In its usual bid to attract a younger demo, Dancing with the Stars has added Hayes Grier to the season 21 cast. If you aren’t a social media savvy teen, you probably haven’t heard of 15 year old Hayes. His social media counts are impressive: Vine: 4M, Twitter: 2.93, and Instagram: 4.1M. His brother, Nash, is also a pretty big social media star.
Hayes is the second youngest celeb to join the competition. Hunger Games star, Willow Shields, at 14 was the youngest when she joined the Season 20 cast.
Hayes made the announcement this morning on twitter:
Hey guys I made my big announcement a little early go watch the video on ! http://t.co/O97EmzT2pd Hope you will support me through this!
— Hayes Grier (@HayesGrier) August 27, 2015
Start tweeting and retweeting #hayesdwts @DancingABC Love all of you who helped me get here . Go give the video a thumbs up and respond ?
— Hayes Grier (@HayesGrier) August 27, 2015
ABC is doing a drip-drip roll-out of stars until the big reveal on September 2. (I have a feeling by then, the entire cast and pro-pairings will be spoiled).
So far, Bindi Irwin, Victor Espinoza and Nick Carter have been officially confirmed, along with Hayes.
But there are a slew of unofficial reports all over the internets:
It appears Spy Kids actress, Alexa Vega, is a go, as is her husband, Big Time Rush Member, Carlos Pena Jr. Entertainment Tonight is reporting that “Honey I’m Good” singer, Andy Grammer will also join the cast. E News reports that Paula Deen and Chaka Khan are joining the cast.
On the other hand, Bachelorette, Kaitlyn Bristowe, is NOT joining the cast, according to E News. Kaitlyn WAS in talks, but according to a source, the timing wasn’t right. She “loves the show and hopes to keep the door open for another season down the road.”
Nine of the 12 pros were revealed on GMA last week: Karina Smirnoff comes back after sitting last season out, while returning champ Val Chmerkovskiy, Derek Hough, Mark Ballas, Artem Chigvintsev, Allison Holker, Witney Carson, Sharna Burgess and Peta Murgatroyd will all be twirling celebrities around the dance floor.
You can also add Keo Motsepe and Emma Slater to that list, according to intel from twitter and other sources.
Additionally, we’ve got confirmation on some pro/celeb pairings, according to sources gleaned from PureDWTS.com and @DWTS360
Alexa Vega – Mark Ballas
Chaka Kahn – Keo Motsepe
Victor Espinoza – Karina Smirnoff
Nick Carter – Sharna Burgess
Carlos Pena, Jr – Witney Carson
Dancing with the Stars 21 premieres on ABC September 14.
