'Dancing With the Stars' Mark Ballas -- Producers Could Force Me to Tango With Paula Deen

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AppId is over the quota
'DWTS' Star Mark Ballas
Producers Could Force Me to Tango With Paula Deen

If you're a pro dancer on "Dancing With the Stars" and find yourself partnered with a disgraced celeb like Paula Deen ... that's too damn bad ... producers will FORCE you to rumba no matter how much you hate them.

Mark Ballas laid it all out for us on the streets of Hollywood Saturday. Our photog asked him, IF Paula was chosen for the show ... would he take issue cha-cha-cha-ing with her, in light of her n-word scandal?

Mark tells us ... he has NO SAY in the matter whatsoever. Meaning, even if you loathe your celeb ... or find their use of racial slurs questionable ... you better suck it up. Mark explains why.

Which reminds us ...

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'Naked & Afraid' Stars -- Competed On Show Despite Producers' Gruesome Warning

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AppId is over the quota
'Naked & Afraid' Stars
Competed on Show Despite
Gruesome Warning
Talk about fearless ... contestants on "Naked and Afraid" saw how a snake nearly killed one of the TV show's producers -- and still refused to back out of the competition. 

Sources connected to the Discovery show tell TMZ the players were warned after Steve Rankin was bitten by a poisonous fer-de-lance snake while location scouting in Costa Rica. Rankin barely survived, and as we previously reported ... the flesh rotted right off his foot.

We're told honchos warned players they could face the same fate as Rankin, and gave them the option to quit the show ... which drops naked contestants into the wild and watches them survive.

No one backed down from the potentially deadly danger.

Warning: You can see that danger HERE (if you dare).

The first episode airs tonight, and if you've ever wondered how you'd start a fire if you were butt nekkid in Africa -- watch this clip.

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