Tyra Banks said she’s ignoring the haters as she heads into another week of Dancing with the Stars . One week after a technical mixup resulted in her calling out the wrong names during the elimination portion of the show, the ABC host said she sees no point in listening to negative comments from critics who are unhappy with the changes to the long-running series.
“What good does that do, participating in that? I don’t think there’s anything really positive from that,” the supermodel told USA Today .
Banks, 46, has dealt with a steady stream of setbacks since joining the ABC celebrity ballroom competition last month. Outraged viewers vowed to boycott the series with her as the new host, and her chatty style has been criticized in comments on social media.
The America’s Next Top Model star has been accused of making Dancing with the Stars all about “her” with runway-style entrances and multiple outfit changes. She’s had a few wardrobe snafus, too, including an unzipped outfit that she had to hold in place as she announced one of the DWTS couples following her costume change last Monday. But she told the outlet has no plans to stop her mid-show clothing changes.
“We’re not gonna let that get us down. We’re gonna keep changing clothes; people want it.”
The biggest snafu came last week when Banks announced Cheer star Monica Aldama and her pro partner Val Chmerkovskiy as safe, only to backtrack and call them back into the stage as one of the two lowest-scoring couples. While the couple was ultimately “saved” by the judges, viewers slammed Banks for the awkward situation as they pointed out that her predecessor, Tom Bergeron, never made such a mistake in 28 prior seasons.
Banks told USA Today that the audience has to be “angry at somebody” and that in the end, she knew it would be her taking one for the team.
Banks also acknowledged that she knows many viewers don’t like change. She admitted that she couldn’t just “step in” and replace an icon such as Bergeron and that she knew she had to bring her own “thing” to the show. She also revealed that she knew she would have big shoes to fill, but that she was up for the challenge because she’s a risk-taker.
“I go toward risk. I go toward putting myself out there. I go toward taking a chance,” the Dancing with the Stars host said.