Even the Dancing With the Stars pros wish they got breakdowns of the weekly voting results.
“If we saw that, I would know everything. I would love to see that,” former pro Peta Murgatroyd recalled on the Friday, October 31, episode of her “Penthouse With Peta” podcast. “We’ve begged to see that.”
The two-time mirrorball winner, however, acknowledged that none of the dancers ever see the results.
“[Only] very few people [do],” Murgatroyd, 39, said. “I mean, probably two people [or] three, maybe, if that. It’s funny, back in the day, we would always be, like, ‘Oh, we don’t know what the votes are, maybe they didn’t get the most,’ but legally? You can’t mess around with votes.”
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While Murgatroyd didn’t go further into the voting logistics or legalities, DWTS couples are eliminated based on a combination of fan votes — viewers can support each partnership up to 10 times per voting method — and judges’ scores.
Murgatroyd has also taken issue with the current way that the judges — Carrie Ann Inaba, Derek Hough and Bruno Tonioli — review the celebrity routines.
“A nine for me is, like, you are close to perfection — and perfection for a celebrity,” she said on the October 24 episode of her podcast. “That’s why I feel like the scoring system is so, so hard and so not correct.”
The Australian choreographer added at the time, “We should start at twos and threes but a nine [means] you’re nearly there perfect. There’s people who get nines that I don’t think should get nines.”
In recent seasons of DWTS, even the most amateur celebrities have seldom scored below a five. (Original fans will remember that rapper Master P got the lowest score on record, earning twos for his season 2 paso doble.)
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Despite her voting and scoring critiques, Murgatroyd has overwhelmingly been wowed by the season 34 competition.
“I have hands down Robert Irwin and Witney [Carson to win],” she told Us Weekly earlier this month of her predictions for the eventual winner. “One thousand percent. I’m not saying he’s the most technical dancer. Whitney Leavitt for me is the best dancer of the season by far. She is absolutely phenomenal, but I believe Robert Irwin is going to win. People just seem to really gravitate toward him and he’s so kind.”
Murgatroyd’s husband, fellow former pro Maks Chmerkovskiy, could also see Irwin, 21, taking the trophy — or TikTok star Alix Earle. (Earle, 24, is partnered with Maks’ younger brother, Val Chmerkovskiy.)
“I think it’s going to be a battle,” Maks, 45, told Us. “There’s also a huge TikTok component. You got some fans over here and you have some fans over here. You have some core fans of Dancing with the Stars, but there’s also been a very big impact of TikTok fans. I think they’re also putting themselves in the category of that dance level is getting better and better, whereas there are some plateaus that some people hit.”
Dancing With the Stars airs on ABC and Disney+ Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET.
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