Originally Posted by KiwiJay:
“So the cast for Season 19 of Dancing With The Stars, likely is:
Tommy Chong, 76, Cheech & Chong comedian, actor and activist
Betsey Johnson, 72, Fashion designer
Lea Thompson, 53, Film actress (Back to the Future)
Michael Waltrip, 51, NASCAR driver & racing commentator
Randy Couture, 51, UFC mixed martial arts fighter & actor (The Expendables)
Alfonso Ribiero, 42, Former Fresh Prince of Bel Air actor
Antonio Sabato Jr, 42, General Hospital actor & model
Jonathan Bennett, 33, Film and television actor (Mean Girls)
Lolo Jones, 32, Track and field olympian
Nash Overstreet, 28, Hot Chelle Rae band member (at this point unlikely)
Janel Parrish, 25, Pretty Little Liars actress
Bethany Mota, 18, YouTube sensation
Sadie Robertson, 17, Reality television star (Duck Dynasty)”
Overall this is a really low-star-power cast. Chong & Johnson, in their own ways, are fairly important, Thompson and Ribiero reasonably well known actors, but definitely C list (Thompson's main claims to higher would be a TV show that was popular for a few years, and of course, Back To The Future). Sabato Jr. is really well known to a niche audience who watched that soap, but probably not much outside of that. Jones got really famous around the Olympics, but it was that kind of sports-driven fame that's not that deep. Duck Dynasty is really big to a certain demographic in the US, but I suppose its no surprise nobody else in the world knows anybody from it.
Bethany Mota is the most confusing casting I've ever seen. It's some kind of weird attempt to acknowledge the power of Net celebrity, I guess.