Top 10 Dancing with the Stars Scandals & Controversies 

Honestly I'm still mad about that to this day

Honestly yes and everyone loves Derrick

Ikr so mad!!

Still annoyed and it’s almost 2019 lmao

And since Zendaya's fanbase was primarily kids and teens, online was all they had! I'll never get over that lol.

According To Desiree she has never done ballroom dancing before. The majority of the show is ballroom

still most of the celebrities are like 9 years old and have never danced ever

U need to have no experience in ballroom to be casted for this show. Stop making it a such a big deal

ashante agreed!!! Zendaya and Val were robbed!!!

ashante Zendaya was amazing! But I actually preferred Kellie and Derek! Especially after their freestyle, which literally made history in DWTS.

Maddie Lukasiak Yeah but one dance doesn't beat all of Zendaya's dances. Everyone remembers Zendaya's performances but no one hardly remembers Kellie Pickler even won.

Eh, even without winning, Zendaya has done very well for herself. Appeared on the cover of Vogue, on her own TV show, and has been in several big Hollywood films. Haven't heard much about Kellie Pickler since she was on the show.

@@lynnemurray3084 she was on numerous magazines, has her own show and had a hugely successful tour for her album. Just because you didn't hear anything doesn't mean it didn't happen

PREACH!!!

Just Me Giles Marini was one of my favorites.

Normani deserved better

and Victoria Arlen

Put Riker on that list.

True

Absolutely!!

syd’s vidz YOU RIGHT

Over any of the other 3...

Kenneth Chow true- evanna, alexis, and milo were all fabulous dancers!! the robbery...

MsPandachen or simone

MsPandachen she was eliminated from the "jazz" routine the week before. we got the rumba because of no results show.

+MsPandachen Wouldn't that one fall under the previous dance experience category, since a large part of the reason Heather got voted off was because a substantial number of the fans felt it was unfair that a star who literally has "professional backup dancer" on her resumé should compete against stars with no previous dance experience whatsoever?

aliasocfan but she had decent scores that week still. I honestly feel she was eliminated cuz people didn't even give her a chance cuz her dance background. Which was dumb and unfair to her cuz she isn't the first dancer to ever be on the show and she isn't and never was a professional ballroom dancers. The show has had people that have ballroom training and Heather wasn't trained in ballroom dancing. They had people that danced on Broadway and many others with just as much experience as her.

That is a big part of why she was eliminated. She got referred as Bey's back up dancer several times on the show. That ~jazz routine was underwhelming. (which is worse than being terrible). People were expecting it to be absolutely amazing (people with problems with her dance experience would have hated it either way) and it wasn't. She did everything asked of her, and she did it well. It just wasn't enough content.

Sibahle Dlamini Jennifer Grey also had previous dance experience, not only did she start in dirty dancing but has dance background.

Sibahle Dlamini I'm surprised they didn't talk about Riker Lynch. Who actually had competed in ballroom competitions with some of the pros when he was a kid. A celeb who actually had ballroom experience

I actually didnt know that....but i should'nt be surprised because he is related to the Hough's

Riker Lynch actually had more ballroom experience than his partner, Allison, a contemporary dancer.

The previous dance experience controversy is nothing new, because I've been watching since season 3, and even then there was a massive outcry because a lot of fans thought it was unfair that Mario Lopez should be allowed to participate given his previous dance experience, never mind that his expertise was in hip hop/breakdancing, which is about as far removed from ballroom as one can get

I think now fan voting doesn’t count that much anymore

Taylor Stinnett I think that's the reason Normani got third, not many voted for her cause her dance experience even tho she was the best dancer left

THANK YOU! 1000000% agree

When did you all going to get that IT DOESN'T MATTER IF THEY HAVE A BACK STORY DANCING, IT IS NOT THE SAME AS BALLROOM DANCING!?! Btw Normani was the most voted (toping at the very end) that season, even pasing David with more than a 300's points of diference and 100's with Rashad so... i don't get why the ''kept continuing each week''....?

