Monica Mercuri
Saturday, April 13th, 2024
Credit: Getty Images
Dancing With the Stars Rigged Moments
Dancing With the Stars has been a hit among audiences since 2005. However, over its 32-season run, the show has been accused online of being “rigged” on numerous occasions. How much do the producers control? What’s real versus fake? Keep reading to see the top Dancing With the Stars “rigged” moments fans have called out over the years.
Dancing With the Stars is a reality TV dance competition series based on the United Kingdom’s Strictly Come Dancing. The series pairs celebrities with professional dancers. The couples then compete against each other for judges’ points and audience votes. The pair with the lowest combined judges’ points and audience votes are eliminated each week until only one champion remains. That couple is declared the winner and receives the Len Goodman Mirrorball Trophy.
From the Bobby Bones debacle to Harry Jowsey almost reaching the semi-finals, the dance show has plenty of shocking eliminations and controversies to dive into. Read on for the top “rigged” moments from Dancing With the Stars that fans will never forget.
Season 27: *The* Bobby Bones Controversy
One of the biggest alleged “rigged” moments was when radio DJ Bobby Bones won the Mirrorball trophy in Season 27 of DWTS, marking the biggest upset in the show’s history. Despite low scores throughout the season, Bones’ fanbase carried the duo to the finale and helped him win. In a 2023 Reddit poll, 562 out of 898 fans voted that Milo Manheim and Witney Carson should have won the competition.
After the controversial win, our sister site TVLine, called out how, sometimes, the show rewards popularity over actual dance skills. “I’ve covered Dancing With the Stars for eight seasons now, and for the most part, the Mirrorball trophy in those cycles has gone to one of the strongest — if not the strongest — dancers,” the site’s senior editor, Rebecca Iannucci, wrote at the time. “But more and more, mediocre contestants with large, passionate, eager-to-vote fanbases are making it to the finale over contestants who A) were excellent from Week One, or B) put in the work to become excellent over time.”
Season 13: Hope Solo Alleges Her Elimination Was Pre-Planned
In 2021, Hope Solo wrote in her memoir, A Memoir of Hope, that the producers reportedly knew who was going home each week before fan voting. The American goalkeeper referred to a specific incident in Season 13 where her partner, Maksim Chmerkovskiy, stirred up controversy with the judges after he learned via a “secret memo” that he and Hope would be eliminated.
“Maks later told me that he had argued with the judges because he had been told we were going to be eliminated, that there was some secret memo going around that said who would be ousted each week,” Solo wrote in the book, according to Radar Online. “He explained that he wanted to cause some drama on the live portion of the show so that they wouldn’t be able to resist keeping us around, hoping for more fireworks.”
Season 32: Harry Jowsey Goes Way Too Far
Can we talk about how Harry Jowsey almost made it to the semi-finals in the latest season of Dancing With the Stars? That was a hot topic among viewers leading up to the reality TV star’s elimination in Week 9. Although the star’s chemistry with his partner Rylee Arnold (the sister of DWTS pro Lindsay Arnold) and their adorable TikTok videos made them fan favorites, Jowsey’s dancing skills just weren’t there.
Harry also called the dating rumors “unfair” to him and Rylee in an interview with People in October 2023. “I think that it’s a little bit unfair on Rylee so early on,” he said. “She’s so green to this whole world and everyone having an opinion, and stuff like that.” He continued, “And it is week three, we’re trying our best to focus on the dance, and whatever happens, happens. We’re just enjoying being together.”
Season 32: Harry Jowsey Is Finally Sent Home… By Swifties?
Ultimately, Taylor Swift’s fans may have played a role in getting Harry Jowsey eliminated. According to The Sun, a fan shared a screenshot of Harry’s following list on Instagram, which showed that he was following music manager Scooter Braun. As Swifties are well aware, in 2019, Braun purchased the singer’s masters (aka her first six albums) in a deal that Swift says happened behind her back.
Braun eventually sold her master’s to Shamrock Holdings in 2020, but Swifties still have bad blood for Braun. “Attention Swifties, there is a contestant on DWTS who is a Scooter Braun fan and follower,” the fan included in the tweet. Jowsey was sent home during the show’s first-ever Taylor Swift night. “I would like to thank Harry Jowsey for following Scooter Braun on Instagram, and I would like to thank the Swifties for voting him off of Dancing with the Stars tonight because of it,” another X user wrote after the results.
Season 32: Matt Walsh’s Puzzling Early Elimination
In Season 31, TikTok sensation Charli D’Amelio won the competition, but some DWTS viewers believed that she should never have been allowed to compete because of her dance background.“Of course Charli won. She was a ringer with competitive dance experience, including training and performing with Derek. The one truly disappointing part of this show. I wish we could have seen the competition without her being favored so heavily as the winner chosen from day 1,” one person wrote on Facebook.
