Dancing with the Stars 2011 Cast Starts Uphill Battle

The Dancing With the Stars 2011 cast has a hard task. Since the Dancing With the Stars 2011 cast follows the series's most controversial group, they have a lot to live up to. But after Bristol Palin fired up the politicial blogosphere, and after Jennifer Grey powered through all of that to win, what can this collection do to top it? Viewers won't find that out for a few weeks, yet until then, they are studying the Dancing With the Stars 2011 cast to find the best contenders and train wrecks.

There are several established standards when choosing a new set of dancers. Some should be athletes, while others are musicians, former A-list icons, reality stars, with a politician and/or a senior citizen in the mix somewhere.

This year, the first Dancing With the Stars 2011 cast has Sugar Ray Leonard, Chris Jericho and Hines Ward filling the athlete roles. Meanwhile, Kristie Alley and Ralph Macchio are the former A-listers, while Romeo is the lead musician in the group.

After Kyle Massey contended last season, Disney now sends JONAS LA star Chelsea Kane to represent them. Famed lookers Kendra Wilkinson and Petra Nemcova will get to move their bodies, along with radio host Mike Catherwood, and TV talk show host Wendy Williams.

Before the Dancing With the Stars 2011 cast was unveiled on The Bachelor, even bigger names were rumored to join them. There was speculation around Christine O'Donnell, Brett Favre and Faye Dunaway at various points, yet none of them made the cut. Instead, they went to some less controversial names for this year's collection.

There may be no obvious favorite that jumps out now, like Jennifer Grey did last year. But there's also no obvious train wreck, and few that raise eyebrows like Palin, The Situation, Florence Henderson, Tom DeLay and Cloris Leachman have over the years.

It seems that the Dancing With the Stars 2011 cast wasn't designed to top last season's madcap group. The show has been attracting bigger and wilder names over the past few years, yet it might have peaked after the Palin madness. Therefore, it appears they are dialing it down, to get back fans who turned against last fall's insanity.

The shadow of Season 11 could hang too heavily over the show, especially with no divisive figures in this new group. But although the Dancing With the Stars 2011 cast has a huge shadow over them, and some early doubters, they still have a mirror ball to go after. Their first steps will air on March 21 on ABC.

Sources

TV Guide- "Dancing With The Stars Season 12 Cast Revealed!"

Hitfix- "Are these the worst Dancing with the Stars contestants ever?"