Heavy/ABC "Dancing With the Stars" news update.
TV host Michelle Visage thinks ”Dancing With the Stars” casting is unfair.
The producer/ ”Ru Paul’s Drag Race” judge spoke out in a July 2024 interview with the Hollywood Reporter and admitted she would like to join the ABC dance-off but has been turned down repeatedly.
Visage, 55, did not hold back on her opinion of ringer DWTS contestants such as Olympic gymnasts and celebrities with extensive dance backgrounds.
“I say this all the time,” Visage shared in the interview. “I’m like, ‘Hold on a minute. Nicole Scherzinger is a Pussycat Doll. It’s a dance troupe.’ JoJo Siwa was on ‘Dance Moms.’ That’s not fair. They’re actual dancers. I am not.”
Michelle Visage Says Producers Won’t Let Her Compete on ‘Dancing With the Stars’ Because She Made It Too Far on ‘Strictly Come Dancing’
GettyMichelle Visage and Giovanni Pernice attend The Sun’s “Who Cares Wins” Awards 2023 at The Roundhouse on September 19, 2023 in London, England. (Photo by Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images)
Visage, who is set to host “RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under” later this summer, won’t be seeing the DWTS ballroom this fall.
She told THR that she would love to do “Dancing With the Stars,” but producers won’t cast her because she competed in “Strictly Come Dancing” in the U.K. several years ago. “They won’t let me do it,” Visage said. “I injured myself on ‘Strictly’ and got voted off in week 10 or something like that. I’ve since had knee surgery.”
“I beg them every year to do ‘Dancing With the Stars,’ and they won’t let me,” she continued. “They’re like, ‘You got too far.’ I’m just like, ‘But I didn’t get to the semifinal. I didn’t win!’ …So yeah, I would kill to do it in the States, but they’re not having it. I’m like, ‘Guys, please. I’m still a [expletive] dancer. Trust me.’”
According to Strictly Come Dancing Fandom, Visage was a contestant on the BBC dance series in 2019. She was partnered with Italian pro dancer Giovanni Pernice and finished in 7th place in series 17.
Visage was voted off of “Strictly Come Dancing” after performing a vogueing routine in a dance-off against Saffron Barker and partner AJ Pritchard, according to The Independent. The judges who voted her off were Craig Revel Horwood, Shirley Ballas, and veteran DWTS judge Bruno Tonioli.
Michelle Visage Is Best Friends With DWTS Alum/Guest Co-Host Leah Remini
Visage has a strong connection to “Dancing with the Stars.” She is best friends with Leah Remini, who has been a contestant, guest judge, and guest co-host on the ABC ballroom show.
In an interview on the “Las Culturistas podcast,” Visage revealed that she even looked into joining Scientology after her longtime bestie introduced her to the controversial religion.
“I go in to take these courses, and then I did the $50 ones and then the $100 ones. Mind you, I was working on the radio, so I didn’t have a lot of salary,” she said. “It came to, like, the $1,800 one. I said I didn’t have the money to do it. …I was like, ‘I can’t afford it,’ and Leah’s mother stepped in to try to make it affordable.”
She soon decided that the religion was not for her and stepped back from committing to it. She praised Remini for leaving Scientology on her own in 2013 and exposing its controversies.
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TV Host Says ‘Dancing With the Stars’ Casting Is ‘Not Fair’