Every Monday at 8 p.m., my friends and I, along with thousands around the country sit down to watch Dancing With The Stars. Dancing With The Stars is a ballroom orientated dance show that partners up celebrities and fabulous pro-dancers who train their partners in different styles of ballroom dance in preparation for a live show on Monday evenings. When showtime rolls around, the three infamous judges, Len Goodman, Carrie Ann Inaba, and Bruno Tonioli watch as the remaining duos dance to the theme of the week. “Disney Week” and “Most Memorable Year” are some of my personal favorites. Members of the show often refer to it as a family since they usually grow close over the course of the show, cheering each other on during the dances, and often becoming emotional when eliminations happen.
Eliminations are determined by a combination of judges’ scores and audience votes. Contestants are placed on a leaderboard based upon their total judges’ scores over the course of the season thus far. This is only partially a factor in if they get eliminated. During and after the show has finished airing for the night, those watching from their couches at home are encouraged to vote for their favorite contestants via the phone or online. Audience favor has proved to be influential in past seasons, and most certainly in this season. Often if a contestant has an avid fan base they are able to accrue a large number of audience votes which helps keep them on the show, even if their judges’ scores are not the highest.
The audience effect has been very evident this season because prior to the “Country Night” episode on November 5th, only women had been eliminated from the show. Monday night’s episode had the first ever elimination of male contestants this season with Demarcus Ware and John Schneider in a double elimination. The next episode is the semi-finals and viewers are shocked that so many talented women have been eliminated. The women eliminated thus far are Nikki Glaser, Danielle Umstead, Nancy McKeon, Tinashe, and Mary Lou Retton. There are now four remaining male contestants and two remaining women: Evanna Lynch and Alexis Ren. The elimination of Tinashe caused fans to grow upset, given that she had the highest scoring dance three out of the five weeks that she was on the show. I, personally, was crossing my fingers that Brendon, who was dancing like a pro for the first time this season after previously being in the troop, would dance with Tinashe all the way to finals.
Viewers are taking notice of the disparity and taking twitter:
@TeamRenTen tweets: “DWTS is about to lose A LOT of viewers and ratings if not a single women makes it to the finals…”
@CEMedlin87 tweeting: “Seriously? What is up with eliminating all of the women on #DWTS this season? There have been no male celebrities eliminated so far. Not quite sure what is happening… @DancingABC.”
The contestant that seems to be most benefiting from the support of the audience is Joe Amabile. Joe was first seen on Becca’s season of the Bachelorette but was eliminated the first night. Joe might not have won the heart of Becca, but he won the heart of Bachelor Nation, who from then on referred to him as “Grocery Store Joe” because of the grocery store he owned. Joe might have a special charm that has made him a fan favorite amongst Bachelor fans, but his dancing skills have caused him to have the lowest scoring dance every week except week six when he had the second lowest score. In previous seasons, contestants that have consistently been at the bottom of the leaderboard get voted off, but Joe is headed to the semi-finals. Many upset viewers have looked to Bachelor Nation to blame for continually voting for him despite his weak dancing skills in comparison to other contestants. Is Bachelor Nation carrying one of their favorite Bachelors through the show? Or, is it people hoping for a great underdog story?
The pattern of eliminations has not gone unnoticed by either the pros or the contestants. In an interview with “Entertainment Tonight”, Sharna Burgess, a long time pro on Dancing With The Stars said, “It’s really interesting and I don’t think that that’s fair necessarily, I don’t understand how that happened. That’s a massive coincidence that it’s been all the women who went home.” Her dance partner Bobby Bones in the same interview said, “Crap. That’s what I make of that. Crap. It’s just crap. All I’m gonna say. I think it’s horse crap.”
It will definitely be interesting to see how the last couple of weeks of the show turn out. The semi-finals are around the corner, and the finals are on Monday, November 19th. I, along with the rest of the viewers of the show, will be looking to see who is left standing during that final episode. Will it be the highest scoring dancers? Will Alexis Ren and Evanna Lynch, the final two female dancers, hold on to the end? Will it be the dancers with the most avid fanbase? Tune in these next two weeks to find out!