How This Season Of Dancing With The Stars Is The PERFECT Representation Of 2020

Dancing with the Starts officially kicked off its season on Monday, September 14 on ABC. Although this might not be unusual this time of year that this show is starting, the unusual cast is definitely the definition of 2020. The cast for this season is below:

AJ McLean
Anne Heche
Carole Baskin
Charles Oakley
Chrishell Stause
Jeannie Mai
Jesse Metcalfe
Johnny Weir
Justina Machando
Kaitlyn Bristowe
Monica Aldama
Nelly
Nev Schulman
Skai Jackson
Vernon Davis

And although many seasons have had a mix of different types of cast members, this one truly represents 2020 in the best ways. In case you haven't caught up, Stause is on the Netflix series Selling Sunset and is also the former wife of Justin Hartley. The ongoing drama with their divorce is quite the story, so check it out. And next up that's a head-turner is Monica Aldama who is the Navarro College Cheer Coach (14X NCA Collegiate National Champs), who rose to fame earlier this year, as she was a part of the Netflix series, Cheer. These two are definitely newsworthy cast members due to their relevance in 2020, but those who might not have binge-watched Netflix popular shows during the pandemic would probably not have known who they are and therefore, it's quite a head tilter.

And despite relevance in 2020, the absolute biggest head-turner is the show's new host, Tyra Banks, and another popular Netflix show's cast member, Tiger King's Carole Baskin.

Now, let's start off with Tyra Banks. The last time I think most people remember Tyra Banks being the spotlight of a TV show was during her own show on America's Next Top Model. Aside from screaming "I believed in you" at potential supermodels, she was the head judge in the show that specialized in producing supermodels. It was entertaining to watch, but many people that I've spoken to about this are not a fan of her. Even if she did an all right job hosting the first episode of the show, it was slightly awkward when she used the dance floor as her own personal runway and strutted everywhere. Twitter was not too kind to her first appearance, as a lot of fans felt that she was trying too hard to steal the spotlight and crack jokes and they wanted the old host back.

The host aside, I think the biggest head-turner, and why this show is perfectly representing the madness that is 2020, is the fact that Carole Baskin is on the show. She made headlines when Netflix's Tiger King became incredibly popular earlier this year. Baskin probably caused the biggest pop culture question of 2020, which was, "Did Carole Baskin kill her husband?" Now, the fact that most people believe she did is one thing, but the fact that Dancing with the Stars cast someone who is being questioned of actual murder is whiplash worthy of a head turn. Her dancing was cringe-worthy awkward, especially with the constant cat hissing that she kept doing (seriously, who told her to do that?), and the fact that it showed her doing virtual reality "to get in shape for the show" might have been a joke, but it made us all question her sanity. Which then in turn made us all scream at the TV, "she killed her husband and you know it!"

Although we will continue to watch Dancing with the Stars on ABC each Monday to watch this madness play out, we will also continue to shake our heads at 2020 and how this season of DWTS is perfectly representing it.