DWTS 16: What Was it Like to Be At the Cast Announcement?

…thankfully, we have someone to tell us! Kristina (our reader who was able to confirm there was a 12th couple – thanks again!) was fortunate enough to nab tickets to the announcement, and was gracious enough to share her experience with us.ย  Here’s some tidbits she gave us about what’s it’s really like to be there live…

Courtney: First off, you have to get up REALLY early, don’t you?

Kristina: There was a 2:30 AM call time for the studio audience, and I got there at 2.ย  It was held at a nice ABC studio, and they fed us breakfast.

C: And here I was bitching about getting up at 7 AM EST to live blog the announcement! ๐Ÿ˜› What can you tell us about the crowd, Kristina?

K: The audience was pretty small, and about half of it was press people.ย  There were no phones allowed, because they didn’t want anyone taking pictures.ย  Everyone seemed kind of quiet, and it wasn’t really the same party atmosphere that the show has. (Kristina has actually attended quite a few DWTS tapings in the past!)

C: Can’t say I blame everyone for being a bit quiet – I would be too if I had to get up that early! What were Tom & Brooke like?

K: Tom was quick-witted as always and we got the chance to chat with him briefly.ย  Also managed to exchange a quick “Hello, how are you?” with Brooke.ย  Tom’s coattails were all crumpled in the back – some sort of wardrobe malfunction.ย  He actually did a funny walk to make fun of it once he noticed!

C:ย Ok, now I’m jealous that you got to interact with the Berge ๐Ÿ˜‰ Did you interact at all with Sam & Lara?

K: ย Gal sitting next to me was a huge GMA fan, and she got to chat with Sam a bit.ย  Sam kept getting caught in between Sasha & Emma as they were dancing! I was also surprised to see the anchors whipping out their own makeup to touch-up in between takes – while Brooke had her makeup girl come out to reapply her lipstick and Tom was hollering for powder for someone else, Lara was touching her own makeup up.ย  Poor Lara actually had to have her dress fixed right before the live broadcast, because they found out during the pre-broadcast screen test that the bottom of it was see-through.

C: Nice to know that anchors, like us, are human too ๐Ÿ™‚ Anything else funny happen before the announcement?

K: One of the chairs they had on stage for the celebs kept coming unlatched, and we audience membersย were yelling tips to the people on-stage to try and help them to fix it.ย  Sasha & Emma kept having to start their dance over, because the music was coming on at random times.ย  It would be like “1, 2, 3, GO!” and there would be no music…and then it would start a few seconds later.

C: So tell us about the celebs.ย 

K: Jacoby was hilarious! Gave us quite a nice little preview of what to expect this season. LOTS of cheering for Wynnona from quite a few fans in the audience.ย  Andy was funny too, and tried to get everyone to start cheering “DICK! DICK!” in response to Wynonna’s fans cheering “Wy! Wy!” Audience seemed to be pleasantly surprised when Dorothy’s name was announced, too.ย  I actually brought my Kellie Pickler CD along with me in hopes that I could get her to sign it when I read about Kellie being rumored for this season at Pure ๐Ÿ™‚ We got to watch as they took their group photo – it was funny, they wanted the DWTS logo in the background, but the projector guy had already left for the day! They managed to get it back, though, and it was cool to see the whole cast standing together for the first time.

C: Really??? We love hearing that ๐Ÿ™‚ So in your opinion, who are the big contenders this season?

K: Dorothy for sure! Probably Jacoby too – he showed us some nice moves.ย  And probably Kellie too, since she has Derek.ย  I actually shouted out “We love you Derek Hough!” at my daughter’s request before we left the show…not sure people appreciated it, hehe.

C: I bet Heidi would have appreciated it ๐Ÿ™‚

Thanks once again to Kristina for giving us a peek behind the scenes of the annoucement, and being patient with me as I got bogged down with my 9-5 this week and didn’t get this posted immediately after the announcement ๐Ÿ˜› Kristina has actually been fortunate enough to attend quite a few tapings of the show itself (one of the advantages of living in CA), and in the future, we may get more behind-the-scenes POV’s from her on tapings she attends.ย  In the meantime, you can follow her on Twitter @KrismissHampton and chat about all things DWTS – she’s good people ๐Ÿ˜€

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Kristina at the annoucement…she’s the lovely lady in red ๐Ÿ™‚