DWTS Season 27 Judges, Pros & Hosts

Photo Credit: ABC - Eric McCandless

Dancing With the Stars is back with another season for 2018, airing twice per week, on the ABC network. DWTS season 27 premieres with a whole new batch of contestants, but a bunch of familiar faces in the rest of the cast. There is also a new pro in the mix. But, who are the contestants on the show this season? The lineup was revealed in early September 2018 and the celebrities participating as contestants include Grocer Joe Amabile from Bachelor in Paradise, comedienne Nikki Glaser, radio personality Bobby Bones, actor Juan Pablo Di Pace of Fuller House, actress Evanna Lynch, actor Milo Manheim, Facts of Life actress Nancy McKeon, model Alexis Ren, former Olympic gymnast Mary Lou Retton, actor John Schneider, singer/songwriter Tinashe, paralympic skier Danelle Umstead, and former NFL player DeMarcus Ware.

As for the rest of the cast, let’s start with the pros. Jenna Johnson and Val Chmerkovskiy are back and now, they return to the ballroom as an engaged couple. The two met on Dancing With the Stars, when Johnson was still a dance troupe member on the show. In 2016, Johnson was promoted to a full-time pro cast member an earlier that year is when Johnson and Chmerkovskiy were revealed to be dating, according to People.

In June 2018, Chmerkovskiy surprised his fiancee with a proposal and posted the photo from their engagement on social media. In a statement to People, Chmerkovskiy gushed, “My life has changed because of her. And I find myself to be the best version of myself that I’ve ever been. She’s awesome.” For the first few months of dating, the couple chose to keep their relationship private. But, they couldn’t help but to post loving photos of each other on their Instagram accounts and soon, the world caught on to their romance.

Now let’s get into some more of the cast members on DWTS 2018 … There is a new pro dancer on board this season and his name is Brandon Armstrong. According to ABC, Armstrong actually trained with former DWTS dancers Mark Ballas and his father Corky Ballas. Armstrong has been a cast member on DWTS since season 24, but he was a troupe dancer. He has now graduated to a full-time pro role.

For his first season as a pro, Armstrong is paired with singer Tinashe and he told ET Online that he and Tinashe have great chemistry. In the same interview, Tinashe couldn’t help but to sing her partner’s praises, saying, “Brandon is young, he’s fun, he’s cool, we have a good vibe. We’re both really competitive. I know he wants that Mirrorball [trophy], I certainly want that Mirrorball. So I can’t wait to get on the dance floor and show America what we got!”

The other pros involved this season are Lindsay Arnold, Sharna Burgess, Witney Carson, Gleb Savchenko, Artem Chigvintsev, Cheryl Burke, Alan Bersten, Keo Motsepe, Sasha Farber and Emma Slater.

Co-hosts Tom Bergeron and Erin Andrews are both back, as are all three long-time judges. That’s right. Carrie Ann Inaba, Bruno Tonioli, and even Len Goodman have all returned. So far, there has been no word of any guest judges, so fans will just have to wait and see what happens.