"Dancing with the Stars" Announces Its First 2008 Contestants

On the final episode of "Dance Wars: Bruno Vs Carrie Ann," the cast for the sixth round of ABC's juggernaut television hit "Dancing With the Stars" was announced. The group is diverse in skill potential as well as in age. I'm not sure that they quite stack up against last year's amazing group, but nonetheless this should be an interesting competition.

Let's take a look at the first DWTS cast for 2008:

Deaf actress Marlee Matlin, age 42, has made a career doing things that even those without handicaps often think twice about. Best of all, she generally achieves whatever she wants and she does it with amazing grace, skill, and undeniable success. There is no denying that Matlin is a beautiful woman with a lot of grace and more courage than her tiny body ought to hold. Don't expect a little thing like not being able to hear the music to get in this dynamo's way. I predict she could pull out the stops and go all the way.

Vegas offers yet another stellar entertainer this year in 53 year-old magician Penn Jillette. At over six feet in height, at the age of 50, and a less that fluid sense of movement, Jillette enters the competition with several strikes against him. However, I wouldn't count him out either. This man knows how to entertain and he has a habit of pulling off tricks that others find utterly impossible.

Young Tony award winning Broadway actress Marissa Jaret Winokur shouldn't find dancing in front of millions of people too much of a challenge. She's got talent, charm, charisma and determination. As a Broadway entertainer, she is also no stranger to a long, hard day's work. She has youth, beauty, and sex appeal to spare, which could just make for a lot of fun to fans to watch.

Can comedian Adam Corolla hold back his comedic genius and turn on the drama that will be required for those lusty Latin dances? Not being that familiar with the 43-year-old entertainer, I can't say for sure but I hope he enjoys getting out from behind the mike to strut his stuff. At the very least, you can expect him to be entertaining and who knows, he might just channel his hidden dancer.