Dancing with the Stars, unless they have ballroom dance experience. Graphic by Anna Gritzenbach. 

ANNA GRITZENBACH | MANAGING EDITOR | agritzenbach@butler.edu  

Two momentous events occur every Tuesday night: The Butler Collegian’s publication night and the release of a new Dancing with the Stars episode. 

Dancing with the Stars has been airing since 2005, with 34 seasons, making it one of the longest-running reality shows still in production.  

Stars — celebrities — are paired with a professional dancer for the duration of the season. Each week, they prepare a ballroom dance and perform it for a panel of judges, all well-respected individuals within the ballroom dance community. Well, all except for Carrie Ann Inaba. 

Inaba has a background in competitive hula, jazz, tap and ballet, with notably no ballroom experience. She is renowned for her studies in choreography at UC Irvine and her dancing roles in Austin Powers. Her lack of experience in the ballroom is evident in her sloppy scores and irrelevant feedback to dancers. 

Senior middle secondary education major Leah Smith is a long-time fan of the show, despite the updates and changes made over the years.  

“I’ve been watching it since I was nine, with my grandma,” Smith said. “[Back] when you had to call in to place your vote and not send a text. I think that we’re getting lower list celebrities, rather than who people want to see … but they’re definitely doing a better job of tending to the younger generation than they used to.” 

When I was younger, I hardly ever recognized the stars on the show; the first I remember was Zendaya. Now, the show is doing a better job of finding celebrities who are recognizable to generations alike. 

With the inclusion of influencers and the opportunity for audience members to form parasocial relationships with their favorite couple, there is a lot less outrage than there should be around the star’s dance experience — take Whitney Leavitt. 

We are seeing an increase in younger viewership thanks to the couples’ strong social media presence on TikTok and younger dancers — both pros and stars — like Rylee Arnold, Ezra Sosa, Alix Earle and Robert Irwin. 

Maéline Bringuier, a sophomore French and journalism double major, likes the lack of on-air drama and emotional turmoil that other reality shows bring. 

“It’s quote, unquote, live reality TV, but it’s not full of drama,” Bringuier said. “I can never watch any Kardashian-type show, because it stresses me out so bad. So, on a Tuesday night when I’m tired after class, I like sitting on the couch and just watching something simple.” 

Despite the lack of drama that we see on our screens from 8 to 10 p.m. on Tuesday nights, there is a lot of romantic tension behind the scenes. Many of the pros are currently married or have been in a relationship with one another previously: Jenna Johnson and Valentin Chmerkovskiy, Peta Murgatroyd and Maksim Chmerkovskiy, Emma Slater and Sasha Farber, Hayley Erbert and Derek Hough and many more. 

Not to mention the many pro-star relationships the show has fostered. Last season, both star Brooks Nader and pro Gleb Savchenko and star Jenn Tran and pro Sasha Farber hinted at their romantic relationships, leaving viewers to speculate in the comments. 

The problem with the show is not the relationship drama or the poorly-judged dances — looking at you, Carrie Ann — but with the stars who have dance experience, specifically ballroom dance. 

This season, wellness influencer Hilaria Baldwin, partnered with Gleb, has years of competitive ballroom dancing experience and even participated in the Blackpool Dance Festival, a well-respected dance competition. 

Senior criminology-psychology major Skylar Ashcraft finds the participation of stars with extensive dance backgrounds to not align with the point of the show. 

“That’s not the point,” Ashcraft said. “The point is that they’re dancing with stars who you don’t think know how to dance, so that they come out and, boom, impress you. The star is getting the experience of a dancer, so they should not have any previous experience, especially [in] ballroom … that’s the main core of what you’re doing on Dancing with the Stars … It can get tricky. I think any dance experience [is an unfair advantage], but then you get into like the gymnasts and your skaters … but any other sort of dance is gonna set you up for an advantage.”

I agree with Ashcraft. Having an experienced dancer on the show as a star isn’t really the point of the spectacle; it takes the magic out of it. Any sort of experience moving your body to the rhythm of a song is going to give you the leg up in this competition: gymnasts, figure skaters and Broadway actors included. 

Don’t get me wrong, I loved watching Zendaya and Val Chmerkovskiy in season 16, Charli D’Amelio and Mark Ballas winning in season 31 and Jordan Fisher and Lindsay Arnold championing in season 25, but that’s not the point of Dancing with the Stars. The point is for people like Andy Richter, Robert Irwin, Ilona Maher and Joey Graziadei to step out onto the floor, surprise us as audience members and take home the Len Goodman Mirrorball Trophy. 

Even though there will be more stars with dance experience to join the cast in the years to come, I will undoubtedly continue to watch the show. 

So, as I sit in the Collegian office in Fairbanks 210 every Tuesday night — missing my watch partner Maddie Wood — yelling at Carrie Ann Inaba and Hilaria Baldwin through my computer screen, I will still furiously text “Robert” and “Andy” to 21523. 

“Go Robert Irwin,” Ashcraft said.