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Credit: ABCListen, I grew up dancing. That is the lens I watch this show through, and it is why Dancing With the Stars has been appointment television for me for years. I know what a clean frame looks like. I know the difference between a performer who has found the rhythm and one who is counting in their head, hoping the costume distracts you. When the judges hand out a seven, I usually understand why, even when I disagree.
Which is why this season has been genuinely frustrating to watch.
Dancers who are visibly improving are going home. Dancers who are not are staying. And it has happened enough times now that fans have stopped treating it as bad luck and started building theories.
The theory going around right now is a big one, and it deserves to be examined honestly rather than just repeated.
The Theory
The claim is that contestants connected to ABC and the broader Disney family are being protected.
“I’m just gonna say, something weird is going on with ABC,” wrote Threads user kamrynmorey12 in a post that drew more than 28,000 views. “Notice how all their precious stars from various ABC shows are still present.”
The examples fans keep raising are specific.
Harry has been heavily framed around Grey’s Anatomy, an ABC series, to the point that he was shown rehearsing on the Grey’s set. His time on Glee, which aired on Fox, has gone largely unmentioned.
Jackson is part of the Savannah Bananas, and the Banana Bowl is streaming on Disney+ this month. The team has played at Walt Disney World’s ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex. One commenter noted the DWTS troupe was also performing with the Bananas this week.
“I was like, oh, so Jackson is staying because it’s his birthday or because of his game being aired on Disney Plus?” wrote user essi_moni.
“They need to keep their corporate synergy gang till Disney Night,” wrote user 1lilspark.
I understand the instinct completely. I have felt it myself, watching results come in.
But I went looking for holes in it, and there are some.
The Part That Does Not Hold
Here is what stopped me, and it came from inside the same threads.
“Hulu people were eliminated week 1,” wrote user bh_89. “Hulu is part of the Disney/ABC family.”
“Weren’t two people from hulu/freeform shows eliminated in week one though?” asked user jenniferrpierre.
“Really? Because I seem to remember that the first two people eliminated were connected to ABC shows, as well,” wrote user lizfetner.
Three separate people, unprompted, pointed out the same problem. Contestants with Disney-family connections have gone home, and some went home first.
A theory that says the network protects its own has to explain why the network did not protect those people.
What Is Definitely Happening
Here is the distinction I think matters, and it is the reason I am not calling this rigged.
Cross-promotion is absolutely real. It is not a theory, it is not hidden, and nobody at Disney would deny it.
Showing Harry rehearsing on the Grey’s Anatomy set is a promotion for Grey’s Anatomy. Framing Jackson around the Savannah Bananas during the same window the Banana Bowl streams on Disney+ is a promotion for the Banana Bowl. Having the troupe perform with the Bananas is a promotion for both.
That is what owning a network, a streaming service, a sports complex, and the show itself allows a company to do, and Disney does it in plain sight.
What I cannot find evidence for is the leap from that to vote manipulation.
Promoting a contestant heavily and controlling who gets eliminated are different things, and only one of them is visible.
The Boring Explanation Fits Better
Several commenters offered a less dramatic reason, and it accounts for more of the results.
“Unfortunately, Jackson is just getting the fan votes despite his dancing ability,” wrote user caroline4ster.
“Athletes have always had significant fan votes on the show,” wrote user instajules28. “They often go far to the finals.”
That is just true, and anyone who has watched this show for years knows it. Athletes come in with built-in fanbases who vote in volume regardless of technique. It has been happening since the early seasons.
Heavy promotion makes a contestant more visible, generating more votes and keeping them safe. That is a real effect, and it is probably what people are detecting. But it works through the audience rather than around it.
The Actual Problem Is the Voting Structure
This is where I land, and it is the thing I want changed.
“We need the judge’s save back,” wrote user caroline4ster.
Yes. That is the fix.
Under the judges’ save, the bottom two couples go to the judges, who decide which one continues. Scores matter at the exact moment the decision is made. Without it, votes alone determine the outcome, and the scores become commentary.
Right now, I am watching a panel of professionals evaluate dance technique for two hours, and then watching that evaluation have no bearing on who stays.
One commenter identified an even sharper structural issue.
“The thing that I don’t get is why the voting is opened throughout the whole competition,” wrote user aleksandra_d99, comparing it to shows in her home country. “I’m used to the system of see all performances, open voting, fill 20 minutes while people are voting, close voting.”
That is a genuinely good point, and I had not thought about it that way.
If voting is open from the start of the episode, people can vote for their favorite before that favorite has danced. The vote is not a response to a performance. It is a declaration of loyalty cast in advance.
Close voting after all the performances, and you would still get popularity voting, but at least it would be popularity informed by what just happened on the floor.
The Scoring Complaints Are Separate
There is a second conversation happening about the judges themselves.
“Giving Julia 7s and Guillermo a 5 is not even the same universe,” wrote user thebarre_ista.
And one fan noticed the room.
“The fact that the pros rally around each other and the shock on the judges faces tells me it’s a producers issue,” wrote user mtbreford.
I will say this much. The judges have looked genuinely surprised at results more than once this season, and that is not a face you make when you know how it ends.
Whatever is going on, the panel does not appear to be in on it.
Where I Have Landed
I do not think Dancing With the Stars is rigged. I think the people claiming it is are reacting to something real and reaching for the wrong explanation.
What is real is that a company that owns the network, the streamer, the sports property, and the show has extraordinary tools for making certain contestants unavoidable, and visibility converts to votes.
What is also real is that the current voting system lets those votes override professional evaluation entirely, with no mechanism to correct them.
Bring back the judges’ save. Close voting after the performances.
Fix the structure, and the theories go away on their own, because the scores would finally mean what the show keeps telling us they mean.
And for the record, as a day-one viewer, I am not going anywhere.
Sources: Threads discussions including posts by users kamrynmorey12, brittanymalexander, and mtbreford.