S. Guadalupe Muñiz We get that. What we mean is that Heather got all the bullshit while Normani also had dance experience (as you have just said) and nobody complain

Now they’re doing it with McKenzie Ziegler

he had a HUGE fan base that watched the show, but so did everyone else.... idk, I was like anyone but him, he shouldn’t win he’s obviously the worst dancer of the four... I was wrong

This is my theory on what I think has been happening on DWTS lately. I think that ever since Max or Val had pleaded that he never won a trophy (and won), and how Derek used to win a lot of seasons, the executives have tried to make it "fair" and are now manipulating votes so certain pros have a chance to win. for example Season 27 Sharna had never won a season before that and she won, then Season 28 Alan and Hannah winning when clearly James Van Der Beek and Kel Mitchell were clearly wayy better dancers. idk its just a theory.

I mean, he wasnt the worst, Joes Amabilie was.

He only won because he works for ABC, he's a correspondent for the CMA Awards, and will sometimes host American Idol that's my theory why he won

IKR WITNEY AND MILO SHOULD AHVE WON PERIOD

He has a catchy smile.

I don't agree with you but I definitely don't disagree. It's not just what they bring to the dance floor, it's the effort that they put behind it. You've got people going on this show that have had serious accidents in their lives that prevent them from being able to do certain things on the Dance Floor. Does that mean that they don't deserve credit for putting everything they have into it? I mean Frankie Muniz had a serious car accident and couldn't do some of the things the others could do, but he pushed himself to the brink trying.

Dan Ameral, I have been saying that all along~~Most of the votes are based on popularity and not the dance itself~~Also, we know that show is definitely fixed~~It's obvious~~

They should change the format to how SYTCD does it, ie viewer voting/scores determines the bottom two, but then the judges get to pick who leaves from that. That way, America still gets a say, but then the judges can vote off of talent rather than popularity.

The same thing happened when they introduced online voting to shows like Face Off and Ink Master. People who should win were eliminated by people who were popular. Pisses me off every time.

Popularity is a huge factor and has had profound effects with this show: Mel B, Sabrina Bryan, Brandy, Heather Morris, Mya, Normani, Zendaya, and a list of others have lost out simply due to some form of popularity. They worked hard during their seasons, but popularity should not be the final say in an elimination.

Taylor ! That's the point... She was even better than some of the pros

Carolina Ureña that doesn't mean she wasn't allowed to be there. she wasn't trained in ballroom. There was people with dance experiences and people without dance experiences in the very first season. There have been numerous dancers on before her. So that's way her elimination was bs unfair. Most people didn't even give her a chance and just didn't vote for her cuz her dance background which was unfair to her. expecially when the show has had people like riker that actually had ballroom training and Alfonso that danced on Broadway and many others with just as much dance experiences as her. plus the show was kind of unfair to her too. They had her dance in the middle every week but her last week. the judges would bring up her dance background ever week and also the judges underscored ever week but her last week. Go back listen to the judges feedback from her dances they normally had nothing but good things to say about but yet she would get the same scores as people that the judges feedback was telling them what the need to work on still.

Jaissa Pierce yes, i know she doesn't have ballroom dancing experience. However... She is a DANCER and THAT is a big PLUS

I agree with your comment. It's a plus, but there are so many different nuances when comparing the two styles. It's like having Taylor Swift start competing in a competition show titled Opera Singing with the Stars (Perhaps TayTay's not the best representative. Demi Lovato?). You're trained one way, but all of those things you're used to doing your whole life have to be changed. Some people adapt to situations more easily. I feel like that would be the case for dancers if they're all auditioning in a room and need to perform a certain dance sequence on the fly. So people like Heather have an edge. But then what about athletes? Don't they also have an edge because they have the athleticism to carry out the most grueling routines (as well as draw in elements of dance)? I'm thinking in particular gymnasts and ice dancers (Meryl Davis and Charlie White).

Taylor ! Nah.

Definitely the past ballroom experience, Tony almost quitting because of Kate Gosselin, and DEFINITELY Sabrina Bryan's elimination. Also, it wasn't really a scandal, but Marie Osmond fainting during the live show was pretty shocking. Ryan Lochte protesters, Hope Solo's time on the show, Abby Lee Miller judging, etc.

CR Zendaya miscount of votes should have been in here. The fact that ONLINE VOTING CRASHED AND DIDN'T COUNT on the night before the finale is suspicious. I'm surprised Sabrina isn't on this list, it's like one of the most iconic moments on dwts, she's literally mentioned everytime someone has a shocking elimination that's how big her elimination was

Campaign to get Tony off the show?

I don't see how Riker's experience would be a problem..

