By: Kate Keane | Staff Writer
There is one thing that can be said for sure about this year’s seasons of Dancing With The Stars: the drama and energy is unmatched. Unlike past years, this season has been filled with several showmances, internet feuding between partners, and a strong social media presence. However, what fans are talking about the most is the unpredictable, often offensive judging that is taking place.
From season one all the way to season 32, Carie Anne Inaba, Len Goodman and Bruno Tonioli were the judges. This trio was absolutely beloved across America. Carie Anne was the kind and logical one. Len was the tough and nearly unpleasable one and Bruno was the exuberant diva. However, after season 32, Len Goodman announced his retirement and then died within the year. Fans were absolutely heartbroken.
Following Len’s death, the show started to reimagine their brand. They brought in the young and accomplished Derek Hough to take Len’s spot. Prior to becoming a judge, Hough was a professional dancer and won the season six times, taking home six mirror ball trophies. Viewers immediately noticed that Derek was sliding right into Len’s role – he was going to be the tough judge that gave the most important feedback but the harshest scores. However as of recent, fans are criticizing the judging panel for giving unproductive feedback and weird scores. This was especially true on Disney Night.
Disney Night is when the cast members have to choreograph a dance to a Disney movie and a song from the film’s soundtrack. The first couple that danced were professional dancer Jenna Johnson and previous Bachelor, Joey Graziadei. The couple performed an outstanding dance that ended up trending on Tik Tok for weeks after. The moves were all in sync and they brought the characters of Tarzan to life. However, the scores did not reflect this strong performance. They ended up getting three eights, giving them a total of 24/30 points (the previous week they had earned nines). Seeing that Joey and Jenna have been at the top of the leaderboard at times throughout the season, fans expected that the judging would be extremely harsh that night. But this was not the case. Ilona Maher, who was on the bottom of the leaderboard the week prior, got a 25/30, therefore scoring one point higher than Graziadei despite the lack of technical skills. Unlike Maher, Graziadei changed levels through the dance, embraced his character, moved through the whole stage, and danced with exceptional technique. Maher’s dance consisted of nearly all lifts and very little movement and usage of the whole stage. In short, she did not command the room like Graziadei did but still scored higher than him.
So why is Ilona getting such high scores and throwing off the scoring for others? I’d argue that it is because Ilona became famous for posting videos showing that she is an over 200 lb woman that is both an Olympian and a feminist. She is changing the societal narrative to accept women for all sizes. This important message resonates with so many people – specifically, the judge Carie Anne Inaba. Inaba has said several times while giving her feedback that she loves Ilona, and she loves the narrative that she is pushing. But ever notice that she never gave these compliments of character to Graziadei? Inaba seems to be refusing to separate the person from the dance. She is scoring off the technicality of the dance but adding points through her own bias of who she wants to see succeed.
In addition to Inaba’s biased judging, fans were especially turned off to the judging panel during the Halloween episode. Throughout the episode, the judging panel was fighting constantly with one another. At one point, Carrie Anne Inaba, who was dressed as a cat for the holiday, got carried away by crawling onto the judging table and hissing and meowing at the contestants and fellow judges. Derek Hough exaggerated his discomfort by shooting her terrified looks and making a point that he was unable to focus on judging after that. Additionally, after a dance by professional dancer Brandon Armstrong and celebrity Chandler Kinney (who performed flawlessly) Inaba refused to give them actual feedback just saying, “it wasn’t perfect.” To that, Derek stood up and gave Chandler Kinney a standing ovation himself. Bruno said “I thought I liked cats…” in response to disliking Inaba’s comments, since she was dressed as a cat.
Overall, this tension and unprofessionalism among the judging panel makes the show look weak, messy and completely rigged. It has fans wondering if this is even a fair dance competition or just a popularity contest.
Photo by Kaboompics.
