LOS ANGELES — Grammy Award-winner Patti LaBelle and Michael Sam, the NFL’s first openly gay draft pick, are two of the 11 celebrities announced Tuesday as part of the upcoming 20th season of ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars.” ADVERTISING LOS
LOS ANGELES — Grammy Award-winner Patti LaBelle and Michael Sam, the NFL’s first openly gay draft pick, are two of the 11 celebrities announced Tuesday as part of the upcoming 20th season of ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars.”
LaBelle, whose singing career has spanned 50 years, will be paired with Artem Chigvintsev. Sam, who trained with both the Dallas Cowboys and the St. Louis Rams last season, will dance with Peta Murgatroyd.
Other celebrities announced in the lineup include Iraq war veteran, double-amputee and motivational speaker Noah Galloway. He’ll dance with Sharna Burgess.
Robert Herjavec, the millionaire businessman better known as “the nice guy” on ABC’s “Shark Tank,” will dance with Kym Johnson.
Gold medal Olympic gymnast Nastia Liukin will dance with Derek Hough.
Riker Lynch, part of the sibling music act R5 and sometime “Glee” performer, will dance with Allison Holker.
Charlotte McKinney, the bikini model from the Carl’s Jr. Super Bowl ad, will dance with Keo Motsepe.
Redfoo, half of the act LFMAO and a former “Dancing With the Stars” guest judge, will compete alongside Emma Slater.
Actress Willow Shields, who plays Primrose Everdeen in “The Hunger Games” movies, will dance with Mark Ballas.
Sitcom star and ThighMaster mogul Suzanne Somers will dance with Tony Dovolani.
Actress Rumer Willis will dance with Valentin Chmerkovskiy.
There will also be a surprise celebrity competitor who will dance with last season’s winning dancer Witney Carson.
Although this is the 20th season of the show, it’s actually the 10th anniversary — two seasons per year — and the upcoming episodes will celebrate the milestone with a lot of looking back over the 10-year history. There will be a return to popular theme nights, including Disney night and Latin night. And there will also be a greater online presence, with streaming videos of the rehearsal studio posted to ABC’s website.
