Dancing With The Stars Season 13

Have you ever been flipping channels and stumbled upon Dancing with the Stars? Many people have found themselves in this position and wondered exactly how the show actually got started.

The fact is, this is not a show that is unique to the United States, in fact, it comes from a long line of shows that it is similar to and is based off the British television show Strictly Come Dancing. A piece of a franchise from the BBC Worldwide and has successfully finished 12 seasons so far with the 13 season scheduled to begin in September.


The line-up for the 13th season of Dancing With the Stars was announced tonight (by Tom Bergeron and "Brooke Burke Charvet"), and we're definitely going to have to watch the show to truly find out whether "13" is lucky, or the worst number ever.

Here's who will be quickstepping and jiving for your votes starting Sept. 19.

•  Ricki Lake, 42, actress and talk show host


• Ron Artest, 31, NBA star


• Kristin Cavallari, 24, former star of Laguna Beach and The Hills


• Chyna Phillips, 43, pop singer


• David Arquette, 39, actor


• Carson Kressley, 41, TV personality and style expert


• Nancy Grace, 51, HLN host and legal commentator


• J.R. Martinez, 28, Army vet and All My Children star


• Hope Solo, U.S. soccer player


• Rob Kardashian, 24, Keeping Up With the Kardashians star


• Elisabetta Canalis, 32, Italian actress and, not that it matters, George Clooney's ex-girlfriend


• Chaz Bono, 42, author and star of Becoming Chaz, son of Cher and Sonny Bono

"I love to dance and I love to entertain, and there's no place better to do that than this show," Arquette said cheerfully, his smile lightening up the somewhat somber mood in the room. (What, were they that bummed that Kressley was stuck in New York and couldn't make his DWTS debut? Or is it because the cast lineup was leaking like a sieve beforehand?)

Quite the motley crew, eh? Maybe even more so than usual?

We saw Lake shake it more than 20 years ago in Hairspray, but each one of these stars (and starrish-like people) defies the term "wild card."

Share your predictions for who's going to run away with season 13 of DWTS in the comments.

The show itself features professional ballroom dancers who are teamed together with celebrities from a wide range of fields. The celebrities themselves come from movies, television, music and even some modeling. Combining the dancers together with the actual celebrities is typically done randomly but the final result is a pair that is combined together for the season and must compete against all other pairs for the season. It is the job of the professional dancer to teach, coach and encourage the celebrity in all of the appropriate styles of ballroom dancing that is needed in order to complete the season. The celebrity that performs best is typically the winner, which obviously requires a very strong professional dance partner in order to actually help the celebrity learn the necessary dances.