Dancing With Stars Season 17 Cast: Valerie Harper, Snooki, Leah Remini and Amber Riley Join
The cast for Season 17 of Dancing with the Stars was announced Wednesday.
E! Online reported the names of the celebrities who will be bringing their best dance moves to the floor. The participants are below with their partners for the season.
Amber Riley and Derek Hough
Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi and Sasha Farber
Brant Daugherty and Peta Murgatroyd
Leah Remini and Tony Dovolani
Corbin Bleu and Karina Smirnoff
Christina Milian and Mark Ballas
Valerie Harper and Tristan MacManus
Bill Nye and Tyne Stecklein
Keyshawn Johnson and Sharna Burgess
Elizabeth Berkley and Val Chmerkovskiy
Bill Engval and Emma Slater
Jack Osbourne and Cheryl Burke
One of the biggest surprises is the upcoming appearance of Harper on the dancing competition. She came forward with her brain cancer diagnosis in March. She has leptomeningeal carcinomatosis, a rare disorder in which cancer cells metastasize into the fluid-filled membrane enveloping the brain. Harper was given three months to live. However, she has since gone into almost complete remission.
The brain scans that you get every two months are looking better and better," Harper said.
This season, the show will only air once a week. Paul Lee of ABC explained the decision to downsize.
"We really wanted to focus and event-ize Dancing With the Stars. I know [executive producer] Conrad [Green] is having a whole lot of fun contracting a night on Monday that not only gives you the dances but the results. Effectively what we're doing is we're taking the votes from the judges and the votes from the audience and bringing them together at the end. Conrad has worked through a really interesting two hours. It builds to a climax at the end."