Pre-Season Spotlight on Barbara Corcoran & Keo Motsepe

Pre-Season Spotlight On

Barbara Corcoran and Keo Motsepe

Every day from now until the Season 25 premiere we’ll be posting new content on the blog, including spotlights on every couple set to take the ballroom floor this fall!

Up next for our pre-season spotlight is Shark Tank star and businesswoman Barbara Corcoran with her partner Keo Motsepe! Barbara started out in the business world by co-founding a real estate company called The Corcoran Group with the initial funds of about $1,000, and eventually sold the company for $66 million! Now, she is known as one of the main investors on the ABC show Shark Tank! Her partner Keo has been a pro on Dancing With the Stars since season 19, and comes from South Africa as an undefeated Latin dance champion!

Bentley Right off the bat, when I found out that Barbara Corcoran was going to do the show, I became very excited, not only as a Shark Tank fan, but as a Barbara fan as well. Although Barbara is sort of a meme when it comes to Shark Tank because of the few amount of deals she makes on the show (and when she does make a deal, it tends to be something that is a lesser of an investment than others, or an investment that she seemed skeptical of in the first place), her business skills and personality still make her one of my favorite Sharks, along with season 20 contestant Robert Herjavec. I just love Barbara’s character and how she knows when to be professional and when to be silly. And when I say “silly”, I mean very silly. When she appeared on Good Morning America, I saw a complete side to her that I never even knew about, which made me want to watch her more than I already did! I mean, what was up with her tongue constantly being out? XD She is a stand-out ball of energy that almost reminds me of how whacky Charo stood out. . . almost. But besides that, I think that America will really be able to connect to her and relate to her because she isn’t just a celebrity who got lucky and became rich; she started from nothing like most common people, and used her own hard work and business ethics to make it far and turn herself into a millionaire businesswoman. To me, Barbara is sort of an inspiration in that respect, and the fact that she earned all of the money that she has makes me think that she appreciates her high-ranking position in life more than most. Her dancing will probably not be up to par with a lot of the other celebrities, but I have a feeling that she will be better on the dance floor than most will expect.

And as for Keo Motsepe being her partner, I’m not sure what to think. Even though we’ve seen him in five other seasons before, I still don’t have quite of a good feel for his dancing style as much as most of the other pros. . . but hey, he did a heck of a job with the crazy Charo last season! I’m a little worried about the height, though, because there have been problems in the past with height before, but I think that the height issue was debunked by Sasha Farber in season 23 with his work with his partner Terra Jolé, who is the shortest celebrity to have ever danced on the show.

Julia Thanks for the reminder that Sasha deserved a partner this season! ;)

Dwtsdreams I think Barbara is going to surprise people! Her “can do” attitude and her incredible work ethic mixed with some athleticism is going to serve her well in this competition! I am not going to lie, this season’s  competition is tight! There is a plethora of young stars with a huge following such as Nikki Bella with 6.4 million Instagram followers, Sasha Pieterse with 7.5 million Instagram followers, and Jordan Fisher with 1.2 million Instagram followers, while Barbara has 238k. No, I don't think social media determines your place in the competition, but your fan bases and socials do play a huge role in votes. Unfortunately for Barbara, this season is filled with stars who have a good amount of a social media following. She does seem so excited to learn, so I won't be surprised if they make it to the Top 9.

Julia I didn’t immediately recognize Barbara, but I’ve seen a few episodes of Shark Tank here and there so it I vaguely remembered her once I found out what she was famous for. Looking at this cast, she’s probably low on the “potential for good dancing” list but high on the “potential to make a mark on the audience” one. She’s one of the few that someone in the core demo would likely recognize, and she was one of the standouts with her fun personality on GMA! I also really like that we have a woman in the cast who is known for being intelligent and successful in the world of business. I hope we see that celebrated on the show in some way, because the main way women are used for comedy on this show tends to be instances about them not understanding things that are widely seen as general knowledge. Women can be smart and funny!

I was also confused as to why they’d put her with Keo but it turns out Barbara actually requested him so it makes more sense now. I really don’t see how they’re all that similar apart from maybe sense of humor but maybe she’ll explain why she wanted him in their first package (she clearly finds him handsome so I think that might have something to do with it! :P)

Like I said before, Barbara will more than likely be one of Season 25’s weaker dancers but if she manages to be entertaining without going overboard (ie. no fighting with the judges) I think she and Keo will stick around for a few weeks.

Bentley I think that saying that Barbara thinks Keo is handsome is a bit of an understatement. . . she seems to be, like, obsessed with him! Unfortunately, though, I don’t think that we’re going to have another another Shark Tank/Dancing With the Stars wedding with these two! XD