Abby’s Ultimate Dance Competition Season 2 will premiere Tues., Sept. 3, at 9pm ET/PT on Lifetime.
The series — whose star, notorious Dance Moms dance instructor Abby Lee Miller, has said is the show she wanted to make in the first place — will feature 11 more talented kids vying for a $100,000 cash prize and a scholarship to the Young Dancers Program at New York’s Joffrey Ballet School.
Last year’s winner Brianna Haire attended the Joffrey program this summer, assuaging fans’ fears that she would suffer the same fate as Dance Moms’ beleaguered Chloe, who won a similar scholarship but has thus far been unable to attend. Haire’s fellow contestants Asia Ray, Hadley Walts and Zack Torres and their mothers have appeared as regulars on Dance Moms throughout its third season.
Abby’s Ultimate fans will remember that Yvette Walts and Kristie Ray stole the show in Season 1 with ferocious verbal battles that nearly turned physical. To further complicate the new contestants’ lives, Lifetime promises the Season 2 moms will bring “an entirely new meaning to the term ‘stage mom.’”
Finger-twirling celeb choreographer Richy Jackson will return to join Miller on the AUDC judges panel, while Broadway dancer Rachelle Rak — who also made a memorable Dance Moms appearance — will take the place of Robin Antin, founder of The Pussycat Dolls. The ever-patient Kevin Manno (who is dating former The Bachelorette star Ali Fedotowsky) returns as host. And, as Dance Moms fans well know from the current mama drama, DM‘s Maddie Ziegler will make multiple appearances throughout the season.
Season 1 AUDC viewers will recall that Miller, Antin and Jackson frequently butted heads about what made for an ultimate dancer, with Jackson and Antin favoring pizzazz over pristine technique, while Miller remained a stickler for perfectly aligned limbs and pointed feet. If the newly revamped judging panel suffers the same difference of opinion, that situation should be nicely exacerbated by a new feature of the competition called the Callback Card, which allows each to save one dancer from elimination, no doubt annoying the sam-hell out of at least one of their fellow judges.
Lifetime also announced that the new season of Abby’s Ultimate Dance Competition will feature recurring dance themes from Season 1, including Fame, Broadway, Modern Fairy Tales and (recurring?) Nightmares.
So what say you, dance fans? Are you excited for Abby’s Ultimate Dance Competition Season 2? Is Rachelle Rak a welcome addition to the judging panel, or will you miss Robin Antin’s wackadoodle ways? Tell us in the comments section below.
Photo/video: Lifetime
Love the show hate the cat fights. Would like to see Broke and Cloe perform more.
Love the show and hate the cat fights. Your girls a amaazing!
Plus, what’s the point of bringing Maddie on?? I assume the 11 girls they get on the show will be much better dancers than Maddie, so why bring her on there to dance?? You would think they would maybe bring on someone who really is amazing to show the girls what they could do with hard work.. You don’t bring someone on who isn’t nearly as good as any of them!! That makes no sense. No offense to Maddie. She’s a good little dancer, but she is NO Sophia Lucia or anything. You can find a “Maddie” at any competition, any dance studio in America. She’s good, but definitely not great and far from being a star!!
Glad Robin Antin is out!!! Shr really bugged me!
Multiple appearances of Maddie Ziegler???? OMG!!! THAT is something I don’t want to have to deal with… Abby fawning over her and making me sick!!! Yuck!!!!
I’m back in the saddle tonight, Debra. Can’t miss the, er, return of Broadway Baby.
I didn’t watch the first one and won’t waste my time on this one.
The real DM show has gotten so ridiculous it is hard to watch. The only good part of that is your recaps. 🙂