How famous are they, really? Ranking every 'star' from 'Dancing with the Stars'

Since the 2005 debut of Dancing with the Stars, 223 celebrities have competed on the ABC reality show, some of whom wear the label “star” a lot more plausibly than others. The lineup for season 21, set to premiere on September 14, was announced this morning: Tamara Braxton, Gary Busey, Nick Carter, Paula Deen, Victor Espinoza, Andy Grammer, Hayes Grier, Bindi Irwin, Chaka Khan, Alexa PenaVega, Carlos PenaVega, Alek Skarlatos, and Kim Zolciak.

Who are the most and least famous contestants ever to appear on Dancing with the Stars? How do you compare a wide receiver with a talk show host, or an Olympic figure skater with an activist? And how do the new recruits stack up?

To quantify “fame,” we considered checking which celebrity appears most frequently in Google search results, but that method obviously favors stars with common names. Instead, we turned to Wikipedia, the Internet’s great equalizer (except not, but shhh), tallying the total word count—including sidebars, citations, you name it—for every single DwtS contestant’s dedicated article.

Our logic: the longer the text that describes an individual, the more culturally important that person is. Right? Right.

Back when we first crunched these numbers, in time for the season 20 premiere in March, the most famous contestant was Floyd Mayweather, Jr., followed by Chris Jericho and Lil’ Kim.

As of now, that’s still the case. In fact, none of season 21’s cast members even manage to crack the top 50 most famous DwtS contestants of all time. The five highest-ranked contestants from the upcoming season are Chaka Khan (#73 overall), Tamara Braxton (#86), Paula Deen (#100), Gary Busey (#116), and Nick Carter (#129).

As a general rule, athletes’ Wikipedia pages (which feature specific details of bouts, games, titles, records, and so on) were consistently wordier than those of non-athletes, while reality stars—including a number of home-grown Bachelor and Bachelorette alumni—generally sank to the bottom of the ranks. Two celebrities don’t yet have their own Wikipedia pages: Vine star Hayes Grier and train attack hero Alek Skarlatos, both of whom will compete in season 21.

Admittedly, this is far from a perfect metric: it’s biased towards celebrities who rose to prominence in the age of the Internet. For instance, Tommy Chong and Jennifer Grey are #93 and #132 on our list, respectively, while the Pussycat Dolls’ Nicole Scherzinger sits pretty at #4. That’s downright immoral. And of course, if a Wikipedia editor should happen to be a superfan of, say, Joey Fatone and decide to write a doctoral thesis-length article in the singer’s honor, that would certainly dirty our data.

Here’s the full list of Dancing with the Stars contestants and their Wikipedia page word counts, with season 21 cast members in bold:

