Dancing With the Stars Boss Explains Why Ryan Lochte Deserves to Tell His Story

The new season of Dancing With the Stars has churned out one of the better casts the long-running reality dance competition has ever offered, hitting all right steps with a great blend of lovable Olympians and the-exact-opposite-of-lovable Olympians, as well as the usual Disney star, familiar face from the wayback machine, pro football stars and big-name politicians, to name a few.

There's a method to the madness that starts months before anyone taps a toe on live television.

We build one building block and we get one cast member in, then we think, 'What else do we need here?' We start to build it.

[...] with about three spaces left we have gigantic arguments, (laughs) and we decide what we need and that's how we get to the cast.

Some cast member should be there for every age group represented by a family at home.

[...] none of those names drew more of a reaction than Ryan Lochte, the Olympic swimmer who got in a wee bit of trouble during the Rio Olympics when he lied about the events of a post-party early morning and claimed he was held up at gunpoint by locals brandishing badges.

[...] the way the casting process works, Lochte was on the DWTS shortlist long before the fib heard 'round the world.

[...] DWTS is a great place to rehab in image, and the audience's reaction can easily be swayed by one thing: dancing, of course.

Yet.

"[...] you actually see someone dance and the chemistry that happens with the couple, you can never really tell who's going to be the breakaway winner," he says before admitting something we can all relate to.

"There are two reasons he's doing this, one is he's a veteran, and he's doing it to raise awareness for veterans and veterans charities," Wade says.

Dancing With the Stars' new cast features Olympians, a rapper and a loud-mouthed politician

Additionally, Dancing With the Stars is working on a Cirque de Soleil tie-in spectacular, bringing in the Andrés Ruis Orchestra (thoug