USA Gymnastics

They're all stars -- with gold medals, platinum albums and championship belts and rings to their credit -- but they're not All-Stars.

This season, ABC's Dancing With the Stars, which returns March 18, goes back to basics, with 11 newcomers to the dance floor and a number of new pro partners, after an All-Star Season 15 that was down more than 15% in viewers from the previous fall.

Executive producer Conrad Green sees balance and energy in the new field, which includes country singers Wynonna Judd and Kellie Pickler, comic D.L. Hughley, skater Dorothy Hamill, Super Bowl hero Jacoby Jones and gymnast Aly Raisman. "There's potential for a lot of great dancing, a lot of humor and reconnecting with a lot of people that America is very fond (of)," he says.

Lacking rookie dancers may have been a factor for falling All-Stars ratings, he says, but the show faced new fall competition in NBC's The Voice, which it beat in viewers, and ratings have been softer for reality competitions in general.

"In retrospect, we underestimated how important it is to have people starting from zero. There was a feeling almost from the start of All-Stars that we'd started almost halfway through," he says. But, he says, "we were able, because everybody was so good at dancing, to raise the standard to a level we haven't seen before."

Judd, who had been asked in the past, decided to accept this time after spending many months caring for her husband, drummer Michael Scott Moser, who lost a leg in a motorcycle accident shortly after their wedding in June.

"I went from hanging up my cute little newlywed clothes and I turned into the nurse/mom/wife/caregiver. And I think I forgot myself," she says. "I said, 'You know what. I'm going to do this, because I'm ready to be hyper-focused on something for me.' It's about self-care."

Hughley is confronting his fears. "I started taking flying lessons because I'm horrified of heights, so this just seemed like a natural thing to do because I'm horrified of dancing. (I) have chicken legs and a lion's heart."