Former Dancing With the Stars pro Sharna Burgess has reacted to speculation that the reality TV competition fosters a toxic environment.
“I’ve never heard this, but I’m going to have to assume the fandom (some not all obvi),” Burgess, 40, wrote via her Instagram Stories on Friday, December 5, about the allegedly toxic DWTS culture. “It’s certainly not the show itself or the people on it. Gosh, I hate even seeing those two words together. It’s so sad.”
Eliminated contestant Corey Feldman claimed last month, ahead of the season 34 finale, that the dancing show was allegedly toxic backstage. Neither the show, nor Feldman’s partner Jenna Johnson, publicly addressed the accusations.
“There was a lot of stupidity in the mudslinging that went on behind the scenes,” Feldman, 54, claimed on the Guvery’s Law radio show last month. “The behind-the-scenes drama and BS that people throw around the show, I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s the worst, like, most toxic. On the set everybody gets along. Everybody’s great. Everybody’s happy. You’re working hard. You don’t have time to look up. You’re just working.”
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Us Weekly reached out to ABC for comment regarding Feldman’s claims at the time.
Feldman later returned for the November 25 finale, dancing in a bumper with Johnson, 31, and other season 34 castoffs.
Burgess watched the entirety of season 34 as a fan, often offering her feedback on various routines. (The Australian choreographer won season 27 with Bobby Bones but has since stepped back from her duties as a DWTS performer.)
“The online hate is just another level these days,” Burgess acknowledged on Friday, theorizing that the toxicity claims was a reference to the often-constant fan hate. “On the flip side, so is the online love and adoration. It’s the yin and yang; the balance.”
She continued, “Where there are more people that love something, there will also be more people that don’t. With how popular [the show] is again with this second coming, every man and his dog wants to go viral with their ‘hot takes.’ Most of them would cry for a photo with any of the people they speak so [poorly] of if given the chance.”
Throughout season 34, many fans hurled insults about the DWTS pros and their choreography abilities.
“Y’all are mean. The amount of videos I’ve seen [that are] literally trashing the pros, the troupe, the hosts and judges. It’s making me sick,” alum Lindsay Arnold, who won season 25, said in a September TikTok video. “You understand that these are real people, right? This isn’t some made-up TV show, where they’re playing characters. This is not Conrad, Belly and Jeremiah [from The Summer I Turned Pretty], where we can just comment on their decisions and their choices and their lives.”
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Lindsay, 31, stressed that the DWTS pros — including her sister Rylee Arnold — were simply “doing a job that literally none of [the haters] could do.”
“That’s what kills me [with the] ‘my hot take, I don’t think they did this good enough.’ Let’s see you do it. You couldn’t,” Lindsay quipped. “If you have time in your day to make videos, spread hate or leave comments and actively seek out trashing people, then you’re obviously not working hard enough on yourself. Maybe you need to rethink what’s most important in your life.”
