This morning on ABC’s Good Morning America the celebrity line-up was announced for the upcoming fall season and 28th edition of Dancing with the Stars.  Within the list of competitors are: The Bachelorette, Hannah Brown, former Dawson’s Creek star, James Van Der Beek, and even disgraced White House Press Secretary, Sean Spicer, and the “Uptown Girl” herself, supermodel Christie Brinkley 

In addition to the above celebs, showing their best ballroom dance moves will also be: Queer Eye‘s Karamo Brown, The Office‘s Kate Flannery and Kenan & Kel‘s Kel Mitchell, plus The Supremes’ Mary Wilson, Fifth Harmony’s Ally Brooke, and American Idol Season 10 runner-up  and now country/pop star, Lauren Alaina.

As for the former pro athletes in the cast; those slots belong to: former NFL linebacker of the Baltimore Ravens, Ray Lewis, and former NBA player (and former hubby to Khloe Kardashian) Lamar Odom.

On the pro dancer side, this season will mark the return of Peta Murgatroyd who last competed three seasons ago, as well as newcomers Daniella Karagach and Pasha Pashkov. In addition, the cast will include the steps of: Brandon Armstrong, Lindsay Arnold, Alan Bersten, Cheryl Burke, Witney Carson, Val Chmerkovskiy, Sasha Farber, Jenna Johnson, Keo Motsepe, Gleb Savchenko and Emma Slater.

This season viewers will not learn of the celebrity/pro pairings till the night of the premiere.

All the moves kick-off on Monday night, September 26th at 8PMEST/7PMCST on ABC.

So, what do you think of the new cast of DWTS? Who do you think on paper stands the best chance of being a top contender for the Mirror Ball Trophy? Weigh-in below.

The upcoming 47th annual Daytime Emmys are already making some changes to key categories and specifically this one that affects daytime drama performers.  Word from Variety is that NATAS (National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences) is going to announce that they are combining the Younger Actor and Actress categories into one gender-neutral category

Not only will the Younger performer category be gender-inclusive, but network soap performances will be combined with digital drama series performances for the category.  Previously, for this past Daytime Emmys, NATAS had changed the Guest Performer in a Drama Series to be gender-inclusive.

This category was initially created in 1985 when it was called the Outstanding Ingenue and then from there tweaked into Outstanding Juvenile Female and Male, and more recently that morphed into the Younger Actor and Actress categories.

Photo: JPI

Former GH star Hayley Erin (Ex-Kiki) and former DAYS star, Kyle Pettis (Ex-Theo) will now be the last female and male to win the two separate categories with this new move for 2020.

Fans of film and TV have noticed that on several award shows on MTV: their Movie and TV Awards and their VMA’s, there are several gender-inclusive categories, as well as the Television Critics Association Awards who for instance doles out Outstanding Individual Achievement in Drama in comedy.

So, what do you think of the change; that there will now be one Younger performer category at the Daytime Emmys? Comment below.

The word is out that General Hospital’s co-head scribe, Shelly Altman has decided to retire from the rigors of writing a daytime drama series and is leaving the ABC soap opera.  Most recently, Altman had been in charge of the writing of the show along with c0-head writer, Chris Van Etten.

With Altman retiring, GH has named former breakdown writer, Dan O’Connor as the new co-head writer of the series who will work with Van Etten.

According to TV Insider’s report, Shelly’s last day with the characters in Port Charles is this coming Friday, August 2nd.   Viewers can expect to see her stories to continue to play out for the coming months.   In lieu of Altman’s departure, O’Conner was promoted within the writing team and GH ranks.

In a statement, General Hospital’s executive producer, Frank Valentini said on his new co-head writing duo:  “These two understand the canvas and the characters. They also bring creativity, passion and commitment to the show’s history and its future.”

And for Altman’s years on GH, Valentini added: “Shelly, thank you for years of complex, emotional, intriguing story that ranged from suspense to heartbreak to laugh out loud funny, and everything in-between. We wish you all the best in your future endeavors.”

Altman had been with the GH writing team since 2011 and eventually was promoted to head writer.  She is a two-time Daytime Emmy winner. and a two-time WGA Award winner throughout her soap opera writing career.   As for Chris and Dan, they have been with GH also since 2011 and before that together on the writing team at One Life to Live.

So, what are your thoughts on Shelly’s exit and Dan and Chris crafting the stories for Port Charles? Comment below.