Twitter/DWTSJuniors
While Dancing With the Stars is notorious for keeping casts under wraps for upcoming seasons until only a few weeks before the premiere, things are different when it comes to Dancing With the Stars: Juniors.
The DWTS spinoff which is set to air on Sunday nights starting in October while the regular season of Dancing With the Stars begins in September, is focused on junior celebrity dancers and junior pros, but they will have some help from Dancing With the Stars veterans who will be acting as mentors.
On Wednesday, August 1, the new series revealed its pro dancer lineup and their mentors to be: JT Church and Alan Bersten, Tristan Ianiero and Artem Chigvinstev, Artyon Celestine and Brandon Armstrong, Hailey Bills and Jenna Johnson, Rylee Arnold and Lindsay Arnold, Cameron Couch and Hayley Erbert, Keo Motsepe and Lev Khmelev, Sasha Farber and Jake Monreal, Gleb Savchenko and Sage Rosen, Brightyn Brems and Cheryl Burke, Witney Carson and Lamri Peterson, Elliana Walmsley and Emma Slater.
Meanwhile, it was also announced earlier in the week that two-time Mirror Ball champ Valentin Chermkovskiy along with Dancing With the Stars: Athletes winner Adam Rippon, and award-winning choreographer Mandy Moore would be the three judges for Dancing With the Stars: Juniors.
With Tom Bergeron and Erin Andrews busy hosting season 27 of Dancing With the Stars, the Juniors hosts have been revealed to be previous Dancing With the Stars competitors, Jordan Fisher and Frankie Muniz. “When they finally called that it was happening, I was so excited because I had such an amazing time on Dancing with the Stars,” Muniz told ET. “So, to be able to stay in the family and get to experience it from a different perspective and get to host the new show, like, I was thrilled. And I’m so glad to be doing it with Jordan because we have so much fun together. It’s going to be awesome!”
“It’s Dancing with the Stars as you know it,” Fisher adds. “It’s people you are familiar with and that you love. It’s a stage that you’re familiar with, that you love, but it’s [all] brand new. It’s the same show — it’s the same feeling of sitting down and watching people compete in something that they’ve never done before.”
Although the celebrity cast has yet to be announced, rumors have circulated that former TLC star Alana “Honey Boo Boo” Thompson, Black-ish actor Miles Johnson and NBA star Scottie Pippen’s daughter, Sophia, have all been cast to compete.
Dancing with the Stars: Juniors premieres Oct. 7, and the new season of the original Dancing with the Stars premieres Sept. 24, both on ABC.