Kate Gosselin never tried for the magic of 'Dancing'

But, you know what? She's gone. Now we can enjoy the genuine talent of performers like Nicole Scherzinger and Evan Lysacek in coming weeks. So, let's not be mean. Except there are some things that have to be said.

While Kate did the crying game like there was no tomorrow at the end of the show after she was told that she was gone, you saw the real Kate earlier when she said, "It is what it is," as if there was something wrong with the judges and not her dancing. "I'm having fun -- contrary to popular opinion," she added a few beats later, upping the defiance factor even higher.

I think Kate believed she was going to go on forever without ever learning to dance. Did you see her expression turn from sunshine smiley girl to sour puss surly in the opening shot when Nicole and Damian were told that they were safe, but Tony and Kate were told they were in the bottom two?

What did she think when they brought her out with Nicole -- that she was going to be placed in the same category with the best dancer on the show? As improbable as it seems, it looks like she did. And, by the way, when they told them that they were out at the end of the hour, I have to say that Tony looked happier than  he has all season. I wonder why.

Look, in the final analysis, ABC was playing poker with its credibility, and it bluffed the hand through five weeks, which isn't bad. The million or so viewers whom Kate brought to the show, many of them hoping to see her fail, upped the ratings. I think ABC would have liked to play the hand for a few more weeks, but Kate was so bad and  so lacking in effort that the risk was too high.

Will she get more work? Probably. But who cares as long as she can't drag those poor kids in front of the cameras again.

In the end, Kate was pretty pathetic on this show. Remember the photo of her being swung through Tony's legs. And it became a kind of physical law: The more she was on-camera, the more pathetic she became -- the more obvious her lack of talent and effort were. I don't know what she was paid by ABC for her five weeks, but at the price of that exposure and embarrassment, you have to wonder if it was worth it.

ABC understood the powerful story line she could offer: Mom and housewife as Cinderella dancing at the ball with all these glamorous folks. But for that to work, Kate would have had to provide viewers with moments of transformation when she got out on the floor and seemed like a real dancer floating in the arms of her partner.

Unfortunately, that kind of perrformance takes work, devotion and the humility to listen to and learn from your teacher -- and Kate Gosselin was interested in doing none of that. It's good that she's gone.