Anna Sorokin will reprise her false identity on season 33 of the show, becoming the latest contestant with legal or other troubles.
It's a familiar lineup for this season's "Dancing With the Stars."
There are the athletes: the former N.F.L. receiver Danny Amendola and the Olympic gymnast Stephen Nedoroscik. There are the reality TV stars: Jenn Tran of "The Bachelorette" and a "Real Housewives" cast member, Phaedra Parks. There are the actors whose stars have dimmed: Eric Roberts and Tori Spelling.
But there is also an eye-opening choice: Anna Sorokin, the fake heiress convicted of larceny and theft who was announced along with the rest of the cast for season 33 of the show on "Good Morning America" on Wednesday.
Sorokin masqueraded as "Anna Delvey," claiming to be a wealthy German heiress, and she used that identity to con people in New York City society out of large sums of money, a jury found. She was sentenced to four to 12 years in prison in 2019 and released in 2022.
"I'd be lying to you and to everyone else and to myself if I said I was sorry for anything," she told The New York Times in 2019.
ABC, which broadcasts "Dancing With the Stars," did not immediately reply to a request for comment on Sorokin's casting.
A news release disclosing the cast identified her as Anna Delvey, not Sorokin, and breezily referred to her as an "artist, fashion icon and infamous NYC socialite."
"Some view her as a cunning scam artist, while others see her as a charismatic and ambitious entrepreneur who took advantage of New York City's social elite in an effort to open a prestigious art studio," it said.
Opinion was mixed on social media, with some viewers puzzled or even dismayed by the inclusion of someone with her criminal history and others wondering if Sorokin was stretching the definition of "star." Still, there were those who were excited about her casting.
Sorokin's appearance is potentially complicated by the ankle bracelet she is currently wearing as she fights deportation to Germany, where she lived as a teenager. The show released a photograph of her in a sparkling silver minidress with the monitoring device conspicuously visible on her ankle.
It's not the first time a divisive figure has turned up on "Dancing With the Stars," creating a stir, and perhaps goosing ratings.
Here are some other names that have been cast unexpectedly, and not always to every fan's liking:
Floyd Mayweather Jr., 2007, 9th place
One of the best boxer's of his generation, Mayweather was wealthy, famous and a friend of other celebrities, making him a great candidate for a reality show. But he also went into his appearance with a history of violence against women, which included domestic violence and battery convictions.
Tom DeLay, 2009, withdrew
Like any partisan politician, DeLay, a Texas Republican and former majority leader of the House of Representatives, was always going to be a polarizing choice for the show. But his selection also stirred controversy because he had resigned from Congress after an indictment on campaign finance violations. At the time, the case was still pending; he was eventually sentenced to three years in prison before an appeals court overturned his conviction.
Paula Deen, 2015, 9th place
Deen, the celebrity chef, was accused in a discrimination lawsuit of making derogatory remarks about Black people. Though the lawsuit was dismissed in 2013, in a deposition in the case she admitted to using a racist slur, which cost her television, book and endorsement deals.
Ryan Lochte, 2016, 7th place
Lochte, the Olympic swimmer, was chosen for the show shortly after a contretemps at the Rio de Janeiro Games in 2016. Lochte and three of his teammates said they were robbed at gunpoint, a black eye for the host city. It soon came out, however, that the supposed robbers were security guards at a gas station confronting the swimmers because at least one of them had vandalized the bathroom.
Carole Baskin, 2020, 14th place
Baskin, an animal-rights activist, came to prominence in the Netflix documentary "Tiger King," which revolves around her longtime feud with the private zoo owner Joe Exotic and his eventual plan to have her killed, for which he was sent to jail. But the program also hinted that Baskin might have been involved in the disappearance of her former husband in 1997, which she denied. Although Baskin had not been charged in connection with the disappearance -- and still hasn't -- many viewers had convicted her in their minds.
Adrian Peterson, 2023, 11th place
A star running back in the N.F.L. for years, Peterson pleaded no contest to charges in 2014 that he had beaten his 4-year-old son with a tree branch. He was suspended from the league and received a fine, probation and community service.
Bristol Palin, 2010; Bobby Bones, 2018; Sean Spicer, 2019
The objection to these three dancers was more benign, but also more directly relevant to the competition: Viewers and judges alike felt that they just weren't good dancers.
Normally, two left feet mean a quick exit from the show. But thousands of fans who voted in the competition, which relies on a combination of scores from the audience and judges, seemed to take a liking to these three, and kept supporting them week after week despite the judges' scorn.
In the case of Spicer, the former press secretary for President Donald J. Trump, the Times critic Gia Kourlas wrote that his dancing "remains consistent in its awfulness."
Nevertheless, Spicer finished sixth. Bristol Palin, the daughter of Sarah Palin, was third, and Bones, the radio personality, improbably, won.
