‘Dancing With The Stars’ 2018 Cast Reveal Date & Potential Contestants, According To ‘DWTS’ Casting Director
Dancing with the Stars 2018 is just around the corner and talk about which sports stars will make the all-athlete cast is hitting fever pitch. Now that the Winter Olympics are over, fans are wondering if their favorite skater, skier, snowboarder, or bobsledder will be competing on the dance floor for a shot at the Mirror Ball trophy in Season 26.
DWTS casting director, Deena Katz, spoke with 11 Alive about the cast reveal date for Season 26 and who the potential contestants will be.
Katz is looking for sports figures who’ve appealed to the masses. She watched the 2018 Winter Olympics and admitted she could easily fill the cast list with the ice skaters, but the Dancing with the Stars roster will have contestants from “all corners” of the sports world.
“… If I could just do a season of ice skaters, that would be fantastic because I could have filled it up just with them.”
During the Olympics, Katz said she kept her eye on the big stars as well — Lindsey Vonn, Shaun White, etc. The casting director and co-executive producer waited for those special moments in which America fell in love with a particular athlete regardless of their celebrity status.
“As I’m watching, I think the best thing to do is watch the fans, because these are the fans that watch our show.”
The point is for viewers to watch their favorite athletes “get out of their comfort zones” and going on the journey with them.
Which 2018 Olympians want to do Dancing With the Stars? https://t.co/TsuaTQ0xdM
— Entertainment Weekly (@EW) February 24, 2018
There are a “handful” of Olympians from PeyongChang that the casting director is considering. She spilled that indeed some of the potential contestants are figure skaters. Athletes from various sports will be cast in the first 2018 season of Dancing with the Stars. It’s about finding the athletes that fans fell in love with while watching them on TV. Katz’s admits that she watched the athletes as a fan and will change her cast as she follows what they do.
Some potential names already being tossed around over who will appear on DWTS Season 26 are Adam Rippon, Chloe Kim, Ester Ledecka, Maddie Rooney, John Shuster, and Mirai Nagasu.
Nagasu, who was the first U.S. woman to land the triple axel at the Olympics successfully, remarked that she treated the competition like an audition for DWTS. She helped the U.S. win a bronze medal in the team event, but finished 10th in the individual competition. Is she being considered for a spot on Season 26? Katz isn’t ruling her out but has others she wants on the cast as well.
“I think she’s adorable, and I’m still really making the picks on who it is, but obviously she, Adam [Rippon], Nathan [Chen], the Shibutani’s.”
According to Entertainment Weekly, some athletes from the Winter Games have expressed interest in appearing on DWTS. They include bobsledders Aja Evans and Carlos Valdes, snowboarder Maddie Mastro, ice dancers Zach Donohue and Alex and Maia Shibutani, hockey player Meghan Duggan, and luger Chris Mazdzer.
The cast reveal for Dancing with the Stars Season 26 will be announced the week of April 9, and the show premieres on Monday, April 30 at 8 p.m., ET/PT on ABC.