@Lu Vazquez: The problem with Riker's experience was he competed as a ballroom dancer, against current DWTS pros Lindsay, Jenna, and Witney. That's very different than having hip hop or other dance experience, which other people have gotten way more flak for. He actually had a lot more experience in ballroom than the pro he danced with (Allison Holker, who was a contemporary/jazz dancer.) I don't dislike Riker at all, but thought it was ridiculous that he was allowed to compete.

You mean like that one time Maks gave Val a 10 and all the other judges gave him lower scores. Then maks only reply was "because i can."?

90% of the time, it was actually Maks giving Val the lowest score of all 4 judges, while CA/Bruno were actually more favorable when it came to giving Val high scores. And in that episode, may I point out that the harshest criticism of Val's original partner, Tamar Braxton, actually came from Maks? Let's not forget also that in that switch up week, Val happened to be paired with eventual winner Bindi Irwin, who was already racking up high scores by that point of the competition, so is it really favoritism if Val got good scores when paired with one of the better dancers that season? If anyone had reason to complain about those switch up scores, it was Sharna, because her partner was the one getting reamed by Maks, no thanks to his temporary partner Witney phoning in the choreography that week.

Tomo18x i remember that was in the switch up week. Bindi was with val so Maks gave that 10 to bindi not Val. And Val's original partner was with another pro and I remember he criticized her a lot and didn't give her good scores which shows that he is not favoring his brother at all

maria sous That's right. And Bindi had already received a 10 the week before and for her dance with Val, all the judges except Maks gave her 9s. Maks also gave a 10 to Alexa PenaVega who was dancing with Derek that week. He did critique Tamar Braxton, Val's original partner, a bit but the other judges were way harsher towards her and really underscored her in comparison to the other contestants later in the show. They gave her 7s while Maks gave an 8.

Tomo18x Oh plis Julianne is biased. Hough lovers will never agree.

Do you think part of it maybe she was representing her mother. Even though Sarah palin no longer plans to do the show, her name was thrown in at one point. The reason being is politicians to me have the same advantage as an American idol contestant in that both know how to get people to vote for them same if you put tv hosts. The only ABC show left who hasn't had a contestant represent the show is greys anatomy. I think Patrick Dempsey is most likely but I'm ok with someone else

Petty Jessi Oh Meryl was complained about for that reason all during the season she was on.

Even worse, she's an ice dancer specifically.

Meryl did get tons of flack for her experience. People still complain about that.

Ice dancing is not the same as ballroom dancing. Yes Ice Dancer are required to perform a rythmic which usually are a type of ballroom dance but there are required ice skating techniques in these performances that really don’t have much much to do with the actual ballroom dancing.

Sabrina Bryan was also a professional dancer. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Yes her and heathers elimination was the worst they should have lasted longer on the show

Coincidence she was eliminated on the same date on season 5 and all stars, 5 years apart???

Alex Brown 💯💯💯

I thought having Sabrina on the show was controversial because she has years of dancing experience, including ballroom.

or a bs win. helio over mel b still pisses me off lol. she had 414 total to 407. mel had 85 to 84, and performed the best in six different dance categories. mel had the eddie murphy scandal a few months before and hasn’t cleared her name yet. so obviously they would vote for helio. why have votes be 50%? at least make it only 20%

Aimee Gates girl yes...they were life

Rusher forever ❤️

Woop woop

Janessa Hernandez 💯💯💯💯 I agree

Also Ryan Lochte LITERALLY gets attacked onstage...?

Janessa Hernandez when I read your comment I read it like how the girl is talking in the video . It made me feel like a reporter 😂

Normani, Donny Osmond. Actually athletes have won more times than the ringers.

Also Normani because she lost against those two guys and she was so much better than them. Especially David

Considering Chaz Bono was rarely seen before changing and was in Cher's shadow that's not really an observation that can be made from actual knowledge. Chaz strikes me as someone who wants attention and is getting it now, whereas, Chastity never did. I think THAT is where the happiness comes from.

I loved watching him dance because he looked like he was having so much fun.

She wasn't a great dancer

Of course Derek is the best male pro every time he's on...hard not to be when he consistently gets all the talent. Other than Ricki Lake/Marilu Henner, and even they weren't the worst in the bunch, can you name a time where Derek didn't get a star with talent? That alone gives him the edge over the so called pimpage of the Chmerkovskiy brothers, because even Maks has had his fair share of complete duds.

💯💯💯💯💯

The funny thing is, both Ricki Lake and Marilu Henner had previous dance experience as well.

