Season 33 of Dancing with the Stars caused an uproar when they cast convicted con artist Anna Delvey. She and her bedazzled ankle monitor were paired with brand-new pro Ezra Sosa. As you may know, Anna had to get permission from ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) to travel to California. She is under house arrest in New York, fighting her deportation. Well, Anna was sent home during Week 2 in the first elimination of the season. While actress Tori Spelling also got the boot, only one of the ladies seemed salty about her exit.
Anna Delvey’s casting on DWTS did not go over well, but she thinks it helped ratings
When DWTS co-host Julianne Hough asked Anna what she would take away from the competition, she stated, “Nothing.” Well, let’s just say that’s not the usual response. It just reinforced some people’s feelings that Anna shouldn’t have been cast on the show due to her criminal past.
DWTS alums Cheryl Burke and Maksim Chmerkovskiy both dissed Anna’s casting. In fact, Maksim said of Anna, “She’s just a sh*tty dancer … I didn’t even get to see the ‘why’ she got on the show.”
Of course, Anna spoke out about her DWTS experience. She talked about her elimination with Tori on her podcast, misSPELLING. “You guys told me what I’m supposed to do. I tried to do it, and then I still was rejected,” Anna said. “And, I’m taking away nothing. This is what I’m taking away from it because your advice was worthless. The advice did not pay off for me, even though I tried to follow it.”
In addition, Anna found the final results “a little bit unbelievable.” She also said it “felt like a waste of time” to join the cast for such a brief run. Once again, the fans have a huge say with their voting.
Did DWTS use Anna Delvey to garner ratings?
“I feel that the show so obviously used me to drive up the ratings, that they never had any plans to give me any chance to grow and only cared about exploiting me for attention,” Anna told NBC News via email. “It was predatory of them to try [to] make me feel inadequate and stupid all while I did get progressively better yet they chose to disregard that.”
She continued, “It felt like I was never really given a fair chance by the viewers or some of the judges’ given their nonsensical scoring. It’s supposed to be a dance competition and not a popularity contest.”
Reps for Dancing with the Stars didn’t respond to a request for comment from NBC News.
Meanwhile, one person who has remained in Anna’s corner is Ezra. He recently got a tattoo of the word “nothing” along with the number “33.” So, now he has a permanent reminder of Anna’s iconic exit line and a nod to his first season as a DWTS pro.
Season 33 of Dancing with the Stars airs on Tuesdays at 8/7c on ABC and Disney+.
TELL US – DO YOU THINK THAT DWTS USED ANNA TO INCREASE RATINGS? IS SHE BEING A POOR SPORT?
