Dancing With the Stars has taken the world by storm. It has always been well known, but with over 6.6 million viewers on the season 35 premiere, it’s clear its popularity is only growing. Now, popularity can be a good thing. It provides many benefits, especially for a show that revolves around audience engagement. But unfortunately, when you go up, you must also come down.
So what are the downsides when a show like this becomes popular? Well, there is one clear setback: instead of voting based on pure talent, it has become evident that both the general public and even the judges themselves tend to steer their vote based on the popularity of the pair. To fully understand this, let’s look at a few of the pairings from season 34 and 35.
Season 35
In the most recent season, Taylor Hanson and Britt Stewart competed on DWTS. Taylor Hanson is a musician best known for his work with the pop band Hanson. He received average scores during his time on the show, but still performed very well and showed lots of potential.Â
Two other notable contestants were Guillermo Rodriguez and Witney Carson. Guillermo Rodriguez is an iconic talk show personality and comedian, best known for starring beside Jimmy Kimmel in his late-night show. Guillermo is 55, making him the second oldest contestant this season.Â
Now, this is nothing against Guillermo — he was actually my first celebrity crush (don’t ask) — but he isn’t as strong a dancer as his competitors; a big fault is his age. This has caused the internet to throw a pity party. They know Guillermo is not a skilled dancer, but because he is so popular, the show and public fight to keep him in. It’s almost like the internet is infantilizing him. By doing so, they are taking away the opportunity for stronger pairings to continue on the show. Yes, Taylor is not the best dancer out there either, and also needs to improve. While Taylor could improve to rival some of the top pairings, Guillermo will not be able to. Despite this, Guillermo is still competing, while Taylor Hansen was eliminated during week 3.
Additionally, Britt Stewart is worth mentioning — she has been one of the professionals for 10 years, was the first Black female professional dancer, and has amazing technique and skills. Despite this, she has never made it past the first few weeks. Popularity is problematic for both stars and professionals; it’s clear Britt has fallen victim to that.Â
Season 34
Two pairs that I really want us to look at are Scott Hoying, a singer-songwriter, and his partner Rylee Arnold. The other pairing being Andy Richter and Emma Slater. Andy Richter is an actor and comedian who is best known as Conan O’Brien’s sidekick on his talk shows. Andy gained much of his fame with our generation when he got on the show. He is an older contestant and was 58 during his season.
Despite Scott performing better than Andy, he was eliminated earlier. Now, to state the obvious, yes — Scott is younger than Andy. It’s easier for Scott to do more advanced dances than it is for Andy. But, when it comes down to it, Scott was not only a better dancer but had a stronger chance of winning the competition. Andy didn’t have a chance of outperforming any of the top contestants, but he was voted to stay anyway, making it all the way to week 9, with Scott only making it to week 6.
I don’t say any of this to bring down any of these contestants. I can’t even do a cartwheel, so it would be absurd of me to talk down to these stars. A big part of the show is about improving — none of them are going to be amazing off the bat, and it’s not a bad thing that these specific performers get to stay in. However, this show is a dance competition — not a popularity contest. By pairing more popular celebrities with (typically) more popular professionals, the opportunity for other pairings to improve and succeed is gone.
At the end of the day, popularity is part of what makes DWTS so entertaining. Fans will have favorites, and there’s nothing wrong with wanting to see them continue. But when popularity outweighs performance, we lose the purpose of the competition. The show can still be fun, dramatic, and full of fan favorites without losing sight of what put them on the stage in the first place: the dancing.
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