Last night, the nineteenth season of Dancing With The Stars premiered on ABC. The action gave fans a new cast, a new judge and of course, a spectacular opening number. You can watch the year kick off in epic fashion via that opening number below…
The opening number doesn’t have any direct competition value. It’s not actually scored, and most of the contestants aren’t actually given a ton to do. That being said, it does have an importance for the series itself. Dancing With The Stars prides itself on its elaborate choreography and frenzied momentum. The opening number is the only time during the season in which the choreographers have every single competitor, dancer and judge to play with. That’s a great creative outlet, and it helps to introduce the audience to who they’ll be spending the season watching.
Humorously, from a fan perspective, it also gives us a chance to make a knee-jerk judgment of how coordinated or uncoordinated a competitor might be. So, for example, it’s pretty clear from just this intro that Michael Waltrip isn’t exactly Justin Timberlake. Alfonso Ribeiro, however, does seem to be a lot more hip and with it than many gave him credit for while watching his dorkiness on The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air.
The entire cast for Season 19 features, in alphabetical order: Jonathan Bennett, Tommy Chong, Randy Couture, Betsey Johnson, Lolo Jones, Bethany Mota, Janel Parrish, Alfonso Ribeiro, Sadie Robertson, Antonio Sabato Jr, Tavis Smiley, Lea Thompson and Michael Waltrip. As per usual, they’ll be judged by Len Goodman, Carrie Ann Inaba and Bruno Tonioli. This season, they’ll be joined by former professional and Footloose star Julianne Hough.
If I had to put my money on a few competitors with only one week in the bank, I’ll go on record as supporting YouTuber Bethany Mota, Back To The Future actress Lea Thompson and Fresh Prince’s Alfonso Ribeiro. In fact, you can watch my man Alfonso crush his full dance below...
You can catch Dancing With The Stars on Monday nights on ABC. Expect clean, safe broadcasts and a whole lot of fun.
