Ever since Samantha Harris got kicked off left Dancing with the Stars there has been a lot of speculation about who will replace as Samantha as the co-host of Dancing with the Stars. I think the speculation is finally over, but here’s a review of the various possibilities in case you missed it.

We first talked about Melissa Rycroft hosting Dancing with the Stars at the beginning of this month. There were also rumors of Ashlan Gorse and Nancy O’Dell hosting Dancing with the Stars and Lynn Hoffman co-hosting DWTS alongside Tom Bergeron. There were also rumors about Brooke Burke, Marie Osmond (thank goodness this wasn’t true), and Paula Abdul. Luckily, last week E! News said there were only 3 serious contenders for the co-host position: Melissa Rycroft, Brooke Burke and Vanessa Minnillo.

Although, tonight during a commercial for the Bachelor finale, they talked about the announcement of the new Dancing with the Stars 2010 cast during the Bachelor finale. Heidi will be live blogging the announcement, but more on that soon.

What was most interesting about the commercial was that they said, “listen to Tom Bergeron and Melissa Rycroft as they announce the new couples on Dancing with the Stars.” Does this mean that Melissa Rycroft will be the host that’s replacing Samantha Harris on Dancing with the Stars? Seems like it to me. She’ll be a busy girl hosting Dancing with the Stars with Tom and as a special correspondent for Entertainment Tonight. Although, Samantha Harris did that for quite a while.

I think this will be a good thing for Dancing with the Stars. No doubt that Melissa Rycroft will be an upgrade at the host position.

It seems E! News has changed it’s tune (or DWTS did) on the remaining candidates for Sam Harris’ job:

E! News has learned that ABC has only three serious contenders to replace the departing Samantha Harris: Melissa Rycroft, Brooke Burke and Vanessa Minnillo.

“They’re only testing those three on camera for now,” a production insider tells E! News. “The testing will happen some time next week.”

If it’s down to those three, I would have to choose Brooke first, Vanessa second and Melissa third. I like all three women, but I think Brooke is likely the best. Vanessa does have a good bit of experience too though.  Still, do you believe this report or the report from Marc Malkin (E!) reported yesterday, that it was Nancy O’Dell and Ashlan Gorse in the running?  Perhaps all five ladies were in the running and this is the final three. Who knows?

So I was talking to John last night – or should I say, lamenting – the complete paucity of blabber mouthed celebs this season. It sucks, quite frankly. Last season at this time I had reported on a significant number of people who had spilled the beans via Twitter (Kelly Osbourne, Debi Mazar, to name two). It seems that, excepting Jason Chambers and Chad Ochocinco (although that was his friends, not him), there is very little to report from Twitter – and I have to think that perhaps the DWTS peeps had wised up about the whole Twitter thing, telling potential stars to SHUT IT. So, because we’re less than three weeks out, I thought it was time for a little review of what HAS been rumored and reported on, either here or elsewhere.  I’ll discuss them by the categories I mentally put them in:

The Real Rumors with Real Potential Category

Most recently, the two big rumors have been Pam Anderson and John Stamos. Pam was outed as a potential by RadarOnline, and Karina Smirnoff claims that John was asked for a previous season and had to decline due to his Broadway commitments. I find it highly amusing that she’s putting in a claim on him just in case he changes his mind. But, for some reason, I’m not inclined to believe this one will happen – assuming Karina is correct. I just consider John Stamos to be “too big” of a star to actually consider the show. Although it’s possible he could have been asked, I suppose. But I don’t see it happening. Pam Anderson? That one sure sounds likely and I haven’t seen anyone report that Pam denied it.

I guess that the Jennifer Grey rumor goes in this category. I think. Page Six reported that she was in negotiations way back in December but I’ve not heard much about it since then. Very well could be true – we find out in three weeks.

There are a couple of rumors that go here, but not necessarily for DANCING.  Paula Abdul (judge or dancer?), Marie Osmond (shudder – potential new co-host) and Nancy O’Dell (potential new co-host).  I think the Marie thing is more speculation than actual rumor. Billy Bush reported that there were 5 candidates remaining for the co-host job and that he was REALLY rooting for one in particular. That says Nancy O’Dell to me. The Marie thing was, I think, people taking his words and speculating. I HOPE.  And who the heck knows what is going on with Paula Abdul.

The Blabbermouth Celebrity Category

Jason Chambers is kinda lonely in this category, this season. He straight up said he had meetings with DWTS producers, as I discussed in a post back on February 1, 2010.  Because he blabbed, he may have blown his chance. The woman in me hopes like hell he hasn’t.  Chad Ochocinco, on the other hand, was outed by a former team mate as being a possibility for last season. As I said before, celebs rumored for one season often show up on later seasons.  Interestingly enough, I did see some twitter chatter that said Chad was going to LA this week – the speculation by these people was that his trip was related to DWTS.  I guess we’ll see.  And I almost forgot – Dirt Nasty (aka Simon Rex)!  He claims he met with the producers back in early January.  Did I read that this guy now does porn, or did I imagine that?

The PLEASE PUT ME ON DWTS Category

This is a surprisingly large category.  I’ll just make a list of the ones I’m aware of, starting with the oldest one (from late 2009)
- Flight Time (aka Herbert Lang) of the Harlem Globetrotters by way of The Amazing Race
- Jermaine Dupre
- Kate Gosslin
- Danielle Fishel
- Ross Mathews
- Greg Louganis (who could also fit in the category below)
- Kevin Federine – this one is per Ryan Seacrest on his radio show this morning.  It seems I’ve heard this one before, but maybe I’m confusing him with someone else.
- Candace Cameron Bure – I think we can safely put her in this category based on what I posted here.

