 This is the SF Productions Podcast Network. It's Dancing with the Stars! From the Pop Culture Bunker, I'm Mindy. And I'm Mark, you can check out our audio podcast, how I come up with free comics on iTunes, or on our website SFPodcastNetwork.com. Dancing with the Stars returns for its 23rd season. I still say I like 23rd, not season, but series. They call it a season, but that kind of implies years in American television. And it's not. So, as we've discussed before, the show has come up with several check boxes in their casting. There's athletes, there's a Disney star for synergy, there's a reality show stars, there's a controversial star, there's a comeback star for nostalgia purposes, and one or more ringers. We also have a lot of pro casting changes this season. Cheryl, Emma, Allison, and Maxim return, yay. Derek returns, boo. You know, and I still think if his sister is judging, he should not be a contestant. Jenna Johnson and Gleb Savchenko are rookies. I think they were both in the dancing troupe. Editha is out after one return season. She would have been gone for like 10 seasons. She came back and apparently she didn't like it anymore. Well, they gave her a bad answer, didn't they? Yes, she did. Yeah. Pita is out due to pregnancy. Karina, Tony, Mark, and Kao are all out. So it's a very different set of pros this time. Oh, and as you mentioned, Jillian Hough is returning as a judge. So here's the pairings and our predictions. And the theory is that the first half of the season is based on skill. You get the really bad dancers out pretty quick. Right. And the second half is based on popularity, mostly of the pros. Although I think there might be some other factors. Well, I don't know, maybe not, but we'll see. Yeah. But we begin with the star Amber Rose, who's known as a model, I guess, and Maxim is the pro who has won once. He got second place twice and he got third place twice. We put them pretty high. Yeah. I put them in number three position. You put them in two position. Yeah. Mostly I think because of Maxim. Maxim and the fact that she's a model and she's used to people telling her what to do. I don't know. Yeah. James Hinchcliff, who's from IndyCar Racing, is partner with Sharna Bridges, who has not won, but has had a second and third place once. I put them all the way in fourth position while you put them in ninth position. Yeah, sort of the middle, bottom middle of the pack. We've had two race car drivers before. One did really well and one did really badly. Yes. So it's hard to say based on racing how he'll do. But I think Sharna has become fairly popular. So I think that's the main reason I'm putting them as high up as I am. Yeah. Rick Perry, Texas governor, best known for the word, oops, and partner with Emma Slater, who has not won second and third place yet. Emma's pretty young, isn't she? Yes, she is. Yeah, I don't see her doing well with Rick. No. And so, and frankly, Rick Perry probably has no real chance. Yeah. I think he's out the first week. And I said, actually, in 12th place. So next to last. Vanilla Ice partnered up with Whitney Carson and she's won once. He's a rapper and a Jeopardy! answer. I put them fairly low because I really get the impression that Vanilla Ice won't put in any real effort. Do you think? I don't know. That's my opinion. I have no clue. I said seven. That middle of the pack is always hard to judge. And I put them down in 10th position. Kenny Babyface Edmunds, an R&B singer, is partnered up with Allison Holker, who has hit second place once. We both put them pretty low. I said 11th and you said 10th. Yeah. Again, I think pretty much for the same reason. Because he won't put a lot of effort into it. That's my opinion. Jake T. Austin, the prerequisite Disney kid. Partnered up with Jenna Johnson, who is a rookie. We said pretty much the same thing. I said seventh. You said sixth. Yeah. And here it's, you know, Disney kids traditionally do. Well, at least girls get Disney kids traditionally do really well. Yeah. But she's new. Right. And because of the other people that they have that I think would stay longer. That's why I put them at sixth. Right. That's pretty much the same logic I had. Yeah. Lori Hernandez, part of Olympics Final Five, with Valsh Murkowski, who has won once, who has second place once, and has third place three times. You put them at number one. Yep. I put them at number two. Is she going to be on the tour thing? Yes. So that may affect how she does. But I thought, I was kind of surprised that one of them got on there. Because actually they're actually going on this big nationwide tour with the gymnastics. So how that's going to work with doing all this practicing, I don't know. Yeah. Well, gymnasts are used to doing lots of practicing. Calvin Johnson Jr., who's from the NFL, and partner is Lindsay Arnold, who has gotten third place once. Again, we were fairly close. I said sixth. You said fourth. It's always hard on the NFL to decide how they're going to do it. Do they have the