Kim Fields To Compete On ‘Dancing With the Stars’ Season 22
Kim Fields has been confirmed as a contestant on Dancing with the Stars. The 46-year-old actress and reality star will compete for the Mirrorball trophy on the 22nd season of ABC’s celebrity ballroom competition, according to a confirmed report from Entertainment Tonight. ABC has not officially announced the cast list for the upcoming season of DWTS, but fans are already excited to see Tootie trade her roller skates in for some dancing shoes.
#RHOA's Kim Fields will compete on Season 22 of #DWTS! https://t.co/b9P7RemcoM pic.twitter.com/9W5QrCrBg4
— Us Weekly (@usweekly) February 25, 2016
Kim Fields is best known for her role in hit 1980s and ’90s sitcoms The Facts of Life and Living Single. Last year, Fields also joined Bravo’s The Real Housewives of Atlanta, where she’s been making plenty of waves. And Fields won’t be the first Facts of Life alum to turn up on a reality TV competition. Kim’s longtime sitcom co-star Lisa Whelchel competed on Survivor: Philippines. While Whelchel didn’t win the million dollar prize, viewers did vote the actress as the Player of the Season, and she was awarded a $100,000 prize.
Of course, Kim Fields is already busy with RHOA, so fans may be wondering why she would sign on to DWTS. Kim is known as a legitimate actress and director, so some eyebrows were raised when she signed on to her first reality TV gig last year. In an interview with the Huffington Post, Fields said she was humbled by all of the talk about her unusual career move and by the fact that her fans were so protective of her reputation. While she admitted that acting is her first love, Kim explained why the unscripted Bravo series as a good fit for her.
“I’ve been asked for years to do a reality show. One of my criteria is that I would be given the opportunity to show a strong family unit. When they came to me to do the show, they said, ‘We love you. We love your light and we love your opinions and you can give them in your way.’ So far they have been great in letting me be me.”
Fields also said she has plenty to learn in the reality TV game, and it sounds like her gig on DWTS will be another stepping stone in the genre.
“Overall, it’s been an quite the adventure. Let me just say, it’s been different. But at this stage of my life I welcome – ‘different.’ This experience has awakened many creative voices in me. I love that I get to be me and not play a character. It has been an eye-opening experience to say the least… Listen, I’ve been in the entertainment world for almost 40 years, but this reality game is on another playground.”
As for why she took on DWTS at this point, Fields is likely ready to strike while the iron is hot — and Housewives stars are always hot on this show. With any luck, fans will get to see some of Kim’s DWTS footage on Real Housewives like they did when Lisa Vanderpump was on both shows at the same time.
Kim Fields won’t be the only classic TV sitcom star to appear on Dancing with the Stars. According to Us Weekly, Full House alum Jodie Sweetin has also signed on to the celebrity dancing show. Multiple sources have confirmed the DWTS casting news, but Sweetin, who’s set to debut on the Netflix spinoff Fuller House, hasn’t come clean about it.
Spoilers for the upcoming season of Dancing with the Stars have been few and far between. The full list of DWTS contestants will finally be revealed in a live announcement on Good Morning America on March 8, just two weeks before DWTS returns to ABC for its 22nd season.
Take a look at the video to see Kim Fields talking about her reality TV fame.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t30b3rZH8-Y
[Photo by Mark Davis/Getty Images]
