Dancing with the Stars Season 16: Cast Announcement Live Blog!!!

Woohoooooo! After weeks of few casting rumors and a hectic week of pro watching, the big day is finally here: today we find out who’s going to be dancing on season 16, and who they’ll be dancing with (I presume).  I’m assuming this cast announcement is going to pretty closely mirror the season 14 cast announcement, which was also on GMA: they kill time and tantalize us with periodic clues and whatnot for the first hour or so, then they announce all of the celebs, take a commercial break, announce which pro each celeb is paired with, take another commercial break, have a brief Q&A session with the couples, and then they’re done.  A lot less painless than sitting through the fauxmance and schlock of The Bachelor, if you ask moi 😉

First, a few ground rules: please, please, PLEASE do NOT keep hitting refresh repeatedly on this page! We keep upgrading our server, but during high-traffic times (such as the cast announcement), things tend to get a bit…wonky.  If you keep hitting refresh, I cannot get in the dash to update the page, and thus nobody gets any updates.  Try to keep the refreshing limited to every 15 minutes, k? You can also feel free to follow @puredwts on Twitter – Heidi will be tweeting the names as they’re announced as well.  Also, if you’re watching the announcement yourself (or are carefully monitoring Twitter/the interwebs) and hear the names, PLEASE – do not post them in the comments if you don’t see them posted in the body of the post (looking at YOU, Grant).  Not only does this also clog up the server and prevent me from updating the post, it also irritates the hell out of me, as I am not a) Amish, b) broke, or c) living in a van down by the river, and I, like you, have television, internet, and Twitter.  If you don’t see it posted, it’s because I’m still trying to get into the dash – not because I don’t see it.

UPDATE: Moving the list of couples up to the top of the page for those who don’t want to hear all my play-by-plays 😛 I went ahead and put Sean & Peta on the list, but they are by no means a sure thing…

ETA2: We’ve confirmed there is, indeed, a 12th couple…but no official source stating that it’s Sean & Peta.  I’d be surprised if it wasn’t them, though. 

Ok, now that that’s settled, on with the show!!!

6:45 AM EST: I am up, and I am not happy about it.  While I tend to my whining, hungry feline and fix myself some go-go juice to help me wake up, you should check out Pro Watch and Rumor Round-Up to see what pros & celebs we might see at the announcement today.

7:21 AM EST: We’ve still got an hour or so to go before the announcement, but they have started spilling some clues – the biggest of which being that there’s only ELEVEN couples. 😯 Either Lara misspoke, or one of the pros that we originally thought was in is now out.  Also worth noting? They said there are TWO Olympic gold medalists in this season’s cast.  Looks like they’ve got Sam & Lara holding it down out in LA.

7:32 AM EST: More clues! One of the celebs is a “5-time Grammy award winner” that is “known for her voice”; another celeb is a “knockout in the ring”.  Obviously the latter is Victor Ortiz, but is Wynonna a Grammy winner??? DJ Kiss is spinning, and the Berge is a-lurkin’…we’ve got about 45 minutes to go till the announcement.

7:41 AM EST: Ok, now that we’ve got a moment to breathe, let’s take inventory: we already know Jacoby Jones is in, and based on the clues given, I feel like Victor Ortiz, Wynonna Judd, & Aly Raisman are in.  Also feel confident that Lisa Vanderpump is in.  What do you guys think?

7:56 AM EST: Quick blurb of Sasha & Emma dancing for the audience.  I’m guessing the whole troupe is there, just for entertainment & crowd-hyping purposes.  They say the announcement is coming soon…so my next update will probably be a list of the cast.  Looks like they’re billing this cast as the “most competitive cast ever”!

8:08 AM EST: We have a clue about the soap star…it’s a guy, and according to Lara “Hey may have been on a soap, but he can get very, very dirty!!!” Oh please be Tony Geary!!!

8:11 AM EST: Cast announcement in 6 minutes!!! Hold onto your seats, kids…

8:18 AM EST: Your season 16 celebs are: Wynonna Judd, D.L. Hughley, Jacoby Jones, Lisa Vanderpump, Andy Dick, Victor Ortiz, Zendaya, Aly Raisman, Ingo Rademacher, Kellie Pickler, & Dorothy Hamill!

8:25 AM EST: D.L. says he wants to learn to dance “with my foot in my mouth”.  Wynonna says she’s been asked for 6 years to do the show, and is doing it this time “because it’s the year of doing things that scare you to death!” Lisa assures us there will be plenty of cameos from Giggy this season 😉

8:30 AM EST: Reality Steve is assuring everyone that Sean Lowe IS in…but they’re waiting to announce it because his show is still on.  Pairs to come shortly…

8:33 AM EST: Your pairs are: Wynonna & Tony, D.L. & Cheryl, Jacoby & Karina (!!!), Lisa & Gleb, Andy & Sharna, Victor & Lindsay, Zendaya & Val, Aly & Mark, Ingo & Kym, Kellie & Derek, and Dorothy & Tristan!!! Table to come later…after site calms down.  Please quit hitting refresh, guys.

8:42 AM EST: The assumption seems to be that Sean, once he’s announced as the 12th celeb (IF he’s announced as the 12th celeb…), will be paired with Peta.  Personally, I don’t really care, one way or another – that seems to be a pair with the potential to be rather…dull.

9:42 AM EST: After futzing with the partner table for awhile, I’ve given up on trying to get grid lines.  Oh well – you guys are smart, you can see who’s with who 😛 Stay tuned because Vogue is going to be posting clips, pictures, etc. any time now.  Thanks everyone for waking up early with me for the cast reveal! It’s been fun 😀

9:47 AM EST: OH! Almost forgot the most important thing…we here at Pure sincerely apologize for letting down the disgruntled Cheryl fan that claimed we were “almost always wrong” about cast rumors.  You see, we were the FIRST to break Wynonna (you’re welcome, bigger gossip rags that took credit…while reporting hours after we did) thanks to Vogue & Heidi, we reported on Victor & Jacoby almost a month ago, we’ve mentioned Aly Raisman several times, and within the past week, we reported on Lisa, D.L., Andy, Kellie, and “someone from General Hospital“.  Gee…that’s how many? 9 out of 11 celebs? Not to toot our own horns, but “beep beep”.  Thanks Vogue & Heidi for all of your hard work scouring for rumors in a very rumor-poor pre-season! 😎

ADDING: Thanks Court!! Good job!!! And thanks to Codebear2, below is a video of the Cast reveal. ~Vogue

Dancing With The Stars Season 16 Cast Revealed by GrinyasEntertainment

ADDING2: And here are some HQ pictures of our new cast on GMA today making their rounds on twitter and facebook (click on pics to make bigger). -Vogue