The Dancing With the Stars season 28 cast is ready to hit the dance floor.
Us Weekly can exclusively reveal the first official cast photo for the upcoming season. The picture features the 12 celebrity contestants dressed in black and white, as they pose next to a velvet couch and armchair.
DWTS announced the cast for its new season on Good Morning America on August 21. The lineup includes James Van Der Beek, Christie Brinkley, Lamar Odom, season 15 Bachelorette Hannah Brown, former Fifth Harmony member Ally Brooke, Queer Eye expert Karamo Brown, The Office’s Kate Flannery, All That alum Kel Mitchell, American Idol runner-up Lauren Alaina, The Supremes member Mary Wilson, former NFL linebacker Ray Lewis and President Donald Trump’s former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer.
Though the show hasn’t revealed which professional dancer is paired with which star, the returning pros include Alan Bersten, Brandon Armstrong, Cheryl Burke, Emma Slater, Gleb Savchenko, Jenna Johnson, Keo Motsepe, Lindsay Arnold, Peta Murgatroyd, Sasha Farber, Val Chmerkovskiy and Witney Carson.
The roster will also add two new pros for the season, husband and wife Pasha Pashkov and Daniella Karagach.
Judges Len Goodman, Bruno Tonioli and Carrie Ann Inaba are also set to return.
Season 28 is the first time in DWTS history that the pros and contestants were revealed separately.
“We wanted to do something a little different this year,” executive producer Andrew Llinares said of the decision at the D23 Expo on August 23. “After 27 seasons it’s tough. We want to keep the show fresh for you guys. We just thought it would be kind of fun to to hold off on revealing the partners to the audience until the premiere. … I think it’s a fun little twist.”
The exec also revealed another change to the upcoming season: live voting.
“We’ve been off air for a year so we want to make this season really, really special and make it bigger, more exciting and more fun than it’s ever been,” he said. “One thing we are going to do is introduce live voting on the program this season, which is something we haven’t done before. You’ll see the result at the end of that show based upon what happened that night.”
Dancing With the Stars season 28 premieres on ABC Monday, September 16, at 8 p.m. ET.