Jennie Garth, Shannon Elizabeth, Brooke Burke, Joanna Krupa, Maria Menounos, Kellie Pickler, Amber Riley, Amy Purdy, Bethany Mota, Bindi Irwin all with little or no previous dance experience. By comparison, Val has had 11 partners, only 1 wasn't seriously trained with dance experience (Sherri Shepherd - who admitted she had had dance lessons from Chmerkovskiys dance school before the show) That's not to say Val isn't great, just don't diminish Derek's accomplishments, after all he is the only pro with emmy's for choreography, and they aren't easily awarded.

+jdblott I said ones that were not talented dancers, not ones with dance experience, because one can turn out to be a good dancer even without experience, so don't get me wrong here. It's true that all the stars you mentioned had no dance experience, but even so, it's not like any of them were just flat out uncoordinated and had no prayer at learning how to dance. Derek/Val have never gotten partners that were that bad at dancing that no amount of training would've turned them into contenders to win it all, while pretty much every other star has, even Julianne/Mark/Maks.

Derek trying to clap while looking stunned... he couldn't even muster any excitement that his BFF Mark was in the finals with him. That's how f***ed up the eliminations were that season.

Amanda Seymour 😂😂😂😂 I know. Haha. Lol

Danielle Johnson I remember that season and I was only 12 when I watched it and hadn’t really gotten a grasp of the politics behind having her on the show, and I was really shocked cause Brandy was a WAY better dancer than her. Hell, I thought it should’ve been her and Kyle in the top 2.

Danielle Johnson Jennifer Grey had been taking dance classes for years from Louis VanAmstel, she had her hair styled like "Baby" from "Dirty Dancing" because she wanted to evoke everyone's sentimentality of that movie, she sadly talked about Patrick Swayze and his death as if it was such a huge tragedy for her- even though the two hated each other- and no one thought it was unfair advantage that she had so much dancing experience?? Well, next to someone like Bristol Palin, of course that was an unfair advantage?? Of course she would be waaay better than her and any other untrained celebrity out there. (I'm only using Bristol Palin as an example, because I can't remember who all were contestants that season)...I LOOOVE "Dirty Dancing", it literally is my favorite movie of all time because I was obsessed with it as a child, and Jennifer (who would only agree to appear of she got her pick of partners, and voila, she picked arguably the best pro and choreographer on the show- Derek) was absolutely fabulous and amazing on her season of "Dancing with the Stars", but she clearly stacked the deck and had an unfair advantage over every other contestant. She should have never been allowed to participate being that she had taken years of classes from Louis in the first place...So I believe Kyle should have won, he was the epitome of what this show was supposed to be about, non-dancers that learn and get better as the show progresses

Nella J "

Allison Payne They could have also had Jennifer Grey up there since she won too.

Hannah Wisener 😂😂😂

For real, she is so hypocritical! She has conservatives values, but doesn't follow through with them

I can't stand hypocrites, ugh she was the worst in every possible way. Poor Mark had to deal with her for TWO seasons :(

that is so ironically hypocritical!!!!!! And freaking hilarious!!!!! 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

Better yet guys: she preaches *abstinence*. Not even actual responsible safe sex.

Selena Lollin Imo, Rumer was the better Latin ballroom dancer, mostly because she had a Latin ballroom-trained partner in Val. Riker was good, but I always found him a bit sloppy in his footwork, which is curious considering he competed in Latin ballroom dance competitions when he was younger, against Lindsay and Witney. I think it had to do with Allison's lack of Latin ballroom training and experience, Riker was actually more experienced than her. For Willow, while she was great and eliminated WAY too soon, she was 4th place at best compared to Nastia, Riker and Rumer.

Bruja like Mr. Rogers playhouse. That would be EVERYTHING

My Dear Journal You should watch the italian version; no scandals, but to compensate you get to see the worst of the pettiest traits of humanity.

cazia9 💯💯💯 exactly. People are so backwards

they practically wear nothing as far as costumes go anyway

some people have shit fucking backwards.....

cazia9 or the fact they were fine with Kim K being on it? She did porn!

Katrina's was outside dancing with the Stars and not all viewers keep up with the professionals whereas they were against Chaz being in the show because of his literal existence which is sad. America is dumb

The network totally set it up for him to win in order to promote American Idol. He was able to get away with shading his fellow castmates and dragging the judges on Twitter, if he wasn't on another ABC show he would never have gotten away with that behavior.

