Good Morning America Interviews DWTS Season 17 Cast Before The Premiere

Good Morning America aired a new segment on the premiere of Dancing With The Stars Season 17 this morning. The cast talked with Melissa Rycroft. We don’t have the video coverage yet, but, you can read an article about it at this link. Below is a take with comments from Valerie Harper, Jack Osbourne, Amber Riley, Leah Remini, and Bill Engvall talking of their jitters and goals. We’ll be sure to post the video as soon as it’s available. ETA: Ok, you can now watch the video coverage at this link. You can also see some of the cast dancing in stage rehearsals. Too fun!

Actress Valerie Harper, who has been diagnosed with terminal brain cancer that appears to have retreated for now, told “Good Morning America” correspondent Melissa Rycroft that, physically, she’s feeling very well.

At 74, Harper is the oldest celebrity competitor in the cast. She says she has a strained knee for which she’s receiving therapy, but added that she “wouldn’t be doing this if it was endangering me in any way.”

“And I think it was a great opportunity to get out there and say, you know, ‘I have cancer … Keep living your life. Keep moving and you can win. You can extend the time, at least,'” she said.

For TV personality Jack Osbourne, who has multiple sclerosis, participation on the program will be significant in several ways.

“One thing I hope to accomplish is, I guess, mainly, just to kind of put it out there, in all seriousness, that when you get diagnosed with MS that your life doesn’t stop and that you are still, for the most part, able to do (what) everyone else can,” he said.

“Glee” star Amber Riley also hopes to send a message through her participation.

“You know, I really want young girls that look just like me to feel – just get out there and move and dance,” she said.

As for the other celebrity dancers this season, many of them have admitted to feeling first-night jitters.

“Yes, definitely nervous. Very anxious,” Riley told Rycroft, who was “Dancing With the Stars: All-Stars” champion in 2012.

Comedian Bill Engvall said he was more nervous than he thought he would be, while actress Leah Remini admitted feeling “terrified” about her looming dance debut.

More at Good Morning America.

DWTS Season 17 Premiere Day, New Rehearsal Parking Lots Photos And Videos

Dance Time Tonight!!! Yay and to start us off today, there are some new rehearsal parking lots pics taken yesterday at the Daily Mail. You can see some fun takes of Snooki, Christina Milian, Emma Slater, Sasha Farber, Leah Remini, Karina Smirnoff, and Corbin Blue. They all look ready to go!

Also, below is some Paparazzi Xposed coverage from yesterday as well of Tony Dovolani, Leah Remini, Tristan MacManus, Valerie Harper, Jack Osbourne, and Cheryl Burke. Stay tuned, more coming up! 😉

USA Today Interviews And Breaks Down The New Contestants For Dancing With The Stars Season 17

USA Today breaks down all the new contestants for the new season of Dancing With The Stars Season 17. Each contestant remarks on their dance experience, what the rehearsals have been like leading up to the premiere, their biggest fears and challenges, and much more. Since we haven’t heard much from Team Daughatroyd yet, here is their feature on Brant. More on the other contestants at USA Today. Less than 24 hours to go now, Dancettes! We can do this!

Brant Daugherty

Age: 28

Pro dance partner: Peta Murgatroyd

How we know him: Pretty Little Liars, Army Wives, Days of Our Lives

Dancing experience: “Limited to the stage at my high school doing musicals. I really just wasn’t that good at it, so I wanted to develop my skills here a little bit.”

Expectations: “I was pretty cocky initially, and then when the rehearsals started and I started to see what we were actually doing, they knocked me down a couple of pegs. Peta has been reassuring me at every step that I’m ahead of the game, so I think we’re going to do well. I think we can win. I don’t know if we will, but I think we have it in us.”

Biggest fear: “That I’m going to get hurt and won’t be able to continue. I don’t do the sidelines well. If I get hurt and can’t do it, I know I’m going to still want to and I won’t be able to, and that terrifies me.”

Biggest obstacle: “Just getting my hips to move the right way. I grew up across the street from a cornfield in Ohio and now they want me to have these Latin hips. I have Midwestern cornfield hips. But we’ve been doing exercises to loosen me up and they’re going pretty well.”

What hurts: “My feet, definitely. They were pretty sore the first week. They’re getting better now. They had me putting them in ice baths at the end of rehearsal every time.”

Team name: “There are some terrible ones being thrown around: Daughatroyd, Team Breta and Team Pant. I don’t like any of them. We’ve got to come up with something better.”

Executive Producer Conrad Green Talks On The Changes For Dancing With The Stars Season 17

TV Guide has a new article up with Conrad Green, the Executive Producer for Dancing With The Stars, talking about this season’s changes. He tells fans not to fret. The show will be slightly different, but, it will still be the same show everyone loves. He also talks of the elimination, set changes, and more. Below are some highlights which all sound good in my opinion. What do you think?

But longtime fans shouldn’t fret, in spite of all the modifications. “There will be changes. It will feel slightly different as a show to watch, but it will feel absolutely packed with incident and excitement,” Green says. “Essentially, at core, it’s going to be the show everyone knows and loves.”

Each episode will open with a “massive dance number” and end with a pair being eliminated, with the exception of the premiere. “It’ll probably make it a lot more nerve-wracking for people’s performances,” Green admits of the same-night elimination strategy. “But I think the benefit of that is, for an audience, the story keeps on moving.” Another benefit? An extra day of rest “will probably make a huge difference in terms of people’s sanity and hopefully will make the quality of dancing better,” according to Green.

Other revisions include a new set design. Gone is the skybox; instead, the celebrity and dancer seating area will be situated on the floor near the judges’ table — which will also be shifted to the opposite side of the ballroom. The show is also adding a makeup room and a rehearsal room, where co-host Brooke Burke-Charvet will chat with the contestants before and after their performances, while Tom Bergeron will run the show from the main stage. “Brooke will be moving a lot more around different parts of the studio, to get sort of a bit more of what’s going on behind the scenes on the show,” Green explains. “So, we’re hoping the show will be more fluid and a bit less sort of predictable.”

More at TV Guide.