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Should Paula Abdul join Dancing With The Stars?

by Brett Love, posted Apr 29th 2008 11:00AM

Paula AbdulThe rumor that Paula Abdul will be a contestant on Dancing With The Stars has been floating around for a while now, and gained a little more steam with Paula's recent appearance on the show. Now, along with all the fan chatter, we are getting reactions from some of the people involved with the show. Our pals over at TV Guide sent along a press release for their upcoming issue, which you can find in its entirety after the jump, with quotes from Carrie Ann and Bruno.

In a nutshell, Bruno thinks she would win. Carrie Ann says that Paula is fragile and won't realize how much pressure is on her until she's signed up and can't get out. I asked DWTS pro Jonathan Roberts about it Monday night and his take was that he would be surprised to see Paula compete on the show because of her extensive dance background. He added that he thinks Paula has been around reality TV enough that she would know what she is getting into. I say, good or bad, it's a spectacle waiting to happen. What do you think? Click on through for a poll, and to sound off in the comments.

TV GUIDE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SHOULD PAULA ABDUL JOIN DANCING WITH THE STARS AS A CONTESTANT?

DWTS judge Carrie Ann Inaba tells TV Guide magazine:
"She won't even realize how much pressure is on her until she's already signed up and can't get out."


April 28, 2008 (New York, NY) – It's no secret that American Idol judge Paula Abdul seems to be on a mission to become a contestant on ABC's Dancing with the Stars next season. Although DWTS judge Bruno Tonioli thinks it's a great idea ("She'd win," he predicts), his colleague, Carrie Ann Inaba, is wary.

"She's [emotionally] fragile. And she's had physical issues [a neck injury]. She won't even realize how much pressure is on her until she's already signed up and can't get out," Inaba tells TV Guide magazine (May 5 issue; hits newsstands Thursday, May 1). "I would hate to see her get hurt by something she loves."

Meanwhile, Tonioli claims he wants to swap places – for a few minutes at least – with Idol's Simon Cowell. "Simon and I have talked about it," Tonioli tells TV Guide. "The people would scream." (Tonioli and Cowell have been pals for 22 years.) As a Fox employee, Cowell's contract allows him to pop up on other networks – as he did on NBC's Celebrity Apprentice – but "not as a judge," he explains.

DWTS host Tom Bergeron, too, has been threatening to give up his mike – briefly – to Idol host Ryan Seacrest, if only to lead into commercial break. (The two did Hollywood Squares together when Bergeron was its host.) "We made the fatal mistake – I don't know what I was thinking – of asking somebody at the [ABC] network," says Bergeron regarding the wacky exchange idea. "And they said, 'Oh, we can't do that!"

How would Paula do on Dancing With The Stars?
I'm with Bruno. With her talent, she'd win the whole thing.109 (35.4%)
I'm with Carrie Ann. It's a meltdown waiting to happen.108 (35.1%)
Good grief, cast anyone else.91 (29.5%)

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11 Comments

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vicc farson

i cant belive marrissa is still on dancing,,shes no dancer,,i think that fake smile keeps her there and people feel sorry for her,,and they keep her on there for the laughs,,mario shouldnt have gone home,,

May 07 2008 at 7:31 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Phish

she can barely walk straight, how is she going to dance??
unless there is a sudden vicodin / valium shortage, i dont see her pulling this off.

April 30 2008 at 12:49 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Catherine

Please no! Did anyone watch the train wreck reality show "Hey Paula"? This woman is nuts, I for one am getting sick of DWTS going for the hype and making every little thing into a drama, she would be crying and blubbering every week.

April 29 2008 at 4:07 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Tool

If Paula Abdul wears a dress like that for DWTS and looks as hot as she does in the picture above, I say yes.

I think Paula would be an emotional disaster. Probably very good at the dancing aspect, but a pure emotional rollercoaster. And since we all are Schadenfreude lookie loo's who like to see a disaster, I'm sure it would make for interesting TV.

Look at how good Kristi Yamaguchi is, but she is boring to watch because she is sooo good but is a robot. No emotion whatsoever.

April 29 2008 at 3:32 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Tool's comment
David

+5 points to MacGuffin for using "Schadenfreude lookie loo" in a sentence

April 29 2008 at 4:12 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
David

If she's physically fragile as described above, she shouldn't join the show. If she's physically able to perform, she absolutely should do the show. It's a TV show about dancing - why the heck wouldn't she do the show if she could? :)

April 29 2008 at 3:15 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Tammy

But Paula is a choreographer... that should disqualify her right? She has made a living as a dancer before. That's how it was explained before that they couldn't have made a living out of being a dancer because Stacey Keebler had many years of formal dance training, Joey Fatone and Drew Lachey were singers, not dancers and so on.

You see Paula there because they tape next door to each other so it's easy for her to make it over to a taping. It's not like she has to go out of her way to catch DWTS.

Anyway, Paula couldn't do the Super Bowl "LIVE" and took many takes to get the tape just right to air that night. No way she would go on LIVE at DWTS and she would pull a Vincent PAstorie.... quit the first week and the backup comes in. (You don't know they have 2 backups each season now in case a celeb backs out again.)

April 29 2008 at 2:22 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
dahl_harding

Ridiculous that she should even be considered.

April 29 2008 at 2:10 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
lucyfan62

Paula has had dance experience, but not ballroom dancing as far as I know and that is the key. Mario has done choreography for his videos, as has Mel B. Marisa has danced on Broadway, but these are all very different from ballroom dancing and no amount of "experience" is going to prepare Paula for the ballroom world, I don't think. So it could be interesting to see how she performs. As for the Simon/Bruno - Tom/Ryan swap...why not? CBS let Jeff Probst moonlight for a minute a couple of shows ago. I think it's silly for a network to prevent their "stars" from appearing on other shows, like the great celebrity boycott of "Millionaire." It's a great way to promote a show to an audience that might not otherwise watch! Maybe ABC can do a special episode of WIFE SWAP but make it STAR SWAP!

April 29 2008 at 12:41 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
justelise

Paula has so many spine, neck, and constant pain issues (from all the years of dance and the plane crash) that I think she should sit this one out. Even if she did win, would the physical pain be worth it?

Oh yeah.. when did it become acceptable to have professional dancer/choreographers compete on Dancing with the Stars. I thought the point was for celebrities not known for dancing to try their hat as dancers?

April 29 2008 at 12:40 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to justelise's comment
Eileen

I wish people would just leave her alone. She was a dancer and singer and sometimes trips over her words tring to explain...she's a physical, and NOT a verbal person. She is fighting a serious illness and consiidering she has done well. BTW you whingers, she dances along because movement is good for her condition. Simon is more spot on in his comments, but she's right...she knows what it is like and is trying to draw out the best of them.

May 02 2008 at 4:20 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply

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