DWTS Executive Producer Conrad Green And Cast Comment On Dancing With The Stars Season 17

And the fun has just begun!!! USA Today has a cool piece up with quotes from the new cast of Dancing With The Stars and why they decided to dance, etc. Dancing With The Stars producer Conrad Green also comments on the cast. Below is a take.

“I feel like it’s one of the best (fields) we’ve had in years. Every single person justifies their place,” executive producer Conrad Green says of the new dancing dozen. “We wanted to get people with compelling stories. We wanted to get people who will be able to put on a show for us. We wanted something that would appeal to every age of the family and we’ve got that with this cast.”

A strong field could help the long-running dance competition as it shrinks from two shows a week to one, eliminating the Tuesday results show.

“It’s a critical season for us. We’re going to one night a week. We really want to make a bang with it and we know the single biggest determining factor in how well the show does is the cast,” Green says.

The new dancers are excited about the opportunity.

“I’ve always been a fan of the show and I am in the best shape of my life, so I feel if I can lose 50 pounds in six months, I can learn the waltz,” says Polizzi, who gave birth to son Lorenzo last year, in an e-mail.

Standing out among the stars is Harper, best known for playing Rhoda Morgenstern on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, who in March said her life expectancy was three months. However, she is close to remission, a doctor says in an upcoming NBC special.

“She’s feeling great at the moment. Her treatment is working out wonderfully. I think she’s very much seizing life and doing things she wants to do and trying to give a positive message to people who are suffering from some of these terrible illnesses, that you can still get out and do things and really make the most of the time you have,” Green says of the 74-year-old actress, who was a dancer in her 20s. “It’s an incredibly positive and quite moving story.”

So exciting! You can read the story in full at USA Today.