'Dancing With the Stars' Phaedra Parks Shares Honest Reaction to Anna Delvey's Elimination
Phaedra Parks wants Gene Simmons to check that.
The Real Housewives of Atlanta star didn’t hold back on how she felt about the Kiss member giving her and partner Val Chmerkovskiy a five out of ten score for their Rock N’ Roll dance on Dancing With the Stars.
“I loved the routine,” she explained to Page Six in the ballroom Oct. 8. “I think we did good, despite Gene Simmons being a total ding-a-ling.”
Despite the middling score from the rocker, who was guest judging during Oct. 8’s Hair Metal night, fellow judges Carrie Ann Inaba and Derek Hough gave the routine sevens. And Phaedra jokingly continued poking at Gene quipping, “I figure he didn’t like short Black women.”
Meanwhile Val—who Phaedra emphasized was a “wonderful” coach—added somewhat sarcastically, “It’s always fun to have a guest judge in the ballroom.”
Although she and Val weren’t booted from the series after their low-scoring performance—Reginald VelJohnson and Eric Roberts and their respective partners Emma Slater and Britt Stewart instead got the axe—Phaedra wasn’t the only one less-than-pleased with Gene’s guest appearance on the show. In fact, many fans expressed disappointment in his lack of decorum.
“Gene Simmons comments about the ladies are giving the energy of the gross uncle who corners you at the reunion #DWTS," wrote one fan on X, while another added, “Gene Simmons is seriously sucking all the energy out of the ballroom with his creepy comments about the female dancers.”
During the episode, Gene did, indeed, raise some eyebrows for his feedback burgeoning on innuendo.
“This is a brand new experience for me and it's difficult to look at you and to figure out which one is more hot, hot, hot," he told former NFL star Danny Amendola and his partner Witney Carson. “Danny, I'm telling you, you're right next to somebody, one of the more beautiful women on the planet.”
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E! News has reached out to reps for Gene and ABC but has not yet heard back.
One fan summed up the critics response to the evening, writing on X after the show had ended Oct. 8, “Don’t y’all ever bring Gene Simmons back and thank you.”
With Rock N’ Roll night being over, Gene has officially evacuated the dance floor—at least for now. Keep reading to see the stars who are definitely not killing the groove.