Bill Engvall Says 'Dancing With The Stars' Is A Reality Show, Not A Dance Competition

Bill Engvall nearly took the mirror ball trophy home on Dancing With The Stars season 17, making it all the way to the top four, but all the while, he knew it wasn't his dancing that really mattered. In a new interview, Engvall opened up about his experience on the show, telling The Press-Enterprise that Dancing With The Stars is not a dance competition.

“My fans kept me on there. It wasn’t my dancing, I knew that. I think the most hysterical part of being on the show is how seriously people take it. It’s not a dance competition. If it was, it would be on PBS and I wouldn’t have been asked," Engvall explained. "It’s a reality show. And I picked up on that early and so I just had fun with it."

"I gave them what they wanted. The highs and lows. I worked really hard at it. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life,” Engvall continued. “I knew what my role on the show was and that was to be the entertainer. Why else would we tango to ‘Cheeseburger in Paradise,’ which is not a tango song at all. There wasn’t too much of downside to it, other than the groin pull."

However, Engvall's claim that the show isn't a dance competition didn't mean that he wasn't trying hard to win. According to him, he tried until he could try no more.

“People say ‘Did you want to win it?’ and up until the last week, I wanted to win it," he said. "That last week, my body literally said to me ‘We’re done. You don’t have any more in you.’ If we made it to the finale, we would have had to do a quick-step jive dance and that was not going to happen. I’ve never been so physically worn out."

Despite the injury and exhaustion of it all, Engvall enjoyed his time on Dancing With The Stars and will forever remember the relationships he gained because of it.

"The friendships I made with Valerie Harper, Lea Remini. We became like a family," Engvall said. "You live together basically for 12 weeks. And everybody pulled for everyone else. There were no divas or back-biting. The crew told me ‘This was one of the most fun seasons.’”