The Lifetime reality series Dance Moms has kept its drama going for viewers for six and a half seasons now, but things have been particularly eventful off-camera as well. Abby Lee Miller, whose dance company was at the center of the show, has been in the middle of a heated legal case stemming from multiple charges of financial fraud, and it all culminated in Miller publicly quitting the show in a social media rant. The dust hasn't even settled on all that yet, but Dance Moms has already landed a solid replacement in Dancing With the Stars' Cheryl Burke.
If you're going to replace a career dancer and dancing instructor with someone, you might as well go with another professional, and Cheryl Burke has quite a bit of experience, having served as a big part of Dancing With the Stars' seasonal lineups for 19 of its now-24 seasons. Burke will be involved with the remainder of the current seventh season when it returns, and production is scheduled to begin soon, so one imagines producers reacted lightning fast to Abby Lee Miller sounding off on Instagram. One might also imagine a back-up plan was already in place if Miller's legal troubles worsened. Still, though, that was fast.
What's more, Dance Moms has reportedly received an additional four episodes added to the season count, according to ET, so we'll get to see even more of Cheryl Burke than we might have expected. Even though we weren't expecting it. Indeed, there was question of whether or not Dance Moms would even continue, either for the remainder of Season 7 or for a future Season 8. Apparently Lifetime wasn't initially set to go on without the dance company's namesake, but that has obviously changed, and now Burke has something to do while she's not taking part in ABC's reality competition.
Cheryl Burke joined Dancing With the Stars back in Season 2, which she ended up winning with partner Nick Lachey of the boy band 98 Degrees. She then went on to win Season 3 with NFL great Emmitt Smith, becoming the first back-to-back winner for the ABC hit. Of course, she hasn't won since, though she did get quite a bit of publicity last year, as she was partnered up with the disgraced Olympian Ryan Lochte, who faced angry protesters on premiere night.
Dance Moms is currently on hiatus in the middle of Season 7, and filming is expected to begin again this week. It's not clear when the rest of the season will be set up to return to Lifetime later this year, but we'll be watching out for the news. In the meantime, head to our midseason premiere schedule and our summer TV guide to see what else is hitting the small screen soon.
