Dancing With The Stars 2024: Premiere date announced for dramatic new season

Here’s everything we know about the upcoming season of the reality show.

Dancing With The Stars' Dr Chris Brown and Sonia Kruger.
Dr Chris Brown and Sonia Kruger will co-host the upcoming season of Dancing with the Stars. Photo: Channel Seven

Following months of promotion, Channel Seven has finally announced the premiere date for the upcoming twenty-first season of Dancing With The Stars. The new season will see Sonia Kruger host alongside newcomer Dr Chris Brown, who joined Seven last year after over a decade at Network 10 and will replace Daryl Somers.

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12 new celebrities, including TV presenters, actors, sports stars and celebrity chefs, will officially hit the dance floor from 7pm Sunday, July 7 on Channel Seven and 7plus.

The show typically airs for six weeks, although it's unknown if the series will continue up against the Olympics which runs from July 26 to August 11.

Dancing With The Stars 2024 cast.
The new season will premiere on Sunday, July 7. Photo: Channel Seven

The star-studded line-up for this year’s season of Dancing With The Stars features some very unexpected celebrities, with SAS Australia’s Chief Instructor Ant Middleton swapping his military boots for dancing shoes alongside AFL legends Ben Cousins and Shane Crawford.

Three-time MasterChef contestants Hayden Quinn and Julie Goodwin, who won the show’s inaugural season in 2009, will also be going head-to-head on the dance floor. The pair previously competed against one another on MasterChef All-Stars in 2012.

Meanwhile, Home and Away actor James Stewart will be putting his best foot forward alongside pop star Samantha Jade, who is hoping to replicate her success on The X Factor 12 years ago.

Rounding out the cast is four-time Gold Logie-winning actress Lisa McCune, Better Homes and Gardens presenter Adam Dovile, fashion designer and model Nadia Bartel, Olympian and former senator Nova Peris, and comedian Nikki Osborne.

Each contestant will be competing for a charity of their choice, as well as the chance to win the iconic Mirror Ball Trophy.

The judging panel for season 21 will be made up of Craig Revel Horwood, Sharna Burgess, Helen Richey and Mark Wilson, with Todd McKenny leaving the show due to a scheduling conflict.

Dancing With The Stars judges.
Longtime judge Todd McKenny isn’t joining this season due to a scheduling conflict. Photo: Channel Seven

Yahoo Lifestyle revealed last month that this year’s cast had quite a few secrets when they agreed to sign on, from a hidden injury to an undercover romance.

An insider told us that Julie Goodwin joined the dancing competition with a “secret injury” which she tried to hide during rehearsals, but forced her to pull out of the first week. Chris and Sonia will address her absence in the premiere episode although she does end up taking part in the show.

James Stewart also reportedly spent “quite a bit of time” during filming with his Home and Away co-star Ada Nicodemou, who he was recently spotted kissing. A production insider told us that James brushed off their hangouts as simply “getting advice from a close friend”, as Ada won the competition in 2005 and made it to the finals in 2021.

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Meanwhile, one of the show’s producers revealed that Lisa McCune is the most competitive contestant this season.

“Many people wouldn't know this, but Lisa is super competitive and she wants to win this really bad,” our source told us. “She wants that Mirrorball trophy and friends are saying what Lisa wants she normally gets.

“Channel Seven executives were surprised by how competitive she was. Australia is set to see a very different side to the Blue Heelers star.”

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