ability probably to do it? But it's all a matter of do they have the attitude to do it? Or they're like, well, I have, you know, other things have been handed to me. Why can't I get this? We split pretty widely on this next one. Mary Lou Henner, actress with perfect memory. Perfect memory does not mean she'll have the moves. But the only big factor to me is Derek Koff. Six-time winner has second place twice, third place once. Derek factor to me, it's like, it's the race for number two. It's like, okay, well, Derek will win. And then what? Yeah. Now you said fifth place. Yeah. And you're basing that on... Well, she's older. Right. True. That's a factor. But he took a woman with no legs to win. Yeah. I mean... We'll see. Yeah. The gamer, who's a country singer, is partnered with Gleb Shevchenko. I have no idea why I get... Sevchenko. Sevchenko. Another rookie. I put them back in ninth. You put them in seventh. Yeah. And I think I put him in ninth because rookie, we have no idea whether he knows what he's doing in terms of actually teaching a non-pro. Marine McCormick. Marsha, Marsha, Marsha. Marsha, Marsha, Marsha. And with Artem, who has not yet actually cracked the top three, I put them all the way up in fifth. You said 12th. All the way at the bottom. I think... I don't know. I think Marine's going to be one of those actresses who's lost her ability to do things. Well, but I think there's such a nostalgia factor for her. That's why I think she's going to be that high up there. They're going to build this whole thing of, will she still do this type, you know, will she make it through that phase where they get rid of all the bad dancers before she gets to the phase where the... I think this one completely depends on how the producers write the storyline for her. If they spend time on her storyline, she'll make it much farther. Ryan Lochte, who is the Olympic swimmer and a liar, is partnered with Cheryl Burke coming back several seasons. Poor Cheryl. Yeah. She's won twice, second place twice, third place three times. I put them in the absolute back of the packet number 13 and you said eighth. Yeah. I do not think that the whole Olympic controversy will affect them as much as you did. I think that so many people hate him right now that people will just put it this way. If there was a way to say who shouldn't go on, he would be... To me, that would guarantee first week he'd be out. I think that if he hadn't signed his contract before the controversy, he probably wouldn't have been on. No. But... Yeah. Finally, Tara Jollet, who's this reality show Little Person, partnered up with Sasha Farber, has not yet cracked the top three. I said eighth. You said 11th. Sasha Farber is probably one of the shortest male pros, but even with that, I think it's going to be very difficult to make that work. I'm sorry. I just do. Yeah. It would be totally different if there wasn't a height differential, I think. Yeah. But it's going to be really hard for her. Yeah. And the last thing I wanted to note, just overall, is that as we've been doing this, you've been seeing pictures of the various couples. And I've noted, and this seems to be happening pretty much every series season, is that a certain set of pros and their partners have their official pictures, and they come out as soon as they're announced, and then there's other ones where you got to go dig on the net to find them, meaning have they even met yet? Yeah. Which tells me, gee, maybe they're not really serious about this thing. If, you know, they're two weeks before they're going to go on national television, and they haven't, and apparently they haven't had time to get up a publicity photo yet. And not only that, but even the whole intro of the people on Good Morning America this year was pretty sad. Yeah. Only two of the actual dancers were there. And it's like, well, go to our website, see the rest later. And then they just flashed like a little billboard. They didn't even go through and list them all. They just put their pictures up with their names. Like, that just completely fell apart. It's like, ABC, you understand how the whole synergy thing works? I thought you did, but apparently not in this case. I think ABC might be growing a little tired of it. As am I. Well, but going back to the thing about official pictures and unofficial pictures, I almost started, I almost went back and changed my numbering based on that. I'm going to do that going forward. I'm going to look and see who has the official picture and say, okay, they're clearly at least serious enough about this that they could take the trouble to go to some photo shoot. All right. So those were your final thoughts. Yes. And my final thoughts were, but if you care at all about this, you can watch us, join us, watching Dancing with the Stars, or you can just check out our audio podcast, How I Got My Wave to Read Comics on iTunes or on our website, sfpodcastnetwork.com. From the Pop Culture Bunker, I'm Mindy. And I'm Mark. Thanks for watching.