Nine professional partners — Derek Hough, Maksim Chmerkovskiy, Cheryl Burke, Tony Dovolani, Mark Ballas, Lacey Schwimmer, Karina Smirnoff, Anna Trebunskaya, and Kym Johnson — returned this season.

Peta Murgatroyd and Tristan MacManus, part of season 12's troupe of dancers, also became professional partners for the first time.

[1] Louis van Amstel did not compete as a professional, but participated in a new segment called "Ballroom Battles",[2] which was cancelled on November 7.

[3] The dance troupe consisted of six dancers: Sharna Burgess, Dasha Chesnokova, Oksana Dmytrenko, Sasha Farber, Kiki Nyemchek, and Ted Volynets, plus the first eliminated male and female pros, who ended up being Val Chmerkovskiy and Peta Murgatroyd.

Actor Ryan O'Neal was planning on competing as a celebrity, but could not after knee surgery, so Carson Kressley took his place.

It was stated in LGBT Weekly that "Bono has become the transgender community's living symbol of hope, strength and defiance against vitriolic hate.

When ABC Television announced that Bono would appear on DWTS, he faced vile slurs and death threats from a group of trans-phobic women and men.

Color key: Individual judges' scores in the charts below (given in parentheses) are listed in this order from left to right: Carrie Ann Inaba, Len Goodman, Bruno Tonioli.