Dancing With the Stars fans had a strong reaction to a rule change for the second week of competition of Season 35. During the live show on Sept. 22, host Alfonso Ribeiro announced that judges Carrie Ann Inaba, Derek Hough and Bruno Tonioli would have to keep their critiques short after each of the 14 celebrity dances.
“Because this show is super packed, our third judge for each couple will sum up their thoughts in just one word,” Ribeiro announced at the top of the two-hour show.
After the stars and their pro partners danced to popular songs for “Viral Hits Night,” the judges rushed through their comments, with a rotating third judge getting the last word—literally. The judges gave one-word reactions such as “beautiful” (for Ciara Miller’s tango with Brandon Armstrong), “fabulous” (for Ezra French and Daniella Karagach’s cha cha), “charmed” (for Jackson Olson and Emma Slater’s foxtrot), and “shaky” (for Giada De Laurentiis and Alan Bersten’s salsa).
Fans were frustrated by the cut-short commentary, with many taking to social media to complain about the change to the judges’ table.
“@DWTS Why are you not letting the judges do their job? One word feedback is just crazy,” one viewer wrote on X.
“Respectfully dwts should cut the amount of dances the troupe gets or not show them at all bc these 30 second judge responses with a judge only getting to say one word is absolutely ridiculous,” another X user agreed.
“The ‘one-word’ critiques need to get thrown in the trash bin. It doesn’t help the stars at all when they get literally no feedback from at least 1 of 3 judges. DWTS/ABC needs to either eliminate one ad break for more show time or cut down Julianne’s largely horrific post-dance questions so everyone can hear thought-out critiques from all the judges for every single star,” a Reddit user complained.
“Why have no time to only have one judge say one word????? Extend this show homies. This is clearly not working as is,” another viewer added.
Dancing With the Stars Season 35 features one of the largest casts in the show’s history, with a total of 16 couples starting in the competition last week. But the premiere was broken into two nights, with only eight couples dancing each episode.
Week 2 featured 14 couples dancing, as well as a splashy opening number, troupe dances, and the usual post-skybox interviews with Julianne Hough.
Dancing with the Stars airs Tuesdays on ABC and Disney+, with next-day streaming available on Hulu.
Related: Who Went Home on ‘Dancing With the Stars’ Tonight? Season 35 Week 2 Results and Eliminations (Spoilers)
Leave a Reply