Lifetime Removes The “Topless Showgirls” Episode

Gawker – Lifetime, the TV network that “celebrates, entertains, and supports women,” has finally pushed its schadenfreude reality programming too far. After airing an extraordinarily child-sexualizing of Dance Momsonce, the network pulled the episode from rotation and scrubbed it from the internet. The episode in question? “Topless Showgirls,” in which a troop of 8- to 13-year-old girls simulate toplessness and perform a burlesque.

The episode aired once two weeks ago. A Lifetime spokesperson confirms that, after airing the episode, the network decided never to air it again and never to make it available on iTunes, Amazon, or MyLifetime.com.

When I watched the episode of Dance Moms that featured the girls in a very risque burlesque dance, I knew there was going to be some fallout from it.   The theme alone was enough to raise eyebrows, but during the episode, they did do their best to push the envelope.  During rehearsals, they made sure to show a lot of the girls from behind, which clearly looked very bad.  Combine that with some of Abby Lee’s comments throughout the episode, the “PC Police” were definitely going to have fun with this episode.

That being said, in the end, the dance was still a bit risque, but the outfits weren’t that bad. The mothers fixed them up quite a bit, and in the end they looked no worse than swimsuits.  But by then, the damage had already been done, and complaints flowed into Lifetime, enough where they have decided to pretend the episode never existed.  They’re never going to air it again, and remove the option to watch it through various online streaming places.

I am not so much torn on the decision to remove it, but I am more annoyed they decided to air it like they did in the first place.  Editing it and airing it like they did put the show in an even worse light than it has been. I mean you know it’s getting bad when a mother from Toddlers & Tiara’s said that Dance Moms “makes them look good”.  I hope down the road they ease up a bit on the controversy and just try to make Dance Moms a fun show to watch.. of course with a little drama mixed in.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I am going to watch a Lifetime movie where a wife stabs her husband 200 times.