Heavy/ABC "Dancing with the Stars" news.
“Dancing With the Stars” fans are disputing wannabe contestant Scheana Shay’s claims that she was all but promised a spot on the 32nd season of the show, only to be cast aside for her co-star, Ariana Madix.
In the “Vanderpump Rules” episode “Peaks and Valleys,” Madix confronted Shay about her casting on the ABC dance-off. “Obviously, you know that’s something I’ve wanted forever and I started dance class,” Shay told Madix in the episode that aired March 19, 2024. “And I really felt like I was being considered for this season. Was it a punch to the gut, was I disappointed, did I have a good cry? Yes.”
The episode aired hours after Shay claimed on a podcast that DWTS producers had courted her for months before they went with Madix instead.
But some fans said that’s not how “Dancing With the Stars” works.
Fans Reacted to Scheana Shay’s Casting Claim
PeacockAriana Madix and Scheana Shay.
After Shay made her comments about Madix getting DWTS instead of her, fans flocked to Reddit to react.
“This all sounds like ‘don’t call me, I’ll call you’ and she didn’t get the hint,” one Redditor wrote.
“I’m so curious who these people are that Scheana claims told her she’d be on DWTS?” another wanted to know.
Other fans noted that longtime DWTS casting director Deena Katz doesn’t like to cast people who “campaign” for a spot.
“It’s funny cause we allll know Deena doesn’t cast ppl who campaign to get on the show,” came one comment.
“She kinda shot herself in the foot there making such a big deal about it since we know Deena doesn’t like that,” another wrote of Shay.
“I feel like all this talk about it now is gonna turn Deena off from wanting to cast her. She should have kept quiet tbh,” wrote another.
“Yeah Scheana needs to stop campaigning now, I doubt she’s gonna get it,” another commenter predicted.
Katz has been DWTS’ head honcho for years. In 2016, she told Slate she looks for a mix of celebrities and other headline-makers to cast on the show. Katz also shared that 90 percent of DWTS contestants are celebrities that she reaches out to and not the other way around. “Every season is like making the best dinner party ever,” she explained. “This show would be so boring if it were always 12 actors and some Disney kids.”
Scheana Shay Shared Her DWTS Diss Story on Heather McDonald’s Podcast
Many of the fan comments were in response to Shay’s March 19, 2024 interview on Heather McDonald’s “Juicy Scoop” podcast. While speaking with McDonald, Shay noted that fans didn’t get to see “the full conversations” she had regarding “Dancing With the Stars” during her on-camera conversations with Vanderpump and Madix.
She went on to explain that she was in attendance at the DWTS season 31 finale when family friend Charli D’Amelio won the mirror ball trophy.
“So we’re at the party after as they always do on the CBS lot,” she said. “And I had two producers and a costume designer come up to me that night. And they’re like, ‘Oh my God how have you not been on this show yet? They’re like where’s Deena Katz? We need to find Deena, we’ve got to introduce you, like you need to do next season!’”
Shay added that the producers told her they were putting her name into the casting mix and that they kept in touch with her for months.
She was so sure she had a good chance to be cast that she provocatively took dance classes in anticipation. But in March 2023, just after Madix’s ex-boyfriend Tom Sandoval’s headline-making cheating scandal broke, Shay received a call from her DWTS “producer friend.” The producer then told her that while her name had originally been the “first one” he was going to recommend, after everything that happened with Sandoval he was “pretty sure they’re gonna reach out to Ariana.”
Shay took the news in stride and claimed to be “happy” for Madix. But she reiterated, “For months producers are like ‘Alright next season, next season.”
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