PureDWTS Season 25 – The Couples!!! **SPOILERS**

So we already know a few of the couples, either because they were formally announced or because we have intel of our own.  Below are the couples we have confirmed thus far – IF we get any more confirmations between now and the cast announcement next week, you will find them here. If you want to see the list of this season’s pros only, go to Pro Watch.

SPOILERS AFTER THE JUMP…

1.) Drew Scott & Emma Slater: first officially confirmed couple on GMA on 8/30. I get the impression that this partnership has been a long time in the making, and Drew may have actually requested Emma has his partner – this may be a bit of a “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours” situation.  Make what you will of that hint 😉 I think they could actually pleasantly surprise people – I could see Drew being a bit of a natural.

2.) Nick Lachey & Peta Murgatroyd: older brother of season 2 champ Drew Lachey; married to former MTV VJ Vanessa Minillo, who is also in this season’s cast (see below). I don’t get the impression that Nick L. is going to be the second coming of his brother/Joey Fatone/Lance Bass/Nick Carter – 98 Degrees were the one boy band from back in the day that didn’t really dance (and judging from some of the moves they were trying to pull when I saw them in concert 4 years ago, I can understand why), and I think Drew vastly benefited from just working really hard and having Cheryl as a pro.  But hey, since my expectations are low, he could surprise me.

3.) Vanessa (Minillo) Lachey & Maks Chmerkovskiy: I got taken to task on Twitter for calling her by her maiden name, so here ya go – the married couple is competing against each other with the married pros as their partners. It’d be kinda cute if it wasn’t just so…predictable. Like Nick, I don’t really have super-high hopes for Vanessa – she strikes me as kind of a Denise Richards or Holly Madison type, that just may not be a natural mover. I think a lot will hinge upon just how invested Maks is in the partnership – he seemed pretty checked out with both Amber & Heather.

4.) Nikki Bella & Artem Chigvintsev: One of the two couples I’m most excited to see, because Nikki basically goes against Artem’s celeb casting “type” on DWTS: she’s young, she’s outgoing, she’s got dance skills, and a big personality. Nikki’s the type of partner that I think most of us would predict as going to Gleb or Val – so I’m curious to see what Artem can do with her.  She’s got some dance experience and The Bella Twins are one of the most popular acts in the WWE right now, so she could stick around for awhile.

5.) Jordan Fisher & Lindsay Arnold: I daresay Lindsay got her first semi-ringer – he’s an actor that just finished a stint in Hamilton, he’s a singer, and he also dances.  He’s also apparently a Disney kid, which worries me a bit because they sometimes struggle to get votes on DWTS – but I’m excited to see Lindsay with a partner that she can actually go full-out with.  If last season was the #Emmassaince, this season may be the #Linsanity 😎

6.) Derek Fisher & Sharna Burgess: The ol’ smoking gun IG follow/unfollow 😎 After all these seasons, they still never learn, do they? Derek is a former NBA player who also coached the Knicks for a time, and has also been a sportscaster. He’s shorter than the other basketball players we’ve had – only 6’1″, compared to the 6’5″ of Clyde Drexler, Rick Fox, and Metta World Peace – so he’s going to be a lot easier for Sharna to couple, methinks. He ran afoul of the law in June for a DUI, so part of me wonders if he might be doing DWTS as a Lochte-esque reputation repair mechanism.

7.) Frankie Muniz & Witney Carson: It wasn’t Cameron Boyce behind the snow cone, but someone I personally find better 😉 Frankie is probably best known for his role in Malcolm in the Middle (w/a pre-Breaking Bad Bryan Cranston playing his dad).  I’m not sure he’s been up to a whole lot in recent years, so he might be a bit of a Chris Kattan situation – been out of the public spotlight for awhile and could struggle with votes.  However, unlike Chris – I think he might be a decent dancer.

8.) Victoria Arlen & Val Chmerkovskiy: Remember when I said an awful lot of you were making some broad assumptions about Bethany Hamilton? 😉 Didn’t help that the DWTS Instagram was fanning the flames with a rather misleading picture.  Victoria’s a paralympic swimmer who suffers from transverse myelitis (a neurological condition) and spent almost 4 years in a vegetative state, and only re-learned to walk about a year ago.  I think her story’s fascinating, in that she’s our first disabled contestant that hasn’t been an amputee.  Will she be able to dance? I don’t know, but I’m definitely interested to see what she can do.

9.) Barbara Corcoran & Keo Motsepe: Probably one of the more interesting pairings this season – and while I’m already seeing complaining about Keo “getting another old lady”, I daresay Barbara is sharper than Charlotte, less neurotic than Charo, and in better shape than Chaka – I could see her actually sticking around for awhile, and Keo’s progress with Jodie & Charo gives me hope that he may be able to harness her strengths.

10.) Lindsey Stirling & Mark Ballas: Next to Lindsay and Jordan (and possibly Nikki & Artem), the couple I see with the most potential so far. Mark & Derek have both known her awhile, and I do wonder if part of the allure of returning to DWTS for Mark had to do with getting Lindsay as a partner.

11.) Sasha Pieterse & Gleb Savchenko: The whole of Twitter and IG seemed to have already guessed it, so here ya go. Don’t know a whole lot about her as I was never a Pretty Little Liars viewer, but she seems cool enough from what I’ve seen.  Source thinks she’s probably the most laid-back member of this season’s cast – which could be a good thing or a bad thing.

12.) Terrell Owens & Cheryl Burke: The second officially-confirmed couple, announced on GMA on 9/5. Some of you may remember that Cheryl was originally to be paired with Bobby Brown, who dropped out at the last minute due to contract issues. I personally think T.O. is a vast improvement from Bobby – if Bobby couldn’t even reach an agreement during the contract negotiation phase, what makes anyone think he was actually going to listen and take orders from Cheryl??? I was having visions of Master P all over again. Terrell, on the other hand, has wanted to do the show for YEARS, and has been a rumor several times – I get the feeling he just was never a priority for the casting directors, as he has been out of the NFL for a few years now. But given that he has fallen on hard times due to being unemployed in recent years, I think T.O. is gonna work hard and try to stick around as long as possible – HE NEEDS THIS MONEY, Y’ALL. I think Cheryl got pretty lucky for getting him as a last-minute partner.  There’s potential there.

13.) Debbie Gibson & Alan Bersten: Y’all guessed it, so here ya go.  Debbie may be older, but she’s got a HUGE nostalgia factor on her side – she’s squarely in the demographic that would be doing the bulk of the voting. She also seems to be in good shape and has (some) moves from her earlier years…so we’ll see!