How famous are they, really? Ranking every 'star' from 'Dancing with the Stars'
Since the 2005 debut of Dancing with the Stars, 223 celebrities have competed on the ABC reality show, some of whom wear the label “star” a lot more plausibly than others. The lineup for season 21, set to premiere on September 14, was announced this morning: Tamara Braxton, Gary Busey, Nick Carter, Paula Deen, Victor Espinoza, Andy Grammer, Hayes Grier, Bindi Irwin, Chaka Khan, Alexa PenaVega, Carlos PenaVega, Alek Skarlatos, and Kim Zolciak.
Who are the most and least famous contestants ever to appear on Dancing with the Stars? How do you compare a wide receiver with a talk show host, or an Olympic figure skater with an activist? And how do the new recruits stack up?
To quantify “fame,” we considered checking which celebrity appears most frequently in Google search results, but that method obviously favors stars with common names. Instead, we turned to Wikipedia, the Internet’s great equalizer (except not, but shhh), tallying the total word count—including sidebars, citations, you name it—for every single DwtS contestant’s dedicated article.
Our logic: the longer the text that describes an individual, the more culturally important that person is. Right? Right.
Back when we first crunched these numbers, in time for the season 20 premiere in March, the most famous contestant was Floyd Mayweather, Jr., followed by Chris Jericho and Lil’ Kim.
As of now, that’s still the case. In fact, none of season 21’s cast members even manage to crack the top 50 most famous DwtS contestants of all time. The five highest-ranked contestants from the upcoming season are Chaka Khan (#73 overall), Tamara Braxton (#86), Paula Deen (#100), Gary Busey (#116), and Nick Carter (#129).
As a general rule, athletes’ Wikipedia pages (which feature specific details of bouts, games, titles, records, and so on) were consistently wordier than those of non-athletes, while reality stars—including a number of home-grown Bachelor and Bachelorette alumni—generally sank to the bottom of the ranks. Two celebrities don’t yet have their own Wikipedia pages: Vine star Hayes Grier and train attack hero Alek Skarlatos, both of whom will compete in season 21.
Admittedly, this is far from a perfect metric: it’s biased towards celebrities who rose to prominence in the age of the Internet. For instance, Tommy Chong and Jennifer Grey are #93 and #132 on our list, respectively, while the Pussycat Dolls’ Nicole Scherzinger sits pretty at #4. That’s downright immoral. And of course, if a Wikipedia editor should happen to be a superfan of, say, Joey Fatone and decide to write a doctoral thesis-length article in the singer’s honor, that would certainly dirty our data.
Here’s the full list of Dancing with the Stars contestants and their Wikipedia page word counts, with season 21 cast members in bold:
- Floyd Mayweather, Jr. – 17,730
- Chris Jericho – 15,992
- Lil’ Kim – 13,221
- Nicole Scherzinger – 11,660
- Tom DeLay – 11,461
- Sugar Ray Leonard – 11,277
- Heather Mills – 10,964
- Lawrence Taylor – 9,696
- Mýa – 9,124
- Brandy – 8,967
- Evander Holyfield – 8,906
- Hope Solo – 8,833
- Evan Lysacek – 8,803
- Christina Milian – 8,780
- Toni Braxton – 8,713
- Kurt Warner – 8,396
- Apolo Anton Ohno – 8,035
- Martina Navratilova – 7,758
- Nancy Grace – 7,211
- Mark Cuban – 6,957
- Chad Ochocinco – 6,761
- Lance Bass – 6,760
- David Hasselhoff – 6,640
- Adam Carolla – 6,638
- P. Miller – 6,620
- Shawn Johnson – 6,551
- Randy Couture – 6,481
- Nastia Liukin – 6,382
- Kim Kardashian – 6,366
- Metta World Peace – 6,348
- Michael Waltrip – 6,277
- Drew Carey – 6,158
- Steve Wozniak – 6,096
- Chuck Liddell – 6,067
- Alexandra Raisman – 5,988
- Charlie White – 5,861
- Meryl Davis – 5,790
- Patti LaBelle – 5,686
- Mel B – 5,668
- Pamela Anderson – 5,575
- Jerry Rice – 5,488
- Priscilla Presley – 5,450
- Donny Osmond – 5,415
- Margaret Cho – 5,303
- Buzz Aldrin – 5,214
- Sean Avery – 5,214
- Billy Ray Cyrus – 5,206
- Emmitt Smith – 5,188
- Stacy Keibler – 5,115
- Katherine Jenkins – 5,082
- Romeo Miller – 5,062
- Kellie Pickler – 4,925
- Lolo Jones – 4,877
- Susan Lucci – 4,858
- Diana Nyad – 4,786
- Michael Irvin – 4,692
- Victor Ortiz – 4,638
- Sara Evans – 4,630
- Monica Seles – 4,622
- Bristol Palin – 4,564
- Wynonna Judd – 4,494
- Melissa Joan Hart – 4,484
- Shanna Moakler – 4,472
- Corbin Bleu – 4,472