However, many viewers took to the comments to say the win was deserved despite Charli’s previous training. “I thought this was brilliant! Yes, she’s a trained dancer, but who can dance so many different styles at such a high level of complexity… and ace it all in 2 minutes???? I’m thrilled for Mark as well. He’s fabulous and always deserves more credit!” another fan wrote.
Season 31: Charli D’Amelio’s Extensive Dance Training
In Season 31, TikTok sensation Charli D’Amelio won the competition, but some DWTS viewers believed that she should never have been allowed to compete because of her dance background. “Of course Charli won. She was a ringer with competitive dance experience, including training and performing with Derek. The one truly disappointing part of this show. I wish we could have seen the competition without her being favored so heavily as the winner chosen from day 1,” one person wrote on Facebook.
However, many viewers took to the comments to say the win was deserved despite Charli’s previous training. “I thought this was brilliant! Yes, she’s a trained dancer, but who can dance so many different styles at such a high level of complexity… and ace it all in 2 minutes???? I’m thrilled for Mark as well. He’s fabulous and always deserves more credit!” another fan wrote.
Seasons 5 & 15: Sabrina Bryan’s Shocking (Double) Elimination
The Cheetah Girls actress and her partner, Mark Ballas, were frontrunners on DWTS Season 5. They earned the highest Week 1 score ever and were the first pair to earn a perfect score by Week 4. Surprisingly, the dance partners were eliminated in Week 6. Fans voted for Bryan to return for the All-Stars edition in Season 15, where she also had a perfect score with Louis Van Amstel. But the actress placed sixth again (ironically, five years to the day of her first elimination).
“just remembered that sabrina bryan was robbed twice on dwts yeah i’m fuming,” one fan penned on X. “Sabrina Bryan being robbed….twice…..as being one of the best dancers if not the best both seasons,” another user tweeted in 2017.
Season 18: James Maslow Voting Controversy
When Big Time Rush star James Maslow was sent home in Season 18, fans claimed that their votes for James and Peta Murgatroyd were instead accounted for Meryl and Maxim. However, a representative for ABC said that despite the automated Facebook response, all of the votes were counted correctly, according to TMZ. The rep said the error was a “caching anomaly” that only affected a small amount of users, but fans of James were still sus.
Seasons 19, 20, 21, 23, 24: Julianne Hough Judging Her Brother
Brother and sister duo Julianne Hough and Derek Hough have a long history on DWTS. Now, Derek serves as a judge while Julianne is a host. But years ago, Julianne was a judge while her brother competed on the show, leaving many viewers, including fellow pros, less than thrilled.
“I think she is a great girl, I’ve known her for many years,” former DWTS pro Karina Smirnoff told Us Weekly in August 2024. “I think that she is wonderful, gorgeous, and talented, but I don’t know if it’s ethical that she is judging while her brother is competing.”
Smirnoff continued, “I may be the most fair person in the world, but if my mom is dancing and she trips, I would be like, ‘Well, I didn’t see that…’ That is my mother, and I will go stand by her side and support her regardless. Do I think it’s fair? No. But it is a TV show. That is what we have to remember. It’s not necessarily the Bible, it’s just a TV show.”
Season 32: Carrie Ann Inaba Missing Xochitl Gomez’s Mistake In The Finale
Xochitl Gomez and Val Chmerkovskiy won the latest season, but some fans felt like the pair were the judges’ clear favorites throughout the season. During the Redemption Round of the finale, each contestant had to perform a dance from earlier in the season that they struggled with. Ariana Madix performed a Samba, and judge Carrie Ann Inaba critiqued the Vanderpump Rules star for getting ahead of the music. Madix clapped back and said: “It’s the same speed as the Samba last week.” Madix received a nine from Inaba, making her just shy of a perfect score.
Charity Lawson was also docked an entire point from Inaba on her redemption dance for an apparent mistake, although Inaba didn’t specify what the mistake was. “I did see something that looked like maybe it was a mistake,” the judge said. “I honestly don’t know but I have to call it in order to be fair.” Meanwhile, judge Derek Hough didn’t see any mistakes and called Lawson’s dance “the best dance of the night.”
When it came to Gomez’s redemption dance, the winner made a noticeable mistake during her Foxtrot and missed Chmerkovskiy’s hand at one point. The slip-up could even be seen in the slow-motion replay. The judges didn’t catch it, nor did they dock the pair for the mistake, so they earned a perfect score.
