Cheryl Burke spent nearly 20 years as a pro on Dancing with the Stars, but even she wouldn’t have predicted who her favorite celebrity partners ended up being.
On the Dec. 1 episode of her podcast, Sex, Lies and Spray Tans, Burke, 40, answered questions fans had submitted and kicked things off with a bang as she revealed which of her 25 partners she was “shockingly surprised” that she had “the most fun” with: Jack Osbourne and Rob Kardashian.
“I didn’t expect to have such a great season like I did [with them],” Burke admitted.
“I love when my expectations going in aren’t very high, and it’s shocking at the end how far we’ve got,” she continued.
Burke and Kardashian, 37, were the runners-up on season 13 in 2011. Meanwhile, she and Osbourne, 39, finished third on season 17 in 2013.
Burke said that her preconceived notions of both partners — Osbourne from his time on MTV’s reality show about his family and Kardashian from his respective reality show — as “spoiled brats” was completely changed after spending time with them.
“These two men — they’re totally not what you would expect, especially nowadays. Jack is sober. And I just love the fact that we got along and they didn’t take themselves too seriously.”
She even went as far as to say that looking back, most of her favorite seasons were when she was paired with a reality star. “This is the thing: they’re so used to cameras in their face that they don’t try and be another person. They are just who they are because cameras don’t faze them.”
“So I had a great time with each of them in different ways, but the fact that people were betting against us and we made it to the finals is pretty spectacular,” she continued of her championship seasons with Osbourne and Kardashian. “Both of those partnerships are memories that I will take with me and cherish forever.”
Burke made her final bow in the iconic ballroom in 2022, after 17 years and 26 seasons on DWTS. In addition to naming both Osbourne and Kardashian among her favorite partners from her tenure, she includes Emmitt Smith and Sam Champion on her list as well.
She also revealed a behind-the-scenes secret from her season with Rob, as she called him a “dark horse” and remembered that his “goal” was just to beat his sister, Kim Kardashian, who had only made it through week 2 when she was on the show in 2008.
“He came in second place. I loved that,” she told PEOPLE. “I haven’t talked to him in a while, but those are those moments that I feel like I’ve made an impact on someone’s life.”