Are fans tuning in for LAST season finale of Lifetime’s Dance Moms with Abby Lee Miller tonight?
The turmoil on the dance team this season is the least of her problems right now.
Sentencing is pending on the fraud charges she’s pled guilty to, and she goes back to court THIS FRIDAY to find out her punishment.
Longtime Dance Moms viewers have watched the show take a real turn for the ugly over the past two seasons, and it was really obvious to most of us that Abby Lee didn’t want to be there. Heck, sometimes she didn’t even show up.
Ever since that insane Episode 7 of Season 4 when mom Kelly Hyland slapped Abby across the face during an argument, it’s been a total nightmare.
It’s obvious that Abby Lee is hating life, and hating the show. Sometimes they show little clips of her storming backstage trying to quit, or yelling at producers. That’s stuff we never saw in the first few seasons.
Also, if you’ve been a long-time Dance Moms fan, you’ve probably noticed that production hasn’t been kind to Abby Lee for the past few years.
Trust me, I know from experience, if you piss off the production company, they’ll do everything possible to make your life miserable.
For example, in the early years, production made Abby Lee look like a rock star in the dance team world. They showed her as a tough taskmaster to the girls, but a voice of reason when dealing with the moms.
She didn’t want to tolerate their bulls***, and she didn’t. There were lots of times those girls liked Abby Lee a lot better than their own mothers.
In recent seasons, we’ve seen countless clips of Abby Lee stuffing her face with junk food, and running around half-dressed, with her hair in curlers, seemingly never dressed and ready to face the day.
Unless she’s completely lost it, I’d be willing to bet that she behaved the same way earlier in the series. But back then, it didn’t suit production’s storyline to show the less glamorous side of Abby.
Abby Lee has been at war with her production company Collins Ave Entertainment, along with a rotating gaggle of obnoxious, opinionated mothers, plus prosecutors who want to put her away for five years and fine her $5 million for financial fraud crimes she admits she committed. Her life pretty much sucks right now.
She says the financial crimes were all accidental, a result of her rapid rise to fame and the expansion of her business, but some of the stuff that came out in the wash was a little bit shady.
Like bringing $120,000 in proceeds from her Australian masterclass tour back to the United States, without reporting it, by splitting it amongst her traveling companions in chunks of less than $10,000.
She denies having any of the girls carry cash for her, so I guess it must have just been the moms and her staff.
Her first sentencing would have probably gotten more coverage if it hadn’t been on Inauguration Day, but this final hearing on Friday, February 24, will determine her fate.
She’s already had to forfeit the $120,000 she brought back illegally from Australia, but that’s only the tip of the iceberg. Abby Lee’s financial problems started long before the TV show launched.
She’d already filed for bankruptcy before she got her big break with Dance Moms. And that’s when the beginning of the end started.
Abby Lee should have advised the bankruptcy courts about the change in her financial status, but she didn’t.
She got busted when the judge happened to see her on TV one night! That opened up a Pandora’s Box of stupid things she’d done to keep her income off the books and out of the tax man’s hands.
There’s much speculation that Abby Lee will get some jail time for her crimes, but there’s the slightest chance she’ll get off the hook because she has paid all of her debts and forfeited the ill-gotten gains from Australia.
The judge will be less inclined toward harsh sentencing because she’s paid everybody back ahead of them ordering her to do so.
And on the slight chance that Abby Lee doesn’t get jail time, will Dance Moms continue with Abby Lee Miller as its star?
Rumor has it that they’ve been filming a Season 7B, but Abby’s been traveling like a madwoman lately, too. There’s a lot of speculation about how much filming she’s actually been doing for Dance Moms.
Willy Abby Lee be watching 7B from jail?
After seven seasons, she should theoretically be in a position to walk away from the show if she wants to, but that depends on what she’s previously agreed to do.
Her behavior this season hasn’t indicated a desire to keep making the show, but would that change if she finds herself free as a bird after Friday’s hearing?
As far as dance goes, I don’t think Abby Lee is a bad coach. I think her strict, tough love approach develops disciplined dancers in a world that lacks much discipline nowadays.
Sometimes she’s mean, but so are all good coaches. Her approach isn’t gentle, but that inspired, rather than offended, her millions of fans.
If you peeked your head into a professional ballet studio, you’d hear equally constructive and destructive criticism.
There’s a reason they named this show Dance MOMS — it’s because the moms are pretty much nuts.
They’re the uber stage mom stereotype, locked in a glass cage together all day, just waiting to attack Abby for some perceived slight.
When production keeps them in their cage too long, they begin to attack and eat each other. It’s the worst case of adult #MeanGirls I have ever seen.
It’s amazing that their daughters are so nice, and well-behaved, given the example their mothers set for them on a daily basis at the studio and competitions.
Am I the only one who thinks that has something to do with Abby’s training? Most of the girls behave very professionally for their age, and they definitely didn’t learn it from the women in the cage.
Tonight’s finale is two hours long (they’re calling it Part 1 and Part 2). You’ll notice that Lifetime is not calling it the “series finale”.
Whatever happens, let’s just hope and pray they don’t try to replace Abby Lee with that woman who runs the Candy Apples.
Dance Moms: What we’re all wondering
If Abby goes to jail, who will replace her on Dance Moms? And can we start a petition to make sure it’s not the woman from Candy Apples?
Will Abby Lee be willing to go back on the show when her legal mess is over, whichever way it goes? Will she do a new show?
Martha Stewart is even more famous post-incarceration. I’m sure Abby Lee would be hilarious partnered with a rap star.
Dance Moms Season 7 Finale airs in two parts tonight starting at 8/7c on Lifetime.