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‘DWTS’ Drama: Nick Viall Trolled By William Shatner, Tom Bergeron Earns A Truce

By Ernie Howell
Published on: 23:25 PST, Mar 22, 2017

Dancing With The Stars Season 24 is only one week into the season, but the drama surrounding controversial cast member Nick Viall is already beginning thanks to Star Trek alum William Shatner.

Nick Viall — who recently wrapped up Season 21 of The Bachelor by proposing to Canadian teacher Vanessa Grimald — became the public target of actor William Shatner in an attempt to quickly end The Bachelor star’s run on DWTS, the Chicago Tribune explained. The Star Trek star began urging Twitter users to vote for anyone other than Nick Viall on Monday hours before the DWTS polls opened through a series of tweets.

William Shatner continued his campaign to have DWTS viewers vote against Nick Viall throughout the night on Twitter. On multiple occasions, William Shatner asked his nearly 2.5 million Twitter followers to vote for other DWTS couples the maximum 10 times to ensure that Nick Viall would receive the lowest vote total of the night, going as far as using a #Dontvote4Nick hashtag to build momentum for the movement.

When asked why he was so dead-set on ousting Nick Viall early from DWTS, William Shatner was blunt in his response. William Shatner cited the way Nick Viall acted on The Bachelor as his reasoning for mounting a campaign to topple the reality TV star’s chances of winning the DWTS competition.

Anyone but Nick Viall earned praise from William Shatner for their performance on DWTS. Charo was especially lauded by William Shatner, and Mr. T’s homage to his The A-Team past was especially well-liked by the 86-year-old Twitter pundit.

DWTS host Tom Bergeron — who William Shatner called a “good friend” in earlier tweets — called for a truce and an end to the Twitter campaign to defeat Nick Viall. Tom Bergeron did this through his own Twitter account, adding a picture in his birthday message to William Shatner.

William Shatner begrudgingly accepted the olive branch from Tom Bergeron. In agreeing to the truce, William Shatner added that he would not be kissing to make up with Nick Viall in the process.

Prior to Tom Bergeron calling for a truce, Nick Viall did little to stop William Shatner from lobbying for his swift exit from DWTS. A single tweet — an emoji of a sad face — was all that was publicly exchanged between the two figures via Twitter.

Also, DWTS professional dancer Peta Murgatroyd attempted to appeal to William Shatner in his feud with her dance partner Nick Viall. In their series of tweets, William Shatner praised the professional dancer while telling her he would be rooting for her real-life partner — DWTS pro dancer Maks Chmerkovskiy.

Nick Viall was locked into the competition weeks prior to the official announcement for DWTS Season 24, according to the Inquisitr. While Heather Morris — a back-up dancer for Beyonce prior to her stint on Glee — has caused a stir over her background, Nick Viall has created controversy as he is the fourth The Bachelor contestant to have made the show while only one The Bachelorette participant has danced on the ballroom floor.

Nick Viall started his journey on reality TV competing for Andi Dorfman on Season 10 of The Bachelorette, making it to the final ceremony before being dumped. He competed a second time on The Bachelorette in Season 11 with Kaitlyn Bristowe as well as a stint on Bachelor in Paradise before finally earning his own run in Season 21 of The Bachelor.

In his turn as The Bachelor lead, Nick Viall finally found a partner in Vanessa Grimald. The couple were together during the opening night of DWTS, and Nick Viall thanked his new love interest on Instagram in a photo he shared of the new couple.

What do you think about the Dancing With The Stars feud brewing between Nick Viall and legendary actor William Shatner? Join the conversation by following the Inquisitr on Twitter (@IQShowbiz) as well as finding out the latest on this developing situation.

[Featured Images by Gustavo Caballero and Phillip Faraone/Getty Images]

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the bachelor william shatner the bachelorette tom bergeron peta murgatroyd nick viall
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