Dancing with the Stars

On Tuesday night, when Kim Kardashian and Mark Ballas became the third couple to be eliminated from Dancing with the Stars season 7. As is their custom, hosts Tom Bergeron and Samantha Harris allowed the ousted pair to say their good-byes and have a final dance together.

Kim's final words were a tribute to her late father, and Mark followed up with a horrible gaffe.

Samantha Harris asked Kim if she was glad that she took part in Dancing with the Stars, despite all the difficulty that she had to endure at the hands of the judges. Kim responded, “You know what? Today, five years ago, my father passed away. And I just know he's really happy and watching over me, and I made him proud.”

Aww, that was actually really sweet, and Kim looked really sincere when she said that.

Tom Bergeron followed up with a question for Mark: “Any words for your dad?”

Mark answered, “Words for my dad? He's doing such a great job. He inspires me. He's always been my hero, and I'm so proud to be sharing the stage with him. And I'm glad he's still alive,” punctuating that last sentence with a little mini-fist pump.

Wha?? Did he really just say that? It kind of sounded like he just rubbed it in Kim's face that he still has a dad and she does not.

Perhaps Tom Bergeron was taken aback by the comment as well because he quickly rushed Mark and Kim to the middle of the stage to have their last dance.

I didn't include the comment when I wrote my Dancing with the Stars live thoughts on Tuesday night because I was just too shocked at Mark's poor choice of words. At first, I just chalked it up to the fact that Mark was feeling overwhelmed at being eliminated and being under all those bright lights. Maybe his mind went blank and he latched on to the last words he heard, which were about someone's dad. These are just the kind of things that happen on live television sometimes.

But after thinking about it for a couple of days and discussing the supposed gaffe at length with my fellow BuddyTV staffer Gina Scarpa, I've come to the conclusion that what Mark meant to say was, “I'm glad my dad is still alive in the competition,” that is, he's glad that Corky Ballas' chances at winning are still alive. This makes more sense, but Mark's word choice was just unfortunate.

Check out this YouTube clip and see for yourself. The relevant comments begin at around the 3:01 mark. What do you think Mark meant to say?





-Debbie Chang, BuddyTV Staff Writer
(Image courtesy of ABC)