“Dancing With the Stars”
8 tonight, ABC
The producers casting “Dancing With the Stars” are always seeking people in the headlines who might spur strong audience reaction, positive or negative. Kate Gosselin and Bristol Palin are two notable recent examples.
Now ABC’s most popular show has booked Atlantan Nancy Grace, the polarizing host of her own HLN show who had her best ratings ever in June during the high-profile trial of Casey Anthony, the Florida woman accused — and ultimately acquitted — of killing her daughter, Caylee. Grace, a one-time Fulton County assistant district attorney, indefatigably believed Anthony was guilty throughout the trial and derisively dubbed her “tot mom.”
After the verdict, she told her audience, “The devil is dancing tonight.”
Tonight, Grace will be dancing the cha-cha with partner Tristan MacManus, competing against the likes of actor David Arquette, former Dalton resident and soap star J.R. Martinez and Chaz Bono, the transgendered son of Cher and Sonny Bono.
“It’s a super dance for us to start with,” said MacManus, formerly one of the show’s troupe dancers, now promoted to his first gig opposite a celebrity. “It’s a cheeky, friendly dance,” he said of the cha-cha. “It gets to show off Nancy’s personality.”
Grace, 51, spent her first two weeks of rehearsal learning the basics at the Atlanta Ballroom Dance Centre in Sandy Springs before moving last week to Los Angeles with her 3-year-old twins, Lucy and John David, to be close to the show.
Conveniently, Los Angeles is the location for another high-profile trial — that of Michael Jackson’s doctor, Conrad Murray — which Grace plans to follow on her HLN show.
Grace said she certainly wasn’t seeking the dance limelight. Rather, ABC called her while she was on her way to the Casey Anthony trial in Orlando.
Her dance background includes ballet as a child until seventh grade, when she became a cheerleader. “I haven’t thought about dancing since law school,” she said. “That was a long time ago!”
Grace is planning to donate her “DWTS” earnings to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. That could be well into the six figures, especially if she gets deep into the weeks-long competition.
“It’s dear to my heart after dealing with so many crime victims.”
Though Grace has garnered a fair number of detractors, the key will be to get her fan base to vote — and vote often. “I really hope our HLN viewers will watch,” she said. “The responsibility is on my shoulders to nail the dance, to do a good job. All the burden is on my feet.”
Grace would not have been able to take on “Dancing With the Stars” if she hadn’t stepped off her syndicated show, “Swift Justice With Nancy Grace,” which debuted last year and was shot at Georgia Public Broadcasting. But the syndicator, CBS, was importing 30 staff members from “Judge Judy” and “Judge Joe Brown” in Los Angeles to work with her, escalating costs.
She said CBS wanted to move the show to Los Angeles. Grace tried it but couldn’t be apart that long from her twins: “The money wasn’t worth it to me.”
Last spring CBS found a new judge, Jackie Glass, to replace Grace.
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