Adria Schimmenti
Staff Writer
Reality television has maintained a widespread global presence for decades, with many series continuing for multiple seasons until viewer interest declines, though overall viewership has decreased in recent years. Dancing with the Stars premiered in 2005, starring only six celebrities such as Joey Mcintyre, New Kids on the Block singer and Kelly Monaco, actress on Good Hospital, who ultimately took home the very first mirrorball award.
The judges have changed throughout the years but the one consistent judge has been Carrie Ann Inaba, who was an original judge when the show first aired.
Viewers have mostly had control over the voting systems as they are taken in by the amount of text messages a certain pair receives while the show is being produced live on multiple different streaming platforms such as Disney+, Hulu and aired on ABC Network.
However, in recent years, many who have been loyal throughout the years have shared concerns that the show is becoming a lot harsher than it was first intended to be. With the attraction gaining on the hit reality show, fans are saying there seems to be a certain bias between the judges and certain celebrities. This sets off many alarms to fans as it is rumoured that particular celebrities are pushed through the competition show for simply being liked by the judges.
A recent article was published by Star Magazine bringing to light the current burning question: Is there a certain bias that is causing judges to interfere with the scores in order to keep certain people in this year’s competition? In the past, Pasha Pashkov and Alan Bersten have been known to step forward and question the judges for their authenticity with their comments and feedback towards the dancers. They have felt that the panel of judges was “too harsh on them” and were not quiet when it came to standing up for their partners.
Maksim Chmerkovskiy was reportedly calling out judge Carrie Ann Inaba for her critiques saying “I don’t know what Carrie Ann is saying at all.”
The pro was known for having issues previously receiving criticism especially when it came to Carrie Ann. This has also been felt among the stars of the show, and many have reported on feeling like certain celebrities are being let through and not because of their higher scores.
In the episode that was aired on Oct. 28, Jen Affleck and her partner Jan Ravink were eliminated and many viewers have expressed their disappointment towards the producers and judges for eliminating her for the wrong reasons.
The pro, Jan Ravink, was previously a backup dancer for Taylor Swift during her Eras Tour, and just finished his first season with Dancing with the Stars. Jen Affleck from the reality show, Secret Life of Mormon Wives, was one of two stars given the opportunity to be on the show, costar Whitney Leavitt was among the bottom three contestants up for elimination, and Jen ultimately was chosen to leave the show.
According to E!News, during her post show interview she was reported saying “To be honest, I’m just excited to go home and journal all about it, because I don’t want to forget any moment.” She had said numerous times during the live showtimes that she was doing the competition to inspire and motivate her kids to do something like this when they get older.
However, during the time she was paired with pro Jan Ravink, she constantly would ask him for more advanced choreography and she would be scored significantly lower than the rest of the pairs. Jan was very grateful for their time on the show and said: “Even if we are going home, we are going home with a good performance,” Jan added. “And it’s not in our mind, ‘Oh we could do better.’ Because we did everything. We left the entire love and passion on the stage and we are going home happy and grateful for everything.”
Among these most recent occurrences, fans have speculated that this is not the first nor last time that the judges’ bias will contribute to the show. In the most recent years, Dancing with the Stars has begun bringing on multiple celebrities that are incredibly well-known and many believe that is creating a new viewership to the show. Just because the judges seem to have bias towards certain celebrities, the whole show is founded upon the idea of voting for the viewer’s favorite person, not based on the skills of those stars.
As the show continues to grow, there is a slight chance that these ideas will only get worse as new celebrities are brought on. But this raises questions as will this lead to a decrease in viewership or will this continue to lead people to become further invested into the dramatics of the pros and the stars themselves?
Dancing with the Stars has gained over 5.6 millions viewers during their 90 minute shows and going up every week since the first episode that aired Sept. 16.
