Steve Granitz/Getty Images, Charley Gallay/Getty Images, Jean-Paul Aussenard/Getty Images, Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images, Andrew H. Walker/Getty Images for WSF, Ethan Miller/Getty ImagesABC has revealed the professional pairings for the 13 new (sorta) famous folks set to compete on Dancing With the Stars.
At least, the network revealed the professional pairings for those duos who haven't already blabbed it themselves (ahem, Nancy O'Dell and Steve-O), been surprised with the news on live television (we're looking at you, Denise Richards), been unable to evade the prying eye of the paparazzi (cough, Shawn Johnson) or otherwise made it blatantly obvious (Chuck "I'm dating Julianne Hough" Wicks).
But just in case the pairings come as less than shocking, ABC has thrown a few extra surprises into the season-eight mix. Chief among them, taking a page from American Idol's playbook and forcing the first week's bottom two couples to engage in a "dance-off" to determine who will be saved from elimination.
Another change from previous seasons will include the introduction of a new dance on the show, the Argentine tango, and the return of the team and group dance numbers.
There are also two new pros being introduced this season, 2006 U.S. Nationalist finalist Dmitry Chaplin and Chelsie Hightower, a 10 Dance Youth National Champion. Like Lacey Schwimmer before them, both were previously YouTube-immortalized competitors on So You Think You Can Dance?
Here's the complete rundown of couples who will make their parquet debut when the show kicks off March 9:
- Belinda Carlisle & Jonathan Roberts
- David Alan Grier & Kym Johnson
- Jewel & Dmitry Chaplin
- Shawn Johnson & Mark Ballas
- Lil' Kim & Derek Hough
- Gilles Marini & Cheryl Burke
- Ty Murray & Chelsie Hightower
- Steve-O & Lacey Schwimmer
- Nancy O'Dell & Tony Dovolani
- Denise Richards & Maksim Chmerkovskiy
- Lawrence Taylor & Edyta Sliwinska
- Chuck Wicks & Julianne Hough
- Steve Wozniak & Karina Smirnoff