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Noah Wyle explains why he didn’t dance through ‘The Jennifer Hudson Show’ Spirit Tunnel

Author: Lisa Respers France, CNN Source: CNN:::

April 10, 2025 at 11:52

Noah Wyle appears on "The Jennifer Hudson Show" airing on April 8, 2025 in Burbank, California. Chris Haston/WBTV via Getty Images

CNN — There’s a reason why Jennifer Hudson gave Noah Wyle a “hall pass” from dancing his way through her show’s Spirit Tunnel.

“The Pitt” star declined enter “The Jennifer Hudson Show” set the way many guests have, which is to dance through a “tunnel” created by a team of show employees as they clap and sing.

Wyle later explained to Hudson why he declined to show of his moves.

“It would’ve triggered a bigger breakdown than I had on (‘The Pitt’) two weeks ago if I had done it,” Wyle said.

Viewers of his hit medical drama know that Wyle was referencing a particularly intense episode in which his character, Dr. Michael “Robby” Robinavitch, was overcome with emotion after suffering the loss of a patient following a mass shooting.

Wyle said a classmate’s bar mitzvah in 1984 has forever deterred him from dancing in public. At the time, the actor said, he “fancied” himself a breakdancer.irit Tunnel.

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“I went out and I heard Herbie Hancock’s ‘Rockit’ playing in front of all my classmates,” Wyle recalled. “And I attempted the worm and I got into some kind of inverted position and it all collapsed on me.”

So while he would have loved to have shown the same type of enthusiasm for Hudson’s Spirit Tunnel, he said “nobody needs to see that.” Wyle threw out that he might attempt to “babystep it.”

Hudson was understanding.

“We’re just happy to have you here,” she said.

Wyle is not the only guest to have gone their own way.

Producer and musician Benny Blanco, who is engaged to Selena Gomez, handed out flowers instead of grooving down the Spirit Tunnel.