“Dancing With the Stars” co-host Samantha Harris talked to me this week about how excited she is about the show’s upcoming season and the new line up of stars that were announced on Monday.

The group is as eclectic as ever and includes tennis star Monica Seles, actors Steve Guttenberg and Marlee Matlin, Miami Dolphins defensive end Jason Taylor, radio personality Adam Carolla and Tony winner Marissa Jaret Winokur (“Hairspray”), among others.

But the star Samantha is most looking forward to seeing perform is Priscilla Presley.

“Priscilla is the oldest contestant that we’ve ever had and having been married to Elvis, it’s really exciting because it just brings a different level of excitement to the show,” Samantha said. “She’s a huge fan of the show and maybe she’ll have some insight into Elvis’ true moves that she’ll be able to share with us.”
Samantha dished on some of the other contestants too:

Jason Taylor: “what a stud. He’s 6 foot 6, Miami Dolphins player, very good looking, great body. Let’s hope he can move and stick around for awhile.”

Kristi Yamaguchi: “She is beautiful to watch dancing on the ice so I’m excited to see her on the dance floor as well. Ballroom dancing is a whole different ball of wax.”

On pro dancer Maksim Chmerkovskiy’s absence from the new season: “Maksim had a bunch of different projects that he wanted to work on for awhile and the producers were gracious enough to say, ‘You know what? Go do your thing and we’ll come back together. He’s a great friend and I support everything that he does. He’ll take a season off and re-charge and hopefully be back next season.” On my favorite from last season, Cameron Mathison: “Cameron has a huge following from the soap world, he’s a sweetheart and that definitely came through on camera and, you know, he doesn’t have a bad upper body to look at. He was always trying to take his shirt off which he finally did for us.”

Samantha may only be 30 years old, but she’s had a lengthy television career including her reporting job on “E! News Daily,” live-award show coverage of everything from the Oscars to the Emmys as well as work as a special correspondent on “Good Morning America.” Before joining E!, she was weekend co-host for the entertainment newsmagazine show “Extra.”

But nothing has put her on the map more than the ratings phenomenon “Dancing” which will have its season premiere on March 17: “It’s been such an amazing thing. We have such wonderful support from our fans. I meet so many people who say, ‘Oh, I’ve gone and signed up for ballroom classes because of the show.’ I like that it can inspire people to do that. I also like the fact that my grandparents and my nephew can sit in the same room and watch the show together.”