ABC
Singer and talk show host Marie Osmond recently spoke about her experience on “Dancing With the Stars” and had some strong words about how the female contestants are judged versus the male contestants, particularly in light of how her brother Donny Osmond won his season and she only came in third place on her season. Here is what she had to say about how she thinks the whole set-up is unfair to the female contestants.
Marie Says The Male Contestants ‘Don’t Dance’ on ‘Dancing With the Stars’
Marie Osmond was a contestant on “Dancing With the Stars” season five. She and her professional partner Jonathan Roberts came in third place behind pro dancer Julianne Hough and IndyCar driver Helio Castroneves, who won, and Spice Girl Mel B and pro dancer Maksim Chmerkovskiy, who finished in second place.
But Marie’s older brother and fellow singer Donny Osmond also appeared on “Dancing With the Stars.” He and his professional partner Kym Johnson won the Mirrorball Trophy in season nine, so on an episode of the “Behind the Velvet Rope with David Yontef” podcast, host Yontef asked Marie if her brother rubs it in that he won “Dancing With the Stars” and she did not — and Marie fired back with a very fiesty answer.
“[Donny] can rub it in all he wants because the guys don’t dance on that show,” said Marie.
She went on to explain: “Did he do one split? No. Did he kick his leg over his head once? No. Did he have to do 45 million spins and go into a death-dive? No. He just stood there.”
Notably, Marie over-exerted herself during one of her “Dancing With the Stars” numbers — a samba during week five — and fainted during the judges’ comments. Then-host Tom Bergeron once called it “a really tense moment” where he “knew we needed to get the paramedics in there.”
Marie Thinks It’s Unfair To Judge the Men & Women Against One Another
The Utah native and former talk show host also said on the podcast that she thinks it’s unfair to judge male and female contestants on the same scale for the very reason she said —
“That’s why I say the boys just sit there and hold the girl while she does all the work. That’s all they do,” said Marie, adding, “So [Donny] may have won, but they should never grade the boys [compared] to what the girls do. And we wear high heels!”
Marie is not the first female contestant to express this sentiment. In 2011, country singer Sara Evans, who competed on “Dancing With the Stars” season three, was being interviewed on Houston radio station KILT and she too said the male contestants have “an unfair advantage” (via Taste of Country).
“It’s so unfair on ‘Dancing With the Stars,’ because when the men celebrities are competing, all you look at is the [female professional dancers]! So nobody really watches [the men],” said Evans, adding, “Then when you see the women stars competing, you’re expecting them to look like the [female pros] and they just can’t! It’s an unfair advantage.”
What do you think, “Dancing With the Stars” fans? Do Marie and Sara have a point or do you think the male contestants work just as hard as the female contestants?
“Dancing With the Stars” has not yet been renewed for season 31. If it is renewed, it will return in September 2022.
READ NEXT: ‘Dancing With the Stars’ pro Artem Chigvintsev Speaks Out About Russia Invading Ukraine