ABC Some fans of "Dancing With the Stars" think the dance relay was unfair.
Some fans of “Dancing With the Stars” are calling the show “unfair” after the Monday, November 7 episode featured a dance relay.
The dance relays were a returning feature from previous seasons of “Dancing Wtih the Stars.” This time around, they featured pairs of dancers paired up and competing against one another for an extra five points.
The winners of the dance relays all moved up on the leaderboard when it came to scores, while the dancers who lost the relay moved down.
Because the bottom two couples, or three couples, in this case since there was a double elimination, are determined by a combination of judge scores and votes from viewers, the five extra points were a massive boost to the couples who pulled through and won the relay.
The two couples who were sent home, Heidi D’Amelio and Artem Chigvintsev and Vinny Guadagnino and Koko Iwasaki, lost their relays and ended up near the bottom of the leaderboard.
Chigvintsev later opened up about feeling disappointed about his elimination from the competition.
Fans Called the Relays ‘Pointless’ & ‘Unfair’
After the show, some fans took to Reddit to call the relays pointless and unfair.
“Does anyone else think the dance relays are both pointless yet unfair?” one person wrote on Reddit. “daniel [durant] and britt [stewart] got a nearly perfect score from their first dance yet still ended up tied with trevor who originally got … the second lowest score.”
The fan called out the show for having Gabby Windey compete against Charli D’Amelio, as both have been at the top of the leaderboard for weeks.
“i don’t mind the opportunities for bonus points but i only think it’s completely fair when they’re not dancing directly against someone,” the post concluded.
People in the replies stated that they thought five points was too much to be awarded.
Some Fans Thought the Assigned Judges Were Unfair
Each group on the relay was assigned one judge to award the points without input from the other judges.
Some people did not like that aspect about the relay, taking to Twitter to talk about why that could have been unfair.
Fans were specifically annoyed when it came to Derek Hough judging Mark Ballas’s dance. Hough and Ballas are very close, even going as far as to say they are more brothers than friends in the past, and some fans thought it was unfair that Ballas was judged by such a close friend.
“derek being the judge for the charli & gabby relay feels unfair. like i genuinely don’t think that should be allowed. there’s no way he won’t have a mark bias #dwts,” a tweet reads.
One person on Reddit also commented about the possible bias.
“Giving Gabby and Charli Derek was the most biased pick they could find … like Derek is BFFs with mark and knew Charli pre-show,” they wrote.
During the episode, some fans opened up about feeling as though couples on the show have not been scored fairly.
The next episode of “Dancing With the Stars” is set to feature another double elimination after each couple dances two times during the two-hour show.
“Dancing With the Stars” airs on Mondays at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT on Disney+. The season finale will air on Monday, November 21, 2022.