Bristol Palin and 'The Situation' on next DWTS

Bristol Palin. David Hasselhoff. Mike Sorrentino - otherwise known as The Situation. All on the same show?

Only in America, or only on "Dancing With the Stars," which has determined that the art of casting is also the art of the improbable, or of the implausible. The 11th season cast of "DWTS" - starting Sept. 20 - was announced Monday night during ABC's "Bachelor Pad," and most of the names were expected by fans who couldn't very well ignore an unusually pitched guessing game, courtesy of TMZ and a few dozen other gossip sites.

There were no surprises, including Palin, who reportedly has been in the hunt for reality stardom, and Monday night - appearing a little nervous - said her mother, Sarah Palin, is "excited for me. She knows this is going to be hard work but she's excited."

Cast members revealed by ABC were Brandy, the R&B singer/song-writer; Jennifer Grey ("Dirty Dancing,"); Margaret Cho, comedian and former star of an ABC sitcom, "All American Girl"; Audrina Patridge, long-standing cast member of MTV's "The Hills"; Florence Henderson, aka Carol Brady; and Palin.

The would-be male dancers are Michael Bolton, the soft rock balladeer; Sorrentino, star of MTV's "Jersey Shore"; Hasselhoff, most recently a judge on "America's Got Talent"; Kurt Warner, veteran quarterback (formerly with the Giants) who retired from the Arizona Cardinals after last season; Rick Fox, former small forward with the Los Angeles Lakers; and Kyle Massey, rapper, and star of "That's So Raven."

How's this cast measure up? On paper, well. It has household names (the Hoff; the Sitch), former professional athletes, a TV legend (Henderson), and the genuinely-famous-if-not-quite-as-famous-as-they-used-to-be (Brandy, Bolton.) There's no obvious front-runner either, which should make the competition a little more interesting.