It's been a drama-filled couple of weeks for ABC reality show "Dancing With the Stars." First Jane Seymour's mother died, and she and her partner had to fly to England. Then guest star singer Gloria Estefan had her own mother emergency and had to cancel her appearance.
Maniac on the floor: Mark Cuban danced like he's never danced before on ABC reality show. Credit: Carol Kaelson
And another guest-star singer, Jennifer Lopez, had to cancel her live appearance due to a family emergency. Then Marie Osmond, mother of eight, samba-ed her way right into a loss of consciousness on live national TV. Who knew reality shows could be beset by so much, well, reality?
Osmond may have gotten all the online attention, what with her swooning replayed endlessly on YouTube and other sites, but billionaire/HDTV mogul Mark Cuban was the one who waltzed out of "Dancing With The Stars" last week, the fifth to be voted out. On a message board on RealityTVWorld.com, one of the show's fans gave Cuban kudos for at least having had fun, despite predicting his ouster Oct. 8.
"I think Mark may have the smallest fanbase, and his low-end score compared with a lack of phone votes may put him out tonight. [Fellow contestant] Wayne Newton's not exactly watchable (and doesn't have Mark's enjoyment of the experience)." Even his weekly Facebook vote-grubbing didn't help him. After Cuban got the good-bye wave from host Tom Bergeron, another fan on the message board had a suggestion for how he could have stayed. "Sorry, Mark, but I did tell you, if you'd just made a pay-per-vote offer ..."
And while his competitive side was disappointed, part of him seemed glad to not spend his days dancing. "There's a part of me that says, 'You know? Practicing six hours a day to do the mambo and the samba -- dances I've never heard of before?'" Cuban told ABC late-night host Jimmy Kimmel in an appearance after he was ousted. "So there's a good side." Another upside? He lost 34 pounds. That's almost as good as going on "Survivor."
