Let’s face it. Joe Amabile dances like every guy after a few drinks at a wedding. But he has that charisma and old fashioned Chicago-style charm. So maybe it’s time somebody just like us, who can’t dance, to actually win Dancing with the Stars.
DWTS has been quick to eliminate its weakest contestants in past seasons, from Mischa Barton in Season 22 and Kim Kardashian in Season 7.
As Season 27 enters the semi-finals, the competition’s poorest performer—Joe “Grocery Store Joe” Amabile—has made a mockery of most of the dancing.
And he’s managed to earn a spot to the disappointment of many DWTS fans.
I don’t know who keeps voting for Grocery Store Joe on Dancing with the Stars but they need to stop. ? I’m not knocking him as a person but his dancing skills are TERRIBLE, even he knows it. Put him out of his misery and just quit voting for him! Stop sending good couples home!
— Chessey Hawkins (@ChesseyHawkins) November 6, 2018
What is happening with Dancing with the Stars? Like I’m all about Joe trying his best and everything, but he should have gone home like the 3rd week. #DWTS
— Ashli Baylot (@ashlib24) November 6, 2018
I take this back, Grocery Store Joe in all of his white male mediocrity remaining on Dancing With The Stars longer than two weeks (MAXIMUM) has taken everything away from me.
— Girl Fieri (@shelbyboring) November 6, 2018
Bachelor/Bachelorette Nation: Stick to watch Bachelor and Bachelorette and stay away from Dancing with the Stars because Grocery Store Joe sucks and needed to be gone weeks ago!!!! Good dancers are leaving because of y’all!
— Stephanie Allen (@StephA339) November 6, 2018
That’s actually a good point about “Bachelor/Bachelorette Nation” voters.
Before joining Dancing with the Stars, Amabile was best known for appearing on The Bachelorette and Bachelor in Paradise.
And his fans from those reality TV shows really, really like him.
So they have been stacking the votes for him each week, as much better dancers get axed from the show.
It’s exactly what happened back in 2007 when Howard Stern, on his radio show, started promoting a Web site to support the worst performer on American Idol.
Their candidate was Sanjaya Malakar, the off-key, lyric-fumbling, elaborately coiffed teenager who is perhaps the most talked-about “Idol” contestant ever.
Sanjaya Malakar performing on American Idol, and Joe Amabile performing on Dancing with the Stars.
Sanjaya was a nice and likeable guy, and Howard Stern got his followers to load up the phone banks.
A lot like Joe’s Bachelor fans are doing right now.
Sanjaya’s fans helped him last way too long on a singing show, despite the fact he couldn’t sing.
And Joe’s fans are doing the exact same thing, despite the face he can’t dance.
“We’re corrupting the entire thing,” Stern said on his show the day after Malakar secured a place in the top nine finalists. “All of us are routing ‘American Idol.’ It’s so great. The No. 1 show in television and it’s getting ruined.”
It made Idol a joke, for awhile. But it didn’t doom the series.
And Joe won’t doom Dancing with the Stars either.
So far this season he’s outlasted NFL alum DeMarcus Ware and The Dukes of Hazzard star John Schneider.
Before this, viewers said farewell to only female contestants: Former Olympic gymnast Mary Lou Retton, R&B singer Tinashe, The Facts of Life actress Nancy McKeon, Paralympic alpine skier Danelle Umstead (with some voting controversy) and comedian Nikki Glaser.
Looking ahead, there is an excellent chance Joe will be in the Finals.
Can you imagine if his fans overpower Alexis Ren, Milo Manheim or Juan Pablo Di Pace — all of whom can dance really well – and have Joe take the trophy?
Well, why not.
Mediocrity seems to be the flavor of the day in America.
Grocery Store Joe for the win!