‘Dancing With The Stars’ Fans Want Judges To Take Over Contestant Voting

Fans of Dancing with the Stars are reportedly fed up with what they feel is the unfair voting tactics used on the ABC reality dance competition series, and instead, would rather the panel of show judges take over the overall scoring of the participating celebrity contestants on the series.

GoldDerby, a leading Hollywood prediction site, reported that in a recent poll they held regarding the series, it appears that viewers want the judges to take over voting for the contestants, or even take it one step further as in the case of Dancing with the Stars Juniors, and only having the studio audience vote for their favorites.

It seems that viewers are upset up with the way the show cannot, despite its safeguards, get around the persistence of rabid fan bases that push forward their favorites and allow other, more competent celebrity dancers to be allowed to go home.

The last case in point was Sailor Brinkley-Cook, who was eliminated in Week 6 of the competition along with her pro partner Val Chmerkovskiy. The bottom two couples, Sailor and Ally Brooke, who is partnered with pro-Sasha Farber, were competent enough dancers and received judges’ scores that were on the higher end of the voting scales, which numbers 1 through 10. Still, in the bottom two they remained, until a tearful Sailor was sent home.

Former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer remains in the competition, not due to his superior dance skills, but a base of voters that want him to remain. Former White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders has claimed that she and her entire family vote for Spicer every week, as previously reported by The Inquisitr.

Cheryl Burke, a pro dancer who left the competition early due to an injury suffered by her celebrity partner Ray Lewis, stated in a blog post to Us Weekly that she believes Spicer will make it to the finals on the strength of votes alone. She also cited the fact that President Donald Trump put forth a tweet to his followers, reminding those that watched and voted for the contestants on Dancing with the Stars what a “good guy” Spicer is.

The voting system of Dancing with the Stars came under intense scrutiny after radio personality Bobby Bones won Season 27 of the series, despite having low scores throughout the season and no progression of his overall dance skills. It was determined that an intense voting push from the country music community, where Bones is wildly popular, helped move him forward in the competition.

After the backlash that ensued from Bones’ victory, Dancing with the Stars announced the show would take a year hiatus from their two seasons-a-year schedule and would retool several key points that needed to be addressed in regards to voting as the show moved forward.

This season, the series rid itself of overnight voting, and instead instilled new live voting where viewers on Eastern and Central Time could vote in real-time, while West Coast viewers could vote for their favorites three hours earlier but before they actually had a chance to view the competitors in action. Voting closes 10 minutes before the show announces live eliminations.

DWTS also empowered the judges Carrie Ann Inaba, Len Goodman, and Bruno Tonioli to save one dancer from the bottom two, but that process won’t work if voters continue to push forward their favorites. The more competent dancers with fewer viewer votes during that time period could potentially be eliminated.

Dancing with the Stars airs Mondays at 8 p.m. EST on ABC.