‘Dancing With The Stars’ New Instagram Photo Draws Mixed Emotions From Fans

A new photo uploaded to the Dancing with the Stars’ official Instagram page is drawing mixed emotions from fans of the series. The pic, which features the current celebrity competitors, pros, and troupe members, depicts a happy group as they ready themselves for a new evening of performances. However, fans of the series are experiencing feelings other than joy regarding this season and are not shy about expressing their opinions on social media.

The pic, which includes competing celebrities such as former White House press secretary Sean Spicer, Bachelorette star Hannah Brown, former Dawson’s Creek star James Van Der Beek, singer Ally Brooke, and actor Kel Mitchell, shows the group preparing for tonight’s live show, when they will be dancing to a theme that features boy bands and girl groups.

In the photo’s Instagram comments, fans negatively chimed in with their opinions on the overall viewing experience this season and their opinions regarding certain performers.

Many viewers are upset that despite all the reported safeguards set in place by the show’s producers, not enough is being done to discourage ballot stuffing for a particular performer.

“I’m not sure I’m going to watch. It’s hard to watch very talented people go home. Trying to stay positive,” said one viewer of the series.

“Can’t watch it anymore. It’s not a dance contest — it’s a political contest. It’s unfortunate for the stars that are left who are doing a really fantastic job,” commented another Instagram user.

“Who cares. We quit watching the show that rewards the bottom tier dancers instead of the high scoring dancers,” said another viewer of the series.

Dancing with the Stars came under fire at the close of Season 27 after celebrity competitor Bobby Bones took home a mirrorball trophy despite having low judges’ scores throughout his time on the series. A push by fans flooding the show’s official voting channels in favor of the country music radio personality helped him score a surprise win over competing celebrities Alexis Ren, Milo Manheim, and Evanna Lynch.

After a year hiatus, the show returned for Season 28 in September 2019, debuting a new set of rules and regulations to try to discourage viewers from the aforementioned practice.

The series now uses live voting during the episode as a way to limit the number of ballots fans can place for a competitor. These are explained on the show’s official website. Fans can vote as via text or online at the show’s official social media channel. Ten votes per competitor are allowed, and the votes close at the final commercial break of the live episode.

Show judges Carrie Ann Inaba, Len Goodman and Bruno Tonioli now have the final say in who goes home from the bottom two competitors of each live episode, as calculated by adding the judge’s scores and viewer votes.