‘Dancing With The Stars: Juniors’ First Cast Members Announced


ABC’s Dancing with the Stars will deliver a spectacular junior edition of the popular reality dance competition, featuring some of television’s favorite younger celebrities to air this fall. Two names have already been dropped as competitors in the series, which pairs celebs alongside pro-dancers.

Us Weekly reported that a source close to the series claims Alana “Honey Boo Boo” Thompson and Black-ish actor Miles Brown are preparing to compete.

Thompson, 12, is best known as a reality star who rose to fame on the TLC reality series’ Toddlers & Tiaras and Here Comes Honey Boo Boo. Thompson now stars in the WEtv reality series Mama June: From Not to Hot.

Brown is a 13-year-old actor who stars as Jack Johnson on the ABC sitcom Black-ish. Us noted that Brown is also the official reporter for the Jr. NBA and also played in the 2018 NBA All-Star Celebrity Game in February.

Dancing With the Stars: Juniors is the second spinoff of the ABC reality competition, which premiered in 2005. Twenty-seven seasons later, the show is still shaking up their format, switching to a one-shot all-athletes edition for Season 26 in the spring of 2018.

Olympic figure skater Adam Rippon and pro-partner Jenna Johnson won the most recent season of the reality dance competition.

The junior dancers will reportedly be paired not with the regular pros fans are used to seeing on the series, but junior professional dancers.

Us Weekly noted that two pros will have a personal connection to the professional teenage dancers taking the ballroom floor for the first time.

It was reported by Just Jared that Lindsay Arnold’s sister, Rylee Arnold, and Jenna Johnson’s niece, Hailey Bills will be leading their celeb partners in the junior edition. Reportedly, both Lindsay and Johnson, who are pros on the original series, will act as mentors on the series.

The site also reported that America’s Got Talent‘s Ayrton Celestine will also be a pro dancer on the series as well. The new cast will also feature young dance pros Brightyn Brems, Artyon Celestine, JT Church, Kami Couch, Tristan Ianeiro, Lev Khmelev, Jake Monreal, Kamri Peterson, Sage Rosen, and Eliana Walmsley.

Church and Monreal were featured on the Next Generation of Fox’s So You Think You Can Dance and Walmsley was featured on Lifetime’s Dance Moms.

ABC has yet to announce a formal premiere date for the debut of Dancing With the Stars: Juniors. The show will air on Sunday evenings instead of the series usual Monday night time slot.

This one-off season will be followed by a regular season of Dancing with the Stars, which will air on Monday nights.

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