ABC Nikki Garcia thinks the judges have been too hard on Charity Lawson.
Nikki Garcia is defending her man.
Season 32 of “Dancing With the Stars” is coming to a close. The finale will air on December 5, 2023, with a total of five couples competing for the Mirrorball Trophy for the first time in the show’s history.
On the November 29, 2023, episode of “The Bellas” podcast, Garcia, who is married to DWTS pro Artem Chigvintsev, discussed the season. She expressed some concerns she had over the judges’ comments about Chigvintsev’s partner, Charity Lawson.
“They do tend to judge her harder,” she began. “But, I’m not going to lie — and I had my girls with me who agreed. You know, our girls are very honest — Jason Mraz getting all 10s and you can’t give Charity all 10s was a bunch of BS,” she said, adding that she didn’t think that Mraz deserved all 10s. She was referring to the week 9 dances, in which Lawson and Chigvintsev earned a 38 out of 40 while Mraz and Daniella Karagach were given a perfect score.
On the semifinals, Lawson scored a 29 for her first dance and a perfect 30 for her second, while Mraz earned a 27 for his first dance and a 30 for his second.
Here’s what you need to know:
Nikki Garcia Thinks Charity Lawson Could Win the Season
Garcia feels that the judges have given Lawson a tough time all season.
“And just like, the remarks? I was like ‘Damn.’ Like, they’ve been hard on her all season. But I’m proud of her because she’s done amazing and they’ve complimented her at the same time. And the one thing I’ll say is the judges were like, ‘we’re hard on you because we have high expectations,'” she continued.
Garcia added that she thinks that the judges’ feedback may cause fans to think that Lawson isn’t performing as well as the others in the competition. She still thinks that Lawson has a good chance at winning the whole season.
“Bachelorette” contestants have done well on the show in the past, too. Both Hannah Brown and Kaitlyn Bristowe both won Mirrorball Trophies, the latter with Chigvintsev on season 29.
Many Fans Agreed With Nikki Garcia’s Take but Others Were Upset That She Seemed to Call Out Jason Mraz
Fans reacted to the podcast on Reddit.
“Oh Nikki… delete this. And I’m saying this as a huge Charity fan,” one person wrote.
“I agree that the judges are super easy on Xochi, while drilling down on Jason, Ariana, and Charity,” someone else added.
A lot of DWTS fans felt that Garcia shouldn’t have named Mraz in her podcast rant.
“That honestly kinda pisses me off. She’s not a professional dancer/ judge and I get she’s biased to Artem, but why did she have to bring Jason into it. Also if you’ve been watching the past weeks of the show then you’ve seen that the judges have been hard on Jason and are willing to call him out on mistakes/ things they thought were missing. Even this week he got a critique about lacking emotion, the same critique Charity gets,” a third comment read.
Garcia competed on DWTS season 25. She danced with Chigvintsev, though she was with John Cena at the time. She and Chigvintsev reconnected a few years later.
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