‘Dance Moms’ Star Abby Lee Miller’s New Lifetime Series Canceled After Resurfaced Racist Comments

Lifetime has canceled a reality series featuring Abby Lee Miller. The cable network made the decision after some of the former Dance Mom star’s racist remarks were recently surfaced by fellow alum Adriana Smith. The show had reportedly filmed some sequences for Abby’s Virtual Dance Off, which was slated to premiere in June. However, none of the footage will see the light of day, according to Entertainment Weekly.

Miller’s remarks were made public by Smith, who responded to her use of a blackout square post on Tuesday to show solidarity with protesters and the Black Lives Matter movement. In a lengthy Instagram post on Wednesday, Smith wrote that she couldn’t think of a more perfect day to address my experience with Abby Lee Miller.” After telling followers to swipe right to read her lengthy explanation, she also addressed those who may question her involvement in the series in general.

“I’m sure most people will say ‘why did you go on the show?’ Auditioned and booked the show why wouldn’t we go? Call me naive, I thought with cancer and jail time maybe she had changed just a little bit. Well [Season 8] proved that was a complete lie.” In the post itself, Smith details Miller’s remarks during Dance Moms Season 8, where she referred to others as “growing up in the hood with only a box of eight crayons,” compared to herself, who grew up with “a box of 64 crayons.”

Miller has since apologized for her remarks in another Instagram post, writing that “I genuinely understand and deeply regret how my words have effected (sic) and hurt those around me in the past, particularly those in the Black community.” She hosted Dance Moms for its first six-and-a-half-seasons before she was temporarily replaced and brought back for Season 8. She first announced the spinoff back in May, which she called “a new self-contained competition show in the midst of our global pandemic” in an Instagram post.

The now-former reality host is no stranger to controversy. She filed for bankruptcy back in 2010, though Dance Moms premiered the following year, which helped her financial situation. Although just four years later, one of the show’s dancers sued her for alleged assault. Then in 2015, Miller was indicted on fraud for allegedly creating a secret bank account to hide revenue from her dance classes, along with other TV and merchandising deals. She reached a plea deal the next year and was sentenced to one year and one day in prison.