Reality TV > Reality Intrudes on ABC's Big Reality Hit
October 18, 2006
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"Dancing With the Stars," the ABC hit that is the highest-rated reality show on television this fall, will go on without one of the six final couples this week. Sara Evans, a country music star, has dropped out after filing for divorce from her husband of 13 years.
Ms. Evans, named female vocalist of the year by the Academy of Country Music earlier this year, filed for divorce in state court in Tennessee on Thursday from her husband, Craig L. Schelske, a Republican fund-raiser.
Ms. Evans, 35, informed the show’s producers and ABC executives last week that she would drop out of the competition, Hope Hartman, an ABC spokeswoman, said Monday. Ms. Hartman said the network would not otherwise comment on the withdrawal’s effect on the show until after this week’s installments, which will be broadcast Tuesday and Wednesday.
The Tennessean newspaper quoted Ms. Evans’s lawyer, John Hollins Jr., on Saturday as saying that the singer would tape an interview with ABC about her withdrawal, to be broadcast during Tuesday’s show. Mr. Hollins did not respond to a telephone message yesterday.
In unusually explicit court papers, Ms. Evans accused her husband of adultery with the couple’s former nanny, excessive drinking, soliciting sex via an Internet site and maintaining a library of pornography that included pictures of him having sex with other women.
Mr. Schelske, 43, could not be reached for comment. In a statement issued through a spokesman, he said: “I adamantly deny the allegations that are being made. As distressing as it is to have to communicate about this matter publicly, Sara has unfortunately become a dramatically different person over the last year, and it is something we have struggled to deal with. Sadly, it appears we have failed.”
According to court filings from Williamson County, Tenn., a state judge on Thursday approved a temporary restraining order and custody order based on the allegations in Ms. Evans’s divorce request.
The couple and their three children, who live near Nashville, had been residing in Beverly Hills, Calif., while Ms. Evans was participating in “Dancing With the Stars,” a ballroom-dance competition that is broadcast live Tuesday nights at 8 Eastern time on ABC. A results show, which combines viewer voting with the recommendations of a panel of professional dance judges, is shown live on Wednesdays, following the two-night format popularized by “American Idol,” last year’s top-rated television show.
According to Nielsen Media Research, “Dancing With the Stars” was the fourth-highest-rated show and the top-rated reality show in the first three weeks of the fall television season, drawing an average of 18.2 million viewers each week and trailing only “Grey’s Anatomy,” “CSI” and “Desperate Housewives.” The results show ranked seventh over all, with 16.1 million viewers.
