Dancing With The Stars, Season 18 Cast

Season 18 of Dancing With The Stars is set to premiere on Monday, March 17. A few changes have already been announced, as well as the new cast. The first change is that Brooke Burke-Charvet is out as Tom Bergeron's co-host, and Erin Andrews is taking her place. Erin is a Dancing With The Stars alumni. She was partnered with Maks on Season 10, and she came in 3rd. Her regular gig is a Fox Sports host.

Another change is that Harold Wheeler and his 28-member band are also out. They have been with the show for all 17 of the previous seasons. It was announced that the new band leader was going to be Ray Chew, so live music will still be a part of the show. The past few seasons, they have experimented by having a musical guest perform for some of the dances, so I'm guessing we'll see more of that. Last year I noticed that they were playing a few original recordings of the songs instead of having the band butcher and mangle them beyond recognition. I hope we hear more recordings like that and no more recreations of the songs. I won't mind if they want to bring in some current (and I can't emphasize enough "CURRENT") musicians to perform as well.

On Monday when the cast was announced, a new twist was also announced. This season, at some point, the fans will vote on the pro/star pairs, and it's possible that some people could switch partners. Won't that be interesting! This twist could have REALLY helped out some people in the past (*cough*, Tristan, *cough*).

So without further ado, here are your Season 18 cast members:

	Sean Avery Former NHL Player (Red Wings, Kings Stars, Rangers) Karina Smirnoff Winner of Season 13
	Drew Carey TV Star (The Drew Carey Show) and Host of The Price Is Right Cheryl Burke Winner of Seasons 2 and 3
	James Maslow Actor/Musician in Big Time Rush Peta Murgatroyd Winner of Season 14
	Cody Simpson Singer from Australia Witney Carson 1st time pro; former member of the Dancing Troupe and a So You Think You Can Dance alumni
	Charlie White US Olympic Gold Medalist in Ice Dance with his partner Meryl Davis Sharna Burgess Best finish: 7th
	Billy Dee Williams Actor (Star Wars) Emma Slater Best finish: 4th
	Candace Cameron Bure Actress (Full House) Mark Ballas Winner of Seasons 6 and 8
	Meryl Davis US Olympic Gold Medalist in Ice Dance with her partner Charlie White Maksim Chmerkovskiy Best finish: 2nd
	Nene Leakes Reality TV Star (Real Housewives of Atlanta, Celebrity Apprentice) Tony Dovolani Winner of Season 15 (All-Stars)
	Danica McKellar Actress (The Wonder Years) Val Chmerkovskiy Best finish: 2nd
	Diana Nyad World Record Long Distance Swimmer Henry Byalikov 1st time pro; member of the Dancing Troupe
	Amy Purdy US Paralympic Snowboarder Derek Hough Winner of Seasons 7, 10, 11, 16 and 17

Photos from: abc.go.com

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