Yes about Evanna. She went from getting a 5 from Len in week 1 to getting a 10 from Len in week 7. While HE was barely able to get an 8 and never got a 9 (the freestyles are now an excuse for 10s no matter how the contestant dances or how much he actually dances).

iSimStar yes

8th?! No wonder there's no spring season. I knew he was bad but this is just a disgrace.

Agree

Girl Harmonizer - totally Agree

darkfarie94 I'm glad to hear that, if only more people could be as accepting. Chaz's dance partner Lacey is a Mormon and she was so supportive of him.

I don’t recall gender being the issue. Just bad dancing.

I'd much rather have Chaz Bono on DWTS than Jerry Springer.

Di R me too

Is it really a stereotype if the majority of conservatives are against gay marriage and transgendered people?

A guy shot his tv because she was eliminated

​@@cucchimorrisonnothelfer5794I don't blame him the fact she got eliminated over someone who hadn't even improved and sucked

bannokelly18 what Max said it was his show meaning it was his performance not the show on TV idiot when other when people are in the English language Is I have if you're thinking in your primary language when you go to interpret it comes out different so give him that much okay

@@annaharasym1343 WHAT????? What language is that you are speaking? Did you go to school?

My fav dancing with the stars contestants is Heather Morris & Amber Riley because Glee is my fav TV show

+Kirsti Swanson mine are the same and Riker lynch bc he was good and he is my celebrity crush

My celebrity crush is Darren Criss

For me, there was no one that shined as bright as Bindi. She is an angel!

Alfonso (Carlton) for the WIN!!!

They should've added this. I remember watching that and was like WTF is going on.

Yeah, they didn't even give Lochte an honorable mention. They chose partners fooling instead....clearly shows the mindset of the uploaders !!!

That was mentioned in the shocking moments on the show.

So true

Yes so very, very true on comment!

And ally and Sasha not winning

cocoacoolypso I never knew that happened either. I was rooting for Meryl & Maks but I was totally shocked and disappointed that James & Peta didn't make the final 3. Same with Charlie & Sharna and Danica & Val not making the finals that season.

Right! Personally, I would have loved to see Charlie & Sharna, James & Peta and Meryl & Maks in the finals! I thought Charlie was quite underrated, and he got out pretty early.

cocoacoolypso Amy Purdy definetly deserved to be in the finals though :-)

Seriously, I have the feeling that she is the main reason for this particular topic...they just didn't want to be obvious. Let's see: Heather, Alphonso, Normani, Jennifer Grey, Amber Riley, Corbin Bleu, Zendaya, Nicole Scherzinger, Sabrina Bryan...these are the ones just off the top of my head who had some previous dance experience...I guess you can add Charlie & Meryl, since what they do is actually "ice dancing" (as opposed to figure skating, which brings us Kristi Yamaguchi, Dorothy Hamill, Nancy Kerrigan...)

Karen Fahel Don't forget Riker Lynch who did Latin ballroom competitions against Lindsay and Witney and lied about his experience. He'd been dancing ballroom longer than his partner Allison!

Amanda Seymour Let's add Roshon Fegan and Lea Thompson to the list of celebs with past dance experience.

Luna Strover Jordan fisher, Janel Parrish, Paige Vanzant,

Rachel Garber Lol she's so twisted.

exactly

standanddeliver24 I agree to an extent. Derek without a doubt was the true winner of his first 3 wins : NO ONE was better than Brooke in S7, NO ONE was Better than Nicole in S10, NO ONE was better than Jennifer in S11 (I was rooting for Kyle but come on Jennifer was unbeatable she was yards better). I think Zendaya was better than Kellie, I didn't think he should have won that season (S16), and he his win in S17 was obvious because Corbin kept messing up in the finals and was too far behind Amber in points to beat her. Was rooting for Nick in Season 21 tho. But then again Shawn was better than Melissa in S15 so I think he deserved 5 Mirrorballs but 4/6 Mirrorballs with the partners he did win with

Marie didn't have a very good free style, which is the make it or break it of a lot of the dancers. Same with Mya against Marie's brother Donny. The one with the killer free style that didn't quite make it was Sadie Robertson, against Alfonso. Alfonso might not have danced for a long time, but Sadie had absolutely NO dance experience at all, and made runner up.

Debra Enderle lol. That was just the stupidity of the judges.