PureDWTS Season 18 Cast Announcement – LIVE BLOG!!!

It’s finally here, kids – after weeks of speculation about who’s dancing and who they’re dancing with, all questions will be answered in just a few short hours 🙂 This post is going up the night BEFORE the cast announcement, so be sure to bookmark it, as I will be posting all updates as they occur live on GMA on this post.

Before the fun begins, here are the ground rules:

1.) If you’re watching along and see that I haven’t posted something yet, DO NOT GO RUSHING INTO THE COMMENTS TO POST IT YOURSELF.  It takes time to update this site – especially during high traffic times like the cast announcement, and it only slows us down further when we have a bunch of people spamming the comments with the very same information we’re trying to update with in the main post.  If you do this, don’t be surprised if you find yourself on comment moderation.  You’ve been warned.

2.) Please do not refresh the page every 5 minutes and repeatedly post in the comments “Have we heard anything yet? Have they announced it yet???” When I say this page will be a live blog, it will be a LIVE BLOG – I literally post things as they happen…even the trivial time-wasting stuff that GMA has become famous for in the minutes leading up to the announcement.  If you don’t see it posted, IT HASN’T HAPPENED YET.  Remember – needless spamming & refreshing only slows the site down and delays us even further from posting.

3.) This goes without saying, but if you want to watch the cast announcement in your own time zone and want to be surprised – like, seriously, GTFO.  This is essentially a spoiler post – so if you don’t want spoilers, don’t read it.  Yes, circumstances have arisen in the past that make me feel like I should make this abundantly clear to our readers.  Don’t ask. 😛

Got it? Gooooood.  Now let’s play 🙂 I’d also like to give a shout-out to Heidi, who is tweeting simultaneously from our @puredwts Twitter account, and Vogue, who is manning the controls over at PureDerekHough and posting news and rumors here before and afterwards.  All Angels on deck – show us some love 🙂

9:45 PM EST, night before the announcement: The carefully guarded cast list seems to have sprung several leaks today, as we were hit with a bunch of new names.  If you haven’t already, go check out our rumor round-up and interesting things on Twitter posts to refresh your memory on some of the rumored celebs.  At this point, the only celebs that I personally feel confident that they’re going to be on this season are Meryl, Charlie, NeNe, Drew, Cody, & Diana.  The rest? Could go either way.  As for the potential partnerships – the only thing I know for sure is that Derek is NOT dancing with Meryl.  Please, Derek + Meryl partnership-wishers, get all of the whining out of your systems tonight…because I ain’t gonna have time for it come tomorrow morning. So which celebrities do you guys think are in? And who do you think they’re dancing with? T minus 9 hours till all is revealed 🙂

7:00 AM EST: I’m up, I’m up – and so is Tom, who is flanked by Jenna & Lindsay from the troupe. Sasha & Artem are also there, entertaining the audience. They are going to announce both the celebs & the partnerships. Stay tuned…

7:22 AM EST: Nothing so far…but here’s the best pic I could get of Sasha & Jenna jiving to “Happy”:

7:32 AM EST: Our first clues from Lara: one celeb may be “racing” to the win, and another “may have the force behind him”. Sounds like she’s referring to Diana & Billy Dee.

7:40 AM EST:In case you wanted to know some other current events: Oscar Pistorius is on trial, Robin Thicke is trying to win his wife back, and it’s pretty effin’ cold pretty much everywhere except Florida. Zzzzzzz.

7:46 AM EST We’re allegedly “moments away” from the announcement. We’ve been moments away since 7:00…apparently GMA & I have different definitions for the term “moment”.

8:00 AM EST: Robin said that they have a “full house” over in LA. So clever, those GMA anchors :::roll::: And the “is Derek back? Is Maks back?” has started.

8:01 AM EST Lara’s next corny clue? One celeb “knows how to score…goals”. Probably Sean Avery. I find it hilarious that they really haven’t let Erin talk yet. Who wants some king cake? Don’t chip your tooth on the plastic baby, Robin. I speak from experience. 😛

8:07 AM EST: 10 minutes till the big reveal!

8:18 AM EST: Here we go! Your season 18 celebrities are: Danica McKellar, Cody Simpson, Billy Dee Williams, Diana Nyad, James Maslow, Sean Avery, Drew Carey, Candace Cameron-Bure, Charlie White, Meryl Davis…and that’s it. I’m thinking Derek’s partner is getting revealed at a later date…Robin confirms this.

8:31 AM EST: And the partnerships are: Danica & Val, Cody & Witney, Billy Dee & Emma (love it), Diana & Henry, NeNe & Tony, James & Peta, Sean & Karina, Drew & Cheryl, Candace & Mark, Charlie & Sharna, and Meryl &…MAKS?! Twelfth celeb is Paralympic snowboarder Amy Purdy, partnered with Derek.

8:37 AM EST: BIG twist this season: at some point in the competition, all the partnerships are going to switch – and America’s going to do the voting. Bet ya anything Maks loses Meryl as a result. Well kids, I’m kinda over thing trying to update this post when I keep getting kicked out of the dashboard…and I have to go to work. Catch you later…discuss amongst yourselves. 🙂

11:05 AM EST: Went ahead and put together the height chart for the couples…just cause.  Note that one couple has a much greater height difference than the rest…11″ compared to most other couples being only about 6″ or less in difference.  Just throwing that out there, for the good of the order…why do you think that might be? Discuss. 😉