Don’t worry, you’re not the only one who’s been flummoxed by “Dancing with the Stars‘” judges’ vote this season — the cast is too.
As previously explained, because there are four judges this season, head judge Len Goodman‘s vote counts twice if Carrie Ann Inaba, Derek Hough and Bruno Tonioli are not in agreement on who to send home from the bottom two. However, the show has not done a great job explaining this to viewers — or apparently even to the cast — as many were left scratching their heads last week when Matt James and Lindsay Arnold, after leading 2-1 to stay, were eliminated following Goodman’s vote to save Kenya Moore and Brandon Armstrong. Similarly this week, although Tyra Banks explained it slightly better, the same fate befell Melanie C and Gleb Savchenko.
“Do I think that it’s confusing this season? Maybe a little bit because there are four judges, but I didn’t realize until recently that Len’s vote is considered as two votes,” Cheryl Burke told Us Weekly. “I don’t know if that was explained or not.”
Not really or very well. Burke is in favor of this system, though, after she and Juan Pablo Di Pace were shockingly eliminated in fifth place in Season 27 off of two perfect scores. The actor was the frontrunner all season and ended tied for the highest average score that season with two fewer dances. After Season 27, which Bobby Bones and Sharna Burgess won, the show implemented the judges’ vote to curb these types of eliminations. “That was back when it was purely based off of judges’ scores and viewers’ votes. But the judges didn’t have that round where they could choose the couple to save, so in a way, I actually don’t mind it,” Burke added.
SEE Confused by ‘Dancing with the Stars” judges’ vote? The ‘tiebreaker’ rule, explained
Witney Carson also likes that the judges get to have the final say, but she acknowledges that it’s difficult this season because it’s not an odd-numbered panel like it’s been the past two seasons. “He’s the head judge and I feel like so far, I don’t know if he’s made the right decisions. I don’t know,” she said. “It’s such a close call. I think anything that he does right now is going to have a little bit of backlash.”
Goodman saved Olivia Jade and Val Chmerkovskiy on Monday, and it will come as no shock that the couple likes this rule. “I’m in favor of this situation. Basically his vote counts, like, it’s a tiebreaker. He has the ultimate say. So that’s how it works for those confused,” Jade stated.
“Last week, I was really confused. This week, love it. I really understand it now,” Chmerkovskiy said.
Artem Chigvintsev likes the judges’ vote in theory as well, but the defending champ thinks there’s another way to implement a tiebreaker that’s less confusing if the judges aren’t unanimous. “Is there another formula that I think would maybe work better and people will feel better about it? Yes, I do think there is an option of, let’s say, there’s a bottom two. If the judges can’t decide who to send home, then it should be going into the voting system. Who got the most votes?” he said. “Let’s break it down to who got the most votes because then it’s fair square. Then it gets to the point, you can’t be mad at this, because it is decided then. The audience becomes a fifth judge in a sense.”
Meanwhile, though she’s “gutted” over her elimination, Mel C believes the rule is “fair.” “Len is the head judge, and so what he says, goes. He’s off my Christmas card list. So he might not be let back in the U.K., to be honest,” she quipped.
“Dancing with the Stars” airs Mondays at 8/7c on ABC.
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