Olympics darling Adam Rippon and dance partner Jenna Johnson won Dancing With The Stars in the series’ first athlete-centered season.
We now know what the reality dance competiion series’ next gimmick will be: young stars.
And who better to reportedly join the new season’s list of competitors than one of the world’s most famous child stars, Honey Boo Boo.
Honey Boo Boo’s real name, of course, is Alana Thompson. She was just a little girl when she first rose to fame, but now she is 12 years old. She’ll become a teenager later this year.
And, according to The Blast, Alana Thompson is joining Dancing With The Stars.
They report that Alana has been in Los Angeles for the past week to train for the series.
She has been spotted going in and out of practice over these last several days.
According to all reports, she is apparently taking this very seriously.
This new season will be called Dancing With The Stars: Juniors, and will feature other famous kids.
According to Just Jared Junior, a bunch of familiar dancers headed into the DWTS studio to mentor these young stars.
Per their report, these dancers were Cheryl Burke, Hayley Erbert, Jenna Johnson, Lindsay Arnold, Artem Chigvintsev, Keo Motsepe, Sasha Farber, Gleb Savchenko, Whitney Carson, and Emma Slater.
Just Jared Junior also revealed that a slew of younger professional dancers will be actually dancing with the young stars.
These dancers were Rylee Arnold, Hailey Bills, Brightyn Brems, Artyon Celestine, JT Church, Kami Couch, Tristan Ianeiro, Lev Khmelev, Jake Monreal, Kamri Peterson, Sage Rosen, and Eliana Walmsley.
Mama June Shannon is reportedly in L.A. to support Alana on her Dancing With The Stars journey.
We’ve heard June explain that she has been regaining weight because she’s going blind.
She has recently been living in North Carolina so that she can receive world-class eye treatment at Duke Hospital to save what little eyesight she has left.
If she’s well enough to travel across the country to L.A. to support Alana in her foray into a reality dance competition, then hopefully she is doing better.
It would be nice if she can put that particular health scare behind her.
In recent episodes of From Not To Hot, Alana has seemed to bristle at being coached while preparing to enter a beauty pageant with her mother.
There’s no telling how much of that is Alana being 12, how much of that is her being experienced in pageants, and how much is just for the show.
(Face it, folks — people behave differently when they know that they’re on camera, and it’s not always for the better)
So some fans and viewers are wondering how well Alana will take to being coached on dancing for the series.
But maybe, since she has less experience with (professional) dancing, she’ll be more inclined to heed the advice that she’s given.
To be clear, ABC has not officially announced any part of this upcoming season’s cast list.
But new episodes of Dancing With The Stars: Juniors should air this September at 8pm.
We don’t know which other young stars will be competing alongside Alana, but we are excited to find out!
And, of course, we’ll let you know when we know.
