‘Dancing With the Stars’ Season 28 First Full Cast Photo Revealed

Just three weeks ahead of its premiere, ABC has released the first Dancing With the Stars Season 28 cast photo. The photo, which dropped Wednesday night, showed the potential Mirrorball Trophy winners dressed to the nines in black and white ensembles as they gathered around a blue velvet couch and armchair.

“With a lineup of celebrities including a supermodel, a former White House press secretary, a Bachelorette, pro-athletes from the NFL and NBA, a Supreme and a TV icon to name a few, Dancing with the Stars is waltzing its way into its highly anticipated upcoming 2019 season,” a caption for the photo reads. “The new celebrity cast is adding some glitzy bling to their wardrobe, breaking in their dancing shoes and readying themselves for their first dance on the ballroom floor.”

With their eyes on the grand prize, the celebrities taking to the dance floor this year include Karamo Brown Hannah Brown, Lauren Alaina, James Van Der Beek, Ray Lewis, Kate Flannery, Ally Brooke, Lamar Odom, Kel Mitchell, Sean Spicer, and Christie Brinkley

Their professional dancer counterparts are Alan Bersten, Brandon Armstrong, Cheryl Burke, Emma Slater, Gleb Savchenko, Jenna Johnson, Keo Motsepe, Lindsay Arnold, Peta Murgatroyd, Sasha Farber, Val Chmerkovskiy, Witney Carson, Pasha Pashkov, and Daniella Karagach.

Notably missing from the list is Artem Chigvintsev, who first appeared on DWTS as a member of the troupe in Season 18 before being promoted to pro status for Season 19. The decision not to include him in the upcoming season was a “massive shock” to him.

“It’s not even a job, it’s a lifestyle if you’ve been doing it for a very long time. There was never a thought in my mind that I’m not going to be doing it,” Chigvintsev said. “There’s always a chance, as a pro, you might be doing some performances on the show and there’s still an involvement in some sort. But getting this call, [hearing] ‘There’s gonna be no involvement in the show from now on,’ it’s like going through a breakup after 10 years.”

It has not yet been revealed which celebrities and pros will be paired for Season 28, which will also see a few formatting changes that will shift “the focus of the show to really focus on it being a celebration of dance, and also focusing on the celebrities.”

Dancing With the Stars Season 28 premieres on Sept. 16, 2019 on ABC.