1. Floyd Mayweather, Jr. – 17,730
2. Chris Jericho – 15,992
3. Lil’ Kim – 13,221
4. Nicole Scherzinger – 11,660
5. Tom DeLay – 11,461
6. Sugar Ray Leonard – 11,277
7. Heather Mills – 10,964
8. Lawrence Taylor – 9,696
9. Mýa – 9,124
10. Brandy – 8,967
11. Evander Holyfield – 8,906
12. Hope Solo – 8,833
13. Evan Lysacek – 8,803
14. Christina Milian – 8,780
15. Toni Braxton – 8,713
16. Kurt Warner – 8,396
17. Apolo Anton Ohno – 8,035
18. Martina Navratilova – 7,758
19. Nancy Grace – 7,211
20. Mark Cuban – 6,957
21. Chad Ochocinco – 6,761
22. Lance Bass – 6,760
23. David Hasselhoff – 6,640
24. Adam Carolla – 6,638
25. P. Miller – 6,620
26. Shawn Johnson – 6,551
27. Randy Couture – 6,481
28. Nastia Liukin – 6,382
29. Kim Kardashian – 6,366
30. Metta World Peace – 6,348
31. Michael Waltrip – 6,277
32. Drew Carey – 6,158
33. Steve Wozniak – 6,096
34. Chuck Liddell – 6,067
35. Alexandra Raisman – 5,988
36. Charlie White – 5,861
37. Meryl Davis – 5,790
38. Patti LaBelle – 5,686
39. Mel B – 5,668
40. Pamela Anderson – 5,575
41. Jerry Rice – 5,488
42. Priscilla Presley – 5,450
43. Donny Osmond – 5,415
44. Margaret Cho – 5,303
45. Buzz Aldrin – 5,214
46. Sean Avery – 5,214
47. Billy Ray Cyrus – 5,206
48. Emmitt Smith – 5,188
49. Stacy Keibler – 5,115
50. Katherine Jenkins – 5,082
51. Romeo Miller – 5,062
52. Kellie Pickler – 4,925
53. Lolo Jones – 4,877
54. Susan Lucci – 4,858
55. Diana Nyad – 4,786
56. Michael Irvin – 4,692
57. Victor Ortiz – 4,638
58. Sara Evans – 4,630
59. Monica Seles – 4,622
60. Bristol Palin – 4,564
61. Wynonna Judd – 4,494
62. Melissa Joan Hart – 4,484
63. Shanna Moakler – 4,472
64. Corbin Bleu – 4,472
65. Steve-O – 4,455
66. Andy Dick – 4,385
67. Wayne Newton – 4,382
68. Penn Jillette – 4,283
69. Jason Taylor – 4,249
70. Hines Ward – 4,230
71. Jerry Springer – 4,213
72. Gladys Knight – 4,213
73. Chaka Khan – 4,209
74. Kathy Ireland – 4,163
75. Shandi Finnessey – 4,137
76. Gavin DeGraw – 4,104
77. Kelly Osbourne – 4,103
78. Bill Nye – 4,095
79. Warren Sapp – 4,075
80. Macy Gray – 4,062
81. Aaron Carter – 3,965
82. Tavis Smiley – 3,884
83. Elizabeth Berkley Lauren – 3,863
84. Tucker Carlson – 3,841
85. Belinda Carlisle – 3,810
86. Tamara Braxton – 3,799
87. Michael Sam – 3,736
88. Suzanne Somers – 3,720
89. Rick Fox – 3,701
90. Denise Richards – 3,686
91. Leah Remini – 3,684
92. David Arquette – 3,671
93. Tommy Chong – 3,649
94. Laila Ali – 3,635
95. Shannen Doherty – 3,607
96. Billy Dee Williams – 3,588
97. Clyde Drexler – 3,554
98. David Alan Grier – 3,548
99. Hélio Castroneves – 3,502
100. Paula Deen – 3,472
101. Misty May-Treanor – 3,468
102. Marie Osmond – 3,452
103. Mario – 3,425
104. Zendaya – 3,405
105. Valerie Harper – 3,390
106. Redfoo – 3,383
107. Danica McKellar – 3,347
108. Jane Seymour – 3,329
109. Natalie Coughlin – 3,292
110. Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi – 3,231
111. Maria Menounos – 3,209
112. Melissa Gilbert – 3,156
113. Jaleel White – 3,130
114. Wendy Williams – 3,118
115. Mario Lopez – 3,091
116. Gary Busey – 3,083
117. John Ratzenberger – 3,079
118. Cloris Leachman – 3,058
119. Florence Henderson – 3,042
120. Kendra Wilkinson – 2,959
121. Sherri Shepherd – 2,940
122. George Hamilton – 2,778
123. Keyshawn Johnson – 2,771
124. Jacoby Jones – 2,676
