not even counting Showtime. He won't have much time for training, plus his attitude towards pretty much the entire universe breaks down into three categories: I'm Mocking This, What The Hell, and Roll With It. None of this adds up to an intense competitor. Toss in his relatively low and equally-quirked fan base plus the fact that evangelicals despise him, and I think we're looking at the first boot.

Marissa doesn't have a Standard Female Dancer somatype, and she's another one with a low fan base. She has dancing skill to build on, she can definitely perform, and her public personality can draw people in quickly -- but at the same time, this is a very shallow nation. All we need is enough people saying 'How dare they show us a costume that isn't a size 0!' and we can all wave goodbye to the Tony winner. (Expect the gossip blogs to lead the anti-charge there.)

Adam's another one with a pretty demanding schedule (although he'd have an easier time getting hours off). But Adam's main problem is going to be the female vote. He doesn't have it. Adam's reputation for a large percentage of the voter base breaks down to 'megajerk', and he has less of a chance at a natural, uninvited redemption edit than, say, Scott Peterson. He does have his fans, and gawds know they're loud -- but I'm not sure they can be bothered to watch DWTS, much less lift a phone: true men don't do that sort of thing, and how dare he even ask! Still, VFTW might keep him in for a while.

Cristian's issue is simple: who? I'm sure he's got a fanbase, and it's probably a big, boisterous one that'll see him through to the middle stages without effort. And even so -- who? If you don't watch telenovelas -- which is still the case for a lot of the country -- you don't know who he is. So if he wants to win, he'll have to be two things: very talented and very hot. Hormonal vote or out, because the name recognition isn't going to do it. (He has some US roles in mainstream, but nothing major.)

Mario has the female teen hormonal vote. And how. Actual dance ability may not matter -- but as a singer, he stands a good chance to have some: training for videos and concerts. To a large degree, all he has to do is show up -- at least for the first half of the competition.

Kristi is the one whom I want to think has a lot of natural talent that just needs direction -- but she's also one of the two where I'm afraid her fanbase may keep her around long-past the time when she should have gone out. (On the other hand, she may have the most unforgiving voters. 'One toe out of place! Minus ten calls!')

Priscilla is the one where it may not matter what she does. She can haul a chair out to center floor, sit on it, fall asleep, and get sixteen million calls -- if the Elvis fans line up behind her. Fanatical fanbases much? Bring in Graceland, and Priscilla almost has to be F3. Anyone want to explain how to keep them out?

I am picturing Priscilla as the Jane Seymour of this season. And I expect her to last about the same. Hopefully she won't have the bad luck of Jane.

Who will be cursed this season?

I don't know that much about several of the cast this season. It will be interesting who does well and who has a fan base. Of course the pairing of the celebs with the dancers helps and hurts some of them.

FYI, Priscilla was on good morning america this morning, with her partner, Louis. ANyone hear anything else about who is paired with who?

LAST EDITED ON 02-19-08 AT 09:20 AM (EST)

Kristi may do pretty well as she was competing and winning in pairs with Rudy Galindo at the senior level before focusing on her individual competition.

She should have some partnering skills that I would suspect would translate to ballroom pretty well.

ETA link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kristi_Yamaguchi Also since she was competing in both singles and pairs at the same time for awhile I suspect that she may be one of those that will train really hard.

Wow, interesting cast, alright!! Who'd a thunk of Steve Guttenburg?? He's had a long, righteous career in movies! Not recently, but hey! He's good! I like him, and it will be interesting to see him paired up. I hope he gets Cheryl-they both deserve a GOOD pairing!!

Priscilla-yeah, she'll have the Scientology fan base, as well as Elvis' die-hard with a vengence.

Kristi should be ahead of the game, if she's keeping up her athletic skills, and I'm sure she is. The rest? That's something I really can't comment on. I don't know too many of them all that well.

I think it will be an interesting cast, and an interesting season. We definitely have to start our drinking game! Onward!

You rang?

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

And I'm not trying to sound dorky in any way-but will she need or have an interpreter with her? I know she reads lips (as seen in the movies/shows I've seen her in), but what about the rest of her conversations?? Will that be seen as a slight hinderance?? What do you all think (and should this be in a new post? I'm never sure, and don't want to get locked!)

Fabian is the new guy, right? Maybe he knows sign language.. otherwise it would definitely be a challenge
I know what you mean.

LAST EDITED ON 02-20-08 AT 07:27 AM (EST)

Actually, most deaf people have some sort of residual hearing - and it depends on whether you grew up with a love for music or not. There are numerous deaf dance troupes out there, believe it or not, and I have friends who have been part of such troupes.

Dancing, for a deaf person, depends on the ability to feel the rhythm and bass tones, as well as being able to count the beats. I'm sure that Marlee will have her personal interpreter (Jack Jason) to give her visual cues when to start etc. but after that, she'll do just fine maintaining a rhythm with her partner.

Besides, it's not like hearing people can dance any better! Have you seen people dance after they've had a couple of drinks at the nightclub?

I remember when I announced I was going to go for my driver's licence back in the 80's - after much screaming and hilarity from family members, I showed them stats where it's been proven that deaf people have historically better driving records than hearing people.

ETA: Gallaudet's Celebration Of Dance

I read somewhere that Marlee Matlin has 20 percent hearing in one ear.

Not enough to fully understand music but she would depend a lot more on feeling the beats and rhythm of the music - they would have high-quality equipment on the show, so that shouldn't be a problem to be able to follow the beats.

Hopefully their audio is better than their camera work. Just saying.

Also, since the live music is never like the CD version (and is really quite terrible at times), I am not sure that she would be much more of a disadvantage than the other competitors. *tongue in firmly in cheek*

Marlee says in the blurb she has some new digital hearing aids that allow her to hear the beat and a bit of the music.

Hidden text follows with the results of Tv guide's poll if you don't want to know. Seems they are ranked by gender, not overall

52% Kristi Yamaguchi
18% Marlee Matlin
12% Priscilla Presley
8% Sharron Elizabeth
6% Marissa Jaret Winokur
4% Monica Seles

32% Steve Guttenberg
24% Christian de la Fuente
18% Jason Taylor
12% Adam Carolla
8% Mario
6% Penn Jillette