- Steve-O – 4,455
- Andy Dick – 4,385
- Wayne Newton – 4,382
- Penn Jillette – 4,283
- Jason Taylor – 4,249
- Hines Ward – 4,230
- Jerry Springer – 4,213
- Gladys Knight – 4,213
- Chaka Khan – 4,209
- Kathy Ireland – 4,163
- Shandi Finnessey – 4,137
- Gavin DeGraw – 4,104
- Kelly Osbourne – 4,103
- Bill Nye – 4,095
- Warren Sapp – 4,075
- Macy Gray – 4,062
- Aaron Carter – 3,965
- Tavis Smiley – 3,884
- Elizabeth Berkley Lauren – 3,863
- Tucker Carlson – 3,841
- Belinda Carlisle – 3,810
- Tamara Braxton – 3,799
- Michael Sam – 3,736
- Suzanne Somers – 3,720
- Rick Fox – 3,701
- Denise Richards – 3,686
- Leah Remini – 3,684
- David Arquette – 3,671
- Tommy Chong – 3,649
- Laila Ali – 3,635
- Shannen Doherty – 3,607
- Billy Dee Williams – 3,588
- Clyde Drexler – 3,554
- David Alan Grier – 3,548
- Hélio Castroneves – 3,502
- Paula Deen – 3,472
- Misty May-Treanor – 3,468
- Marie Osmond – 3,452
- Mario – 3,425
- Zendaya – 3,405
- Valerie Harper – 3,390
- Redfoo – 3,383
- Danica McKellar – 3,347
- Jane Seymour – 3,329
- Natalie Coughlin – 3,292
- Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi – 3,231
- Maria Menounos – 3,209
- Melissa Gilbert – 3,156
- Jaleel White – 3,130
- Wendy Williams – 3,118
- Mario Lopez – 3,091
- Gary Busey – 3,083
- John Ratzenberger – 3,079
- Cloris Leachman – 3,058
- Florence Henderson – 3,042
- Kendra Wilkinson – 2,959
- Sherri Shepherd – 2,940
- George Hamilton – 2,778
- Keyshawn Johnson – 2,771
- Jacoby Jones – 2,676
- Erin Andrews – 2,643
- Ricki Lake – 2,634
- Marlee Matlin – 2,630
- Holly Madison – 2,623
- Nick Carter – 2,592
- Kristi Yamaguchi – 2,581
- Michael Bolton – 2,560
- Jennifer Grey – 2,532
- Steve Guttenberg – 2,500
- Donald Driver – 2,487
- William Levy – 2,484
- Alexa PenaVega – 2,468
- Sabrina Bryan – 2,442
- Cristián de la Fuente – 2,426
- Cody Simpson – 2,423
- Jack Osbourne – 2,414
- Monique Coleman – 2,403
- Joey Lawrence – 2,380
- Kirstie Alley – 2,362
- Jennie Garth – 2,344
- Ralph Macchio – 2,317
- Andy Grammer – 2,278
- Harry Hamlin – 2,258
- Tia Carrere – 2,234
- Maurice Greene – 2,231
- Victor Espinoza – 2,219
- Dorothy Hamill – 2,158
- NeNe Leakes – 2,140
- Jack Wagner – 2,115
- Debi Mazar – 2,111
- Janel Parrish – 2,070
- Brooke Burke – 2,047
- Kate Gosselin – 2,043
- Lisa Rinna – 2,034
- Candace Cameron Bure – 2,027
- Willa Ford – 2,009
- Robert Herjavec – 2,004
- Bill Engvall – 1,996
- Joey Fatone – 1,987
- Chuck Wicks – 1,979
- Bindi Irwin – 1,968
- Vivica A. Fox – 1,952
- James Maslow – 1,936
- Joey McIntyre – 1,931
- Audrina Patridge – 1,918
- Paulina Porizkova – 1,894
- Kelly Monaco – 1,891
- Niecy Nash – 1,885
- Marissa Jaret Winokur – 1,874
- Kristin Cavallari – 1,873
- Chaz Bono – 1,864
- Shannon Elizabeth – 1,862
- Tatum O’Neal – 1,849
- John O’Hurley – 1,847
- Elisabetta Canalis – 1,840
- Mark Dacascos – 1,820
- Alfonso Ribeiro – 1,816
- Amy Purdy – 1,805
- Lea Thompson – 1,776
- Bethany Mota – 1,768
- Albert Reed – 1,713
- J.R. Martinez – 1,665
- Carson Kressley – 1,654
- Joanna Krupa – 1,636
- Ted McGinley – 1,628
- Gilles Marini – 1,596
- Antonio Sabàto, Jr. – 1,571
- Ian Ziering – 1,567
- Leeza Gibbons – 1,561
- Amber Riley – 1,539
- Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino – 1,526
- Kenny Mayne – 1,509
- D. L. Hughley – 1,508
- Lisa Vanderpump – 1,506
- Ty Murray – 1,489
- Rachel Hunter – 1,480
- Cameron Mathison – 1,461
- Chelsea Kane – 1,442
- Chynna Phillips – 1,416
- Kim Zolciak – 1,375
- Rocco DiSpirito – 1,358
- Drew Lachey – 1,357
- Petra Němcová – 1,351
- Louie Vito – 1,349
- Roshon Fegan – 1,325
- Mike Catherwood – 1,316
- Jonathan Bennett – 1,309
- Giselle Fernandez – 1,302
- Cody Linley – 1,270
- Carlos PenaVega – 1,240
- Jeffrey Ross – 1,239
- Noah Galloway – 1,233
- Kyle Massey – 1,202
- Josie Maran – 1,174
- Betsey Johnson – 1,112
- Chris Soules – 1,112
- Riker Lynch – 1,104
- Rob Kardashian – 1,070
- Trista Sutter – 1,028
- Melissa Rycroft – 993
- Sean Lowe – 958
- Sadie Robertson – 957
- Rumer Willis – 945
- Jake Pavelka – 940
- Ingo Rademacher – 937
- Brant Daugherty – 808
- Aiden Turner – 777
- Charlotte McKinney – 762
- Willow Shields – 709
- Ashley Hamilton – 698
- Hayes Grier – 0
- Alek Skarlatos – 0
Molly Fitzpatrick is senior editor of Fusion’s Pop & Culture section. Her interests include movies about movies, TV shows about TV shows, and movies about TV shows, but not so much TV shows about movies.