Next week on Abby's Ultimate Dance Competition

I'm not sure if I'm going to have what it takes to make it through next week's hoedown theme. It looks cheesy as all get-out, pardner, like a rootin' tootin' hour of "kill me now before I have to suffer another minute of wacky cowboy clichés."

But on the up side, we have the promise of a lot of mom fighting. Someone even gets called "fatty" in the promo. It looks like Gianna's mom Cindy is the target of this bit of nastiness. But you never can tell, the way they edit these things. (And I'm sure she gives as good as she gets.)

Speaking of nasty, I recently discovered that if you scroll down on the main AUDC webpage, there are Facebook-style comments. And they are every bit as vicious and brutal as you might expect. I mean, yikes, seriously. I too was surprised and dismayed to learn that JoJo's mother started bleaching JoJo's hair blonde when she was two, but I would never suggest that JoJo should literally be taken away from her mother and put into protective custody for it.

One thing I'm very conscious of, when I write these reviews and articles, is that these are real kids. They aren't actors playing a part. It's one thing for the judges to critique them on the show. That's what the kids signed up for: they endure the judges' criticism in exchange for the chance at a big scholarship. Getting harassed and bullied by forum trolls and online commenters? Not part of the deal.

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