Nearly five years after Charlie Sheen was set to appear on Dancing WIth the Stars, more details have surfaced about why he didn’t make it on the show’s season 28.
According to Sheen’s original dance partner, Cheryl Burke, the actor ended up quitting after one dance lesson. “Fun fact: I danced with Charlie for one day,” Burke shared while talking to Sheen’s ex-wife Denis Richards on the Sex, Lies and Spray Tans podcast. “Maybe you don’t know but he was going to do the show.”
Burke also said that she received a call from the show’s production team telling her they were going to get an A-lister. They also told her that Charlie Sheen’s team wanted her to choreograph his dance moves.
“I was like, ‘Are you sure?’ ” Burke recalled. “‘Because if you’re trying to convince somebody to do the show, I might not be the right person.’ Because I hate lying, and I just don’t want to lie about how the process is. It’s beautiful, but it’s freaking a lot of work. I’m not even going to deny that. And there’s a lot of press and a lot of interviews, and all of this stuff.”
Although she met with Charlie Sheen to teach him a “few steps,” Burke said he was “tentative.” “I’m sober for almost six years, and I have a lot of compassion for him,” Burke continued. “He seemed so cool, and he was a lot of fun.”
The lesson took a turn when Sheen started asking her questions about the show. “He asked me, ‘How many interviews do we have to do? Do we have to go and do press? And I told him, ‘Yeah, we do. We’re going to do GMA. Like we’re going to do Good Morning America.’”
Charlie Sheen Didn’t Feel Comfortable on ‘Dancing With the Stars’ Because He’s ‘Not a Good Dancer’
Although Cheryl Burke didn’t know what exactly caused him to quit Dancing With the Stars, Charlie Sheen spoke to Us Weekly in 2019 about why he didn’t appear on the show.
“I was very flattered by ABC and their offer,” he told the media outlet. “But at the end of the day, I have two feet and I just can’t dance.”
A source also told US Weekly that Charlie Sheen’s appearance on Dancing With the Stars would have created a bigger deal at ABC. “When there is a big star like that, they will get some sort of deal for a pilot with ABC,” the insider explained.
Sheen’s publicist, Jeff Ballard, confirmed that while ABC made a “very generous offer” to his client for a pilot series, it was “contingent” upon his participation in Dancing With the Stars.
Burke ended up partnering with former NFL player Ray Lewis for the season. However, Lewis ended up withdrawing from the show after just one episode.