125. Erin Andrews – 2,643
126. Ricki Lake – 2,634
127. Marlee Matlin – 2,630
128. Holly Madison – 2,623
129. Nick Carter – 2,592
130. Kristi Yamaguchi – 2,581
131. Michael Bolton – 2,560
132. Jennifer Grey – 2,532
133. Steve Guttenberg – 2,500
134. Donald Driver – 2,487
135. William Levy – 2,484
136. Alexa PenaVega – 2,468
137. Sabrina Bryan – 2,442
138. Cristián de la Fuente – 2,426
139. Cody Simpson – 2,423
140. Jack Osbourne – 2,414
141. Monique Coleman – 2,403
142. Joey Lawrence – 2,380
143. Kirstie Alley – 2,362
144. Jennie Garth – 2,344
145. Ralph Macchio – 2,317
146. Andy Grammer – 2,278
147. Harry Hamlin – 2,258
148. Tia Carrere – 2,234
149. Maurice Greene – 2,231
150. Victor Espinoza – 2,219
151. Dorothy Hamill – 2,158
152. NeNe Leakes – 2,140
153. Jack Wagner – 2,115
154. Debi Mazar – 2,111
155. Janel Parrish – 2,070
156. Brooke Burke – 2,047
157. Kate Gosselin – 2,043
158. Lisa Rinna – 2,034
159. Candace Cameron Bure – 2,027
160. Willa Ford – 2,009
161. Robert Herjavec – 2,004
162. Bill Engvall – 1,996
163. Joey Fatone – 1,987
164. Chuck Wicks – 1,979
165. Bindi Irwin – 1,968
166. Vivica A. Fox – 1,952
167. James Maslow – 1,936
168. Joey McIntyre – 1,931
169. Audrina Patridge – 1,918
170. Paulina Porizkova – 1,894
171. Kelly Monaco – 1,891
172. Niecy Nash – 1,885
173. Marissa Jaret Winokur – 1,874
174. Kristin Cavallari – 1,873
175. Chaz Bono – 1,864
176. Shannon Elizabeth – 1,862
177. Tatum O’Neal – 1,849
178. John O’Hurley – 1,847
179. Elisabetta Canalis – 1,840
180. Mark Dacascos – 1,820
181. Alfonso Ribeiro – 1,816
182. Amy Purdy – 1,805
183. Lea Thompson – 1,776
184. Bethany Mota – 1,768
185. Albert Reed – 1,713
186. J.R. Martinez – 1,665
187. Carson Kressley – 1,654
188. Joanna Krupa – 1,636
189. Ted McGinley – 1,628
190. Gilles Marini – 1,596
191. Antonio Sabàto, Jr. – 1,571
192. Ian Ziering – 1,567
193. Leeza Gibbons – 1,561
194. Amber Riley – 1,539
195. Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino – 1,526
196. Kenny Mayne – 1,509
197. D. L. Hughley – 1,508
198. Lisa Vanderpump – 1,506
199. Ty Murray – 1,489
200. Rachel Hunter – 1,480
201. Cameron Mathison – 1,461
202. Chelsea Kane – 1,442
203. Chynna Phillips – 1,416
204. Kim Zolciak – 1,375
205. Rocco DiSpirito – 1,358
206. Drew Lachey – 1,357
207. Petra Němcová – 1,351
208. Louie Vito – 1,349
209. Roshon Fegan – 1,325
210. Mike Catherwood – 1,316
211. Jonathan Bennett – 1,309
212. Giselle Fernandez – 1,302
213. Cody Linley – 1,270
214. Carlos PenaVega – 1,240
215. Jeffrey Ross – 1,239
216. Noah Galloway – 1,233
217. Kyle Massey – 1,202
218. Josie Maran – 1,174
219. Betsey Johnson – 1,112
220. Chris Soules – 1,112
221. Riker Lynch – 1,104
222. Rob Kardashian – 1,070
223. Trista Sutter – 1,028
224. Melissa Rycroft – 993
225. Sean Lowe – 958
226. Sadie Robertson – 957
227. Rumer Willis – 945
228. Jake Pavelka – 940
229. Ingo Rademacher – 937
230. Brant Daugherty – 808
231. Aiden Turner – 777
232. Charlotte McKinney – 762
233. Willow Shields – 709
234. Ashley Hamilton – 698
235. Hayes Grier – 0
236. Alek Skarlatos – 0

Molly Fitzpatrick is senior editor of Fusion’s Pop & Culture section. Her interests include movies about movies, TV shows about TV shows, and movies about TV shows, but not so much TV shows about movies.