Last year, Dancing with the Stars celebrated its 20th year on the air. The reality dance show, having aired on ABC, aired its 34th season, with notable celebrity contestants including actress Danielle Fishel, Pentatonix singer Scott Hoying, comedian Andy Richter, conservationist Robert Irwin, and influencers Alix Earle, Whitney Leavitt, and Jen Affleck all vying for the coveted Len Goodman Mirrorball Trophy, named after former head judge Len Goodman, who passed away on April 22, 2023, just months after the conclusion of Season 31 in 2022.
However, last season introduced one of the most brutal fan wars seen in American television history. There were three sides to this digital conflict: fans of Alix Earle, fans of Whitney Leavitt, and fans of Robert Irwin. One could argue a fourth side, fans of Andy Richter (nicknamed “the Fandys”), also participated. However, for the most part, the Fandys remained positive and only focused on getting Richter and his professional dance partner, Emma Slater, through every elimination despite consistently placing at the bottom of the leaderboard, until the quarterfinals, when they were eliminated.
It all culminated in a shocking semi-final elimination when Leavitt and her partner, Mark Ballas, were eliminated after a week during which Earle’s fans (as well as some fans of Earle’s partner, Val Chmerkovskiy), started hate campaigns against Leavitt, who routinely earned high scores and placed at the top of the leaderboard. During the finale, Irwin and his partner, Witney Carson, were crowned the champions of Season 34. This led to many of Earle’s fans actively claiming the show was “rigged” in Irwin’s favor, and that the win was stolen, despite the fact that Irwin did indeed have more votes that her.
Fast forward to this year, where another brutal fan war is in the process of occurring. With sixteen couples this season, the competition is fierce. Notable contestants this year include Jimmy Kimmel Live! sidekick Guillermo Rodriguez, Olympic figure skater Amber Glenn, Paralympic track and field athlete Ezra Frech, Hanson frontman Taylor Hanson, comedian Connor Wood, actress Tatyana Ali, actor Harry Shum Jr., Savannah Bananas player and entertainer Jackson Olson, and actress Jenna Dewan.
Early criticism of Rodriguez, who is partnered with Witney Carson, started during the first live show, where they earned one of the lowest scores in the show’s history, 10 out of 30 total points. For context, rapper Master P and his partner, Ashly DelGrosso-Costa, competed in Season 2, where they earned the lowest score in franchise history, with 8 out of 30 points.
Meanwhile, fans were divided on Jackson Olson, who is partnered with Emma Slater, as he received scores in the middle of the pack. Taylor Hanson, partnered with Britt Stewart, received higher scores than Olson and Slater during the first week, in which influencer Conner Leavitt and his partner, Adele Zaikman, as well as model Sarah Jane Nader and her partner, Hailey Bills, were eliminated.
During the third week of competition, Olson, Rodriguez, and Hanson all ended up in the Bottom 3 in one of the most shocking combinations in recent years. Hanson and Stewart were eliminated, and Stewart’s emotional reaction to the elimination went viral, with many criticizing her despite the fact that it was well warranted, as she has only made it past Week 4 twice since her first year as a professional dancer on the show.
Things came to a head on October 3, 2026, when Loco Beach Coconuts baseball player Erik Ostberg posted a video on TikTok, recreating Rodriguez and Carson’s foxtrot from the third week. Olson commented “But seriously how did you do this better than him with 2 hours of rehearsal” with a laughing emoji, which I find unprofessional, as, regardless of intention, it came off as disrespectful towards a fellow contestant. Olson deleted the comment a short while later, by which point it had been screenshotted and shared on social media. This led Rodriguez’s fans (nicknamed the “Guillermigos”) to respond by pointing out that, despite low scores, he is improving, and tensions have been running high between Olson’s fans and the “Guillermigos” on social media since, with fans of the show saying that internet conflicts such as this one have made the show hard to watch.
These examples of toxic behavior from fans have even made it hard for me to watch, and I’ve been an avid viewer of the show since Season 11’s semifinals. While I genuinely enjoy every dance and find even the lowest scoring contestants fun to watch, I have found the social media aspect has only gotten worse since it’s become a core element of the show.
Furthermore, the show is almost guaranteed to get renewed for a 36th season next year, and I would like to see social media play less of a role than it has this year. Before the days of TikTok, the show was messy, but contestants rarely disrespected one another (although there were many feuds between professional dancers during that time). I understand that bringing in professional dancers who are popular on TikTok (such as Rylee Arnold, Ezra Sosa, and Hailey Bills) is vital to the show and brings in a lot of new fans and a new core element of the show, and I quite like seeing these new professional dancers join the show. However, many fans, myself included, fail to see the appeal in engaging in these digital conflicts. If anything, it ruins the show’s fun and light-hearted competitive atmosphere.
I am looking forward to the rest of this season, but I seriously hope there are no more fan wars for the rest of the season. As a reminder, the show airs every Tuesday night (although one episode will air on Monday due coverage of the midterm elections this year) at 8 PM on ABC.