NEW YORK — You will see some local faces in this season’s Dancing With The Stars -- Paula Deen, Tamar Braxton, Kim Zolciak-Biermann and Alek Skarlatos, the U.S. serviceman who helped stop a gunman on a Paris-bound train, are putting on their dancing shoes.
The announcement was made during Good Morning America Wednesday.
"In many ways with this cast, it’s going to be what I love best about live television, that unpredictable nature," the show’s co-host, Tom Bergeron said.
Skarlatos, Deen, the celebrity TV chef, and reality TV stars/singers Braxton and Zolciak-Biermann were all live in "GMA's" Times Square studio for the announcement.
"This is the first time in a few years that I’ve felt like my weight would allow me to participate," Deen said. "What I hope I’m going to get out of this is a bunch of new friends and maybe lose some weight and a little better body."
Zolciak-Biermann of “Real Housewives of Atlanta” and “Don’t Be Tardy” fame is paired with veteran pro dancer Tony Dovolani.
Braxton, a star of "Braxton Family Values," a reality TV show about life with her famous sisters, said she had not even told her siblings, including singer Toni Braxton, that she was joining the "Dancing" cast.
"This is the reveal. I haven’t told them yet," Braxton said, adding a, "Hi, girls," shout-out to her sisters.
Skarlatos, 22, an Army National Guardsman assigned to an infantry unit in Roseburg, Oregon, was on vacation in Europe with his friends after a tour in Afghanistan when they stopped a man armed with an automatic rifle and a box cutter who had started firing on a Paris-bound train.
The serviceman said he doesn't "even want to imagine" what his fellow service members think of his turn on "Dancing," but he is excited to get on the dance floor.
"I think it'll be fun. I hope I learn a lot," Skarlatos said. "I'll need to if I'm going to stay on very long."
Dancing With The Stars begins Monday September 14 at 8 p.m. on ABC.