That’s all I could find right now. I’m sure someone will pop in (with links) to remind me of others who want to be on the show.

And finally….
The “We’ve Heard This one Before” Category

Back on January 4th, I wrote a couple posts detailing rumors from previous seasons. The intent was to keep track of previous rumors to see if any of them came true for Season 10. Those posts were also titled Rumor Round Up and Rumor Round Up Part II – I’m not going to list all that again, so if you’re curious, click!!  Kurt Angle, Bethany Frankel and Vera Wang are the only ones I’ve heard any followup on recently.  It’s all speculation on the part of views, as I recall, so I won’t detail it here.

I previously made my DWTS Season 8 Couples suggestions. Today they made the official announcement of the couples for season 8 of Dancing with the Stars. Check out the pairings below and then go vote for your favorite DWTS star.

Belinda Carlisle is paired with Jonathan Roberts
Singer and Band Member of The Go-Go’s

David Alan Grier is paired with Kym Johnson
Actor and Comedian

Jewel is paired with Dmitry Chaplin
Singer-Songwriter

Shawn Johnson is paired with Mark Ballas
2008 Gold Medalist Olympic Gymnast

Lil’ Kim is paired with Derek Hough
Grammy Award Winning Rapper

Gilles Marini is paired with Cheryl Burke
Sex and the City Actor

Ty Murray is paired with Chelsie Hightower
Rodeo Champion

Steve-O is paired with Lacey Schwimmer
Jackass and Wildboyz Reality Star

Nancy O’Dell is paired with Tony Dovolani
Access Hollywood Co-Anchor

Denise Richards is paired with Maksim Chmerkovskiy
Television and Film Actress

Lawrence Taylor is paired with Edyta Sliwinska
Retired NFL Linebacker

Chuck Wicks is paired with Julianne Hough
Country Singer

Steve Wozniak is paired with Karina Smirnoff
Apple Co-Founder and Philanthropist

UPDATE: Vote for the Dancing with the Stars 2009 finale couples.

Now that we know the full Dancing with the Stars cast, it’s time to see which of the stars are your favorite. Vote for your favorite Dancing with the Stars star in the poll below. You can only vote for one DWTS star. I wonder which star will garner the most votes.

Let us know why they’re your favorite in the comments. Also, I’d love to hear who you think will be their professional partner.

Tonight, they announced the official Dancing with the Stars cast. They still haven’t announced the couples that will be dancing on Dancing with the Stars 2009. Until we hear the official announcement of couples, here’s my take on who might be good partners for the stars on Dancing with the Stars 2009. To make things simple, I just used the professionals from last season even though I’m pretty sure that at least a couple of the professional dancers will be different this season as well.

Chuck Wicks and Lacey Schwimmer just because just think how jealous Julianne would be if this happens. Actually I’ll be surprised if Chuck dances with anyone other than Julianne Hough. I know if I were Julianne I wouldn’t let Chuck dance on the show without me. However, that pick was too easy so I took Lacey to replace Julianne.

Denise Richards and Alec Mazo because Alec always seems to get really attractive stars for his partners. I wonder if that’s just to make Edyta jealous.

Gilles Marini and Inna Brayer because people barely know Gilles Marini and they barely know Inna Brayer. Sounds like a perfect match for failure to me.

Lawrence Taylor and Karina Smirnoff because she deserves to be with a popular football player. Too bad Lawrence Taylor isn’t really all that popular and is way past his prime. He’s definitely not Emmitt Smith, Jerry Rice or Jason Taylor. Too bad Karina, another year of not doing very well.

Lil’ Kim and Corky Ballas just because it would be the funniest looking couple. Actually, I’m guessing Corky won’t be back for this season, but just imagine him and Lil’ Kim together and you’ll realize that Dancing with the Stars is actually a comedy.

Nancy O’Dell and Maks Chmerkovskiy because they would just make the best couple. 2 beautiful and tall dancers would be great to watch.

Shawn Johnson and Mark Ballas Jr. since Shawn is really short and Mark is probably the shortest professional dancer.

Steve-O and Edyta Sliwinska because Edyta always loves to make the oddest faces when her partners do something weird. Just wait to see her reactions after being around Steve-O.

Steve Wozniak and Kym Johnson because Kym always gets screwed by having a partner that can’t dance. Plus, just having Woz and Kym together would make nerds all over the world proud to be a nerd.

Belinda Carlisle and Tony Dovolani because Tony always seems to get stuck with the old ladies. Not that Belinda’s that old, but this group is relatively young.

David Alan Grier and Cheryl Burke because David is likely to come up with something like “Winner Winner Chicken Dinner” and Cheryl will wonder how she went from winning so many mirror ball trophies to this. Plus, the producers won’t want Cheryl to win too many times and so this would pretty much guarantee she won’t.

Ty Murray and Julianne Hough since Ty seems to like country singers.

Jewel and Derek Hough because 2 beautiful blonds provide an interesting story. Blonds might be stupid, but I’m guessing that Derek and Jewel would prove that blonds can dance!

As you can tell, this was a real scientific method for selecting the possibly Dancing with the Stars season 8 couples.