Key Takeaways
- Kim Kardashian wants another shot at Dancing with the Stars after admitting she cried and prayed for elimination during her 2008 run because she was “so shy.”
- Rewatching her mambo at a recent family poker night made Kardashian wish she had competed with her current confidence.
- She pitched an all-Kardashian-Jenner season featuring her sisters and brother Rob, who finished second in 2011, and said the whole family wants in.
Kim Kardashian spent her first stint on Dancing with the Stars begging to be eliminated. Eighteen years later, she's ready to return to the ballroom—and this time, she wants to bring the entire Kardashian-Jenner family along.
During a recent appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Kardashian revealed that she's interested in returning to the ABC competition series, despite describing her original experience as downright miserable.
“It’s so hard. I would honestly cry in my trailer every single night praying to get kicked off,” Kardashian admitted. “It was so hard for me.”
Kardashian competed on Season 7 in 2008 alongside professional dancer Mark Ballas, finishing in 11th place. At the time, she was still building her reality television empire, and performing in front of millions of viewers apparently wasn't something she enjoyed.
“I was so shy. I couldn’t get over myself. I couldn’t get into it ’cause I was just so shy,” she explained. “And I’ve never danced again.”
She wasn't exaggerating about how much the experience stuck with her, either.
“Like actually, I’ve never danced since. I am traumatized. No, it’s like traumatized me for life,” she said.
Kimmel couldn't resist revisiting the evidence and played footage of Kardashian and Ballas performing a mambo to Sir Mix-a-Lot’s “Baby Got Back” (The Hollywood Reporter editor McKinley Franklin called the No. 1 song, “I Like Big Butts”).
But Kardashian revealed the clip had already made an unexpected comeback at a recent family gathering, courtesy of her younger sister, Kylie Jenner.
“We had a family poker night three weeks ago. Kylie decided to put it on the big movie screen,” Kardashian recalled. “Half the people there didn’t know that I did it, and she wanted to show everyone.”
Her one consolation? The footage was old enough to spare her the embarrassment of high-definition playback.
“Thank God it’s so old that it’s pixelated,” she joked.
But watching herself dance again sparked something Kardashian hadn't expected: the realization that she might actually enjoy competing today.
“I got up and went in front of the screen, and I remembered some of my moves, and I wished that I had the confidence that I do now,” she said.
That led to a proposal that could turn Dancing with the Stars into a full-blown Kardashian family competition.
“Could you imagine if we did, like, a Kardashian-Jenner whole season of all of us competing against each other on Dancing With the Stars?” she recalled asking her sisters. “And we all loved it. We all were like, ‘Yes, let’s do it.’”
The family already has a considerably more successful ballroom veteran. Rob Kardashian competed in Season 13 in 2011, finishing second alongside Cheryl Burke, behind eventual champion J.R. Martinez.
“My brother was so good,” Kardashian said. “I would just want us all back. I don’t know if they bring people back, but I’d do it. I’d do it.”
The possibility comes as Season 35 continues delivering unexpected results. Earlier this month, Summer House star Ciara Miller and partner Brandon Armstrong were eliminated during Mariah Carey Night despite scoring 21 out of 30, eight points higher than the evening's lowest-scoring couple.
An all-returning-contestant season wouldn't be unprecedented. The series previously staged Dancing with the Stars: All-Stars in 2012, when Melissa Rycroft took home the Mirrorball Trophy.
