Fans of Dancing with the Stars seemed to be excited to check in on the competition’s new look and cast when Season 29 first started airing, but in the days since, the ratings have hit their lowest numbers in years and viewers think the problem is host Tyra Banks.
As The Sun reported, the October 5 episode of the competition series had only 5.8 million spectators, which is the lowest-rated week in more than five years. Last season at the same time, for example, DWTS was nabbing an audience of 6.5 million.
The last time the numbers were lower than that was when the series aired a pre-recorded episode that lacked any live or new content.
Some are blaming the drop on the change in hosts. After Tyra took over hosting duties and Tom Bergeron and Erin Andrews said goodbye, the model oversaw a change in set, dancers, and format.
When the first new episode aired on September 14, it saw an astounding 8.1 million television sets tuned in.
One week later, there were just 6.8 million individuals checking out the dancers.
Things came to a head with fans after the cover girl reiterated that a recent error was the fault of the crew.
As The Inquisitr previously reported, one week after reading the wrong names of the couples up for elimination, she told viewers the error was caused by a technical issue made by the staff behind-the-scenes.
Social media users felt Tyra was throwing the DWTS crew under the bus.
Now, many are calling on her to be removed from Dancing with the Stars and for Erin and Tom to be re-hired.
“Tyra Banks is the worst thing to happen to #DWTS in the history of the show,” one person said.
“Ratings are going to plummet and the show is going to be cancelled if she doesn’t get replaced. It’s a disgrace.”
“The cast can’t stand her & plummeting ratings will doom the show if she stays,” another person added.
Others accused her of making the series all about her rather than the dancers and the competition.
“Sure Tyra Banks can blame her hosting blunder on a ‘control room error’ but it is clear that she is has zero hosting skill & pays more attention to herself than making the show run cohesively,” an individual said.
One person made their feelings clear by calling out the tumbling ratings.
“Get rid of Tyra Banks already. Epic Failure. Ratings Plummeting. Nobody’s watching!”