Anna Delvey Jokes the 'Government' Will Be Rooting for Her Ahead of “DWTS” Premiere (Exclusive)

In PEOPLE's exclusive featurette for 'DWTS' season 33, Delvey and her fellow contestants gear up for their ballroom debut

The season 33 cast of Dancing with the Stars is ready to give their all on the dance floor.

In PEOPLE's exclusive featurette ahead of the season premiere on Tuesday, Sept. 17, each member of the star-studded cast shares how they're feeling ahead of their ballroom debut — and Anna Delvey weighs in on the controversy around her participation this season.

Co-hosts Alfonso Ribeiro and Julianne Hough kick off the featurette, as Ribeiro teases a "fantastic season" with "more incredible dancing [and] most importantly, incredible stories."

Hough agrees. "People don't wanna see perfection. People wanna see a journey. The more vulnerable and authentic you can be, the more you're gonna connect with the audience."

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Pretty Little Liars: Summer School star Chandler Kinney kicks off the contestants' line-up, as she practices some moves with her partner Brandon Armstrong and says she's "excited for the magical moments" to come on the dance floor.

Eric Roberts is next up, and touts the show as "the biggest entertainment show that's ever lived," before admitting, "I am honored and I am flattered and I am scared to death." He's paired with Britt Stewart.

Former NFL wide receiver Danny Amendola, who is partnered with returning pro Witney Carson, reveals how he reacted when he was invited to join this season: "Man, I gotta learn how to dance. Quick."

Amendola, 38, and Carson, 30, are also working on a handshake for the season — but fingers crossed their ballroom chops are better than their handshake recall.

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Supermodel Brooks Nader is looking forward to fans "getting to know" her better this season, as she teases that the audience will "get to see how crazy and wild and spicy and insane I am — in a good way, I hope."

She and her partner Gleb Savchenko have also got their eyes on the prize. "I did hear that a model has never won Dancing with the Stars, so I'd love to change that," Nader, 27, says.

Joey Graziadei is feeling the heat, too, as he acknowledges that his Bachelor franchise predecessors — like Charity Lawson — "have not only done well, but they have won." So, he's working on trying not to "suck at dancing."

He's also not sure how many people are gonna be cheering for him and his partner Jenna Johnson, but he knows his fiancé Kelsey Anderson will certainly be leading the charge of his fan club.

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Tori Spelling, who is partnered with Pasha Pashkov, is taking a different approach to the competition. "I know I'm not gonna be the best dancer. I'm thinking, if they go for the story, they go for the song, they go for the sets and the wardrobe and the hair and all of that that we create — they won't look at my feet. That's my strategy."

Jenn Tran, meanwhile, is looking to shock audiences with Sasha Farber — as she has been doing over the last month since her time on The Bachelorette came to an end.

"My dancing this season is going to be as jaw-dropping as my finale on The Bachelorette," she teases. "I'm really just gonna put it all out there."

Olympian Stephen Nedoroscik, who is paired with Rylee Arnold, knows what the audience wants — and he's gonna give it to them.

"My pre-performance ritual is to tilt my head back and do my breathing exercises, close my eyes and calm down. I'll definitely be doing that before every show," he says, before practicing the ritual that made him go viral at the Olympics. "And then as I close my eyes, I'm also visualizing the entire performance."

Dancing with the Stars so far has been eye-opening for fellow Olympian Ilona Maher, who says there's "a lot more sparkles in preparing for DWTS than there is for the Olympics, but that's okay," while Reginald VelJohnson wants the audience to know he's not here to mess around.

VelJohnson, who is paired with Emma Slater, says he wants people watching to think, "'He can still do it. Oh wow, look at him, he can still do it.' Show these youngsters who can move."

Phaedra Parks is also not there to make friends. "Don't let the sweet, Bratz doll face fool you," Val Chmerkovskiy's partner says. "I came to get the ball — the Mirror Ball. So it is mine."

Dwight Howard, though, is ready to have some fun, as he delivers a hilarious address right to the camera before declaring that he and Daniella Karagach, nicknamed "double D," are "coming for you."

Delvey, 33, closes out the featurette as she lists off who she's hoping will be rooting for her and partner Ezra Sosa, including "all my friends, Kelly Cutrone, my fashion production team, and hopefully everybody else."

Plus, she's hoping "the government" will be cheering for her in the end, too.

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Dancing with the Stars season 33 premieres Tuesday, Sept. 17 at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.

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