Joey Graziadei did “DWTS ”after a pep talk from fellow “Bachelor” alum Joe Amabile: 'I sucked, and it was so much fun'
Amabile gave Graziadei "all the confidence in the world" before competing, the season 33 winner says.
Sometimes all it takes is a good friend negging themselves for you to feel confident.
That's the service The Bachelorette's Joe Amabile provided fellow Bachelor franchise star Joey Graziadei when he was considering a go at Dancing With the Stars. "I was worried about how it was going to be and if I was going to even be able to perform and enjoy it. I was worried about putting myself out there, and you gave me confidence," Graziadei revealed on a recent episode of Amabile's Bachelor Happy Hour podcast.
"You were like, 'I sucked, and it was still so much fun,'" Graziadei recalled. "So that made me feel like I should do it regardless of what was going to happen. You gave me all the confidence in the world that it was a good idea, even if I was going to be very, very bad at it."
Amabile said that he and wife Serena Pitt, another citizen of Bachelor Nation and a cohost of Bachelor Happy Hour, ran into Graziadei at a movie premiere in New York before he made his DWTS decision: "You were debating if you wanted to even go on the show. So what changed your mind?"
"You did, Joe — 100 percent," Graziadei responded.
"Honestly, it was it was talking to you and talking to [Charity Lawson] and [Dotun Olubeko] about the experience, because they were just on it before, but it was helpful to kind of talk to people that have been through it," he explained.
Amabile's 5th place finish on Dancing With the Stars season 27 is as far as any male Bachelor franchise alum had ever made it on the show at the time. It's good that he pushed Graziadei to pursue glory on season 33, because he ended up becoming the first male Bachelor franchise alum to take home the Len Goodman Mirrorball trophy.
DWTS pro Jenna Johnson, who partnered with both Amabile and Graziadei on their respective seasons, enthused that her season with Graziadei "was one of my favorite seasons, because first of all, obviously, your dance experience wasn't the best...but I had so much fun every day in rehearsal with you because you were just down. We laughed so hard, and I feel like because there were no expectations dance-wise, we were just like, 'Well, let's just go do this. Let's just freaking go perform."
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Johnson also enthused about her time with Amabile, though he did remind her that he almost sent her to the emergency room due to a failed flip during their Argentine tango.
"Well, we survived," Johnson joked. "I didn't snap my neck."
Listen to Amabile and Graziadei on Bachelor Happy Hour above.
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