Cheryl Burke to Replace Abby Lee Miller on ‘Dance Moms,’ Miller Unleashes on Producers
Abby Lee Miller slams the producers of Dance Moms in a new interview following the announcement that former Dancing With the Stars dancer Cheryl Burke will replace her on the long-running Lifetime series.
On Wednesday (March 29), the choreographer, who quit the show on Monday (March 27) via a frustrated Instagram post, sat down with Entertainment Tonight, where she dished on the drama behind the scenes of the show, why she chose to walk away and how she feels about her replacement.
According the the Dance Moms alum, she quit the show over poor treatment and a lack of "respect," sharing, "I chose to quit because I don't want to fight for a great idea, I don't want to fight for better music, I don't want to fight for a bigger costume budget. [They] looked at me like I was this down-and-out podunk dance teacher from Pittsburgh that they saved. I think the word 'respect,' the word 'trust,' and the word 'thank you' was missing from my relationship with the production company."
Miller also alleges that the producers of the show manipulated her to do things that made her uncomfortable during filming.
"My dog died on TV, they made me put the dead dog in a stroller and push it like she was still alive, and I did it," she claims. "What was I thinking? They manipulated me, and they just got in my head and you just get to the point where you just do it because you can't argue anymore. I can't say, 'That's stupid, that would never happen, nobody would ever do that, that's not real, that's not reality.'"
The dance teacher also asserts that she was not fired from the show, as some rumors allege, and than that she even "got a call time to come to work today": "I was not fired. I haven't even heard from them yet, and I got a call time for today—let's make that clear... The dust is not gonna settle until that producer is dead and they cremate him and the dust is there. That's the dust."
When asked about her replacement, however, Miller had nothing but nice things to say about Burke—though her words seem to read more as a warning than earnest encouragement.
"I think that's great," Miller says. "I only met her once at a housewarming party a couple weeks ago. I'm glad that someone who has worked on a network show for as long as she has on Dancing With the Stars is going to see what I've been working with for seven years."
"I don't think she's replacing me, I think it's going to be a different vibe," the TV star continues. "Wait until Cheryl Burke deals with [no costume budget]! ...She's going to have to run downtown to Santee Alley and buy something off the street in her own car, at 4:30 in rush hour traffic after we wrap, when everything is closing, because that's what I did for six years. I bet you she's treated differently. I bet you the budget is completely different, and I bet you she is never driving her car, with her gas, getting parking tickets that she has to pay, walking up and down the streets looking for fabric on her feet."
Meanwhile, sources close to the show told ET that Miller's claims are "simply false, full stop," and that "production would never made her put a dead dog in a stroller."
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