'Dancing With The Stars' celebs dish on season's surprises

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- The celebrities brought back for "Dancing With The Stars: All-Stars" thought they knew what they were getting themselves into by hitting the dance floor once again. The contestants, however, soon realized their season would be followed by one surprise after another.

Shawn Johnson says she's learned to stay on her toes.

"They can throw anything at you every week," said Johnson. "I feel like the first season that I was on, we kind of had an idea of what was going to come for us each week. They didn't have surprises."

They do now! The producers of "Dancing With The Stars" have added several twists for the all-star season.

Emmitt Smith feels a twist in his stomach every Tuesday night, something he didn't see coming this time around.

"I keep having this gut-wrenching feeling about losing them (contestants) and not having them on the show any longer, including myself," said Smith. "I didn't really quite prepare for this."

Kelly Monaco has also surprised herself and gained a friend in her partner Val Chmerkovskiy.

"I didn't know how much I was going to enjoy it again," said Monaco. "I thought it was going to be a lot of work and I didn't know that Val and I were going to click and I'd enjoy being around him for 15 hours a day. I mean, it's really important."

Apollo Anton Ohno says the only thing he knew about Karina Smirnoff was that she was an incredible dancer.

"I didn't know anything about her," said Ohno who also said he chose not to research her because "this is something you have to fully experience for yourself."

Ohno says he's also been giving their performances all he's got.

"I usually don't have a problem giving 100 percent but she tacks on another 60 percent," Ohno said, "so, in reality, you've got 160 percent out there."

Melissa Rycroft, the only semi-finalist who isn't a past champion, says she's ecstatic about making it this far.

"Last time, we focused so much on the mirror ball and the finals and get there and we felt the pressure to be there," said Rycroft. "And this time around, god, we're in week nine. I never thought in an all-star season that Tony and I would have made it this far."

Will they make it to the finals? The couples will each dance twice Monday, once to a song from Michael Jackson's "Bad" album. They face double elimination Tuesday.

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