TV Squad - Santa Monica, CA, USA - Yes, it's that time of the television season once again. The fine folks over at ABC are back with another round of Dancing With The Stars. The competition kicks off for real on Monday, but Erin and I thought it would be fun to see what everyone thinks about this latest group of contestants before they all hit the dance floor. Who looks to be the favorite? And who looks to be in trouble before the show even begins. After the jump, I'll take a look at the ladies competing in season six.
Marlee Matlin just might be the most interesting contestant heading into the competition. After all, she's deaf. How is that going to work? Just the idea behind that already fascinates me. And if that wasn't interesting enough, it's
Marlee Matlin! She has an Academy Award and a ton of great TV credits. The West Wing, The L Word, Nip/Tuck, My Name Is Earl.
That name recognition should go a long way for her, and the years of performing for the cameras can't hurt. I do believe that her hearing will ultimately be a non-story. The wild card with Marlee right now appears to be her partner.
Fabian Sanchez is making his DWTS debut. Winning the US Mambo Championship is nothing to scoff at, but we haven't seen how he works with an amateur partner, or how he responds to choreographing new performances week after week. For more how Marlee came to be on the show, who she thinks her competition is, and her thoughts on the ballroom wardrobe, she answers 11 questions over at the AOL site.
Marissa Jaret Winokur is, perhaps, the other side of the
Marlee Matlin coin. Her resume does include some great entries. A Tony Award for creating the role of Tracy Turnblad in the Broadway musical Hairspray is rather impressive. Unfortunately, I'm not sure how many DWTS viewers will even be aware of that going in. When I first saw her, the first thing that came to mind was her role on Stacked.
On the other hand, while those Broadway successes might have gone unseen by a large part of the audience, that kind of training could pay off big for her here. Clearly she's comfortable performing in front of a live audience, and she has more dance background than the average contestant. Drawing
Tony Dovolani as her partner is another check in the plus column. He has consistently done a great job making his partners better.
