After a long and necessary hiatus, Dancing With the Stars returned last week and announced there will be some big changes this season.
And the biggest change of all should make half of country livid.
The new plan that DWTS has come up with is to allow only viewers in the Eastern and Central time zones to vote ‘live.”
If you’re in the Mountain or Pacific time zones, you’re out of luck.
Your votes are unimportant UNLESS you just randomly vote for your favorite couple, before the show actually airs in your time zone, without ever seeing their dance routine for the week.
What an awful plan that basically tells half the country “you don’t matter to us.”
“It does seem counter-intuitive for a competition show contingent on audience participation to exclude such a large portion of the American public,” said Matt Roush of TV Insider. “Theoretically, you could vote for a favorite team — from the week before, although your vote won’t be responding to what’s happening live, unless you’re watching from a satellite or pirated signal.”
The producers and executives who came up with this REGIONALLY BIASED voting system should be fired.
It’s that serious.
What TV show in 2019 would recommend half of their viewers find an illegal way to participate in their show?
Can you imagine a presidential election where the east coast gets to vote but not the west coast?
It’s just a really, really bad idea and could mark the final beginning of the end to this aging reality TV show.
Of course, these are the same people who thought casting Sean Spicer was a “great idea.”
[READ: DWTS Host Tom Bergeron SLAMS Decision To Cast Former Trump Mouthpiece]
And the way the voting is now rigged should help favor Spicer (with DC and Republican southern votes).
Host Tom Bergeron posted a lengthy statement explaining how he had met with DWTS new executive producer (Andrew Llinares) to make his feelings known about Spicer and he left their lunch “convinced we were in agreement.”
“Subsequently (and rather obviously),” Bergeron wrote, “a decision was made to, as we often say in Hollywood, ‘go in a different direction.’”
Some thoughts about today pic.twitter.com/aCQ4SHrGCI
— Tom Bergeron (@Tom_Bergeron) August 21, 2019
Llinares decision to ignore the solid advice of Bergeron and rig votes in favor Spicer’s “campaign” (when he clearly can’t dance) should be investigated by the FCC.
Producers have announced they are giving judges Len Goodman, Bruno Tonioli and Carrie Ann Inaba more control so that “popular” contestants, who make a mockery of dancing (see Bobby Bones), will hopefully be eliminated before it’s too late.
But the #1 thing JimHeath.TV and others recommended to DWTS producers last year has apparently been ignored.
The show premiered its new season last Monday to a 1.0 rating and just under 8 million total viewers.
It lost out in the key 18-49 demographic.
The show has faced a decline in 18-49 ratings over the past two cycles, falling 32% from an average of 1.37 in 2017 to 0.93 in 2018 season.
Telling half the country they can’t participate, by rigging the votes with regional bias, is never going to help those falling ratings.
I would like to vote… they need to ho back to the old way or air it live across the country.
ABC needs to wake up. They did this same thing with Lip Sync battle and it makes me livid. I already switched newws stations to CBS. I guess when I cut the cord I certainly won’t miss uch
Because voting eliminated on West Coast (OR). I will be watching The Voice instead.
I can’t believe that ABC just decided to tell all the viewers on the West coast to kiss their ass, your votrs don’t matter to us. I’ve watched every season since the show began but I guess I’ll find something else to watch on Monday nights now that my vote don’t matter. I’m going to go over to NBC to watch THE VOICE!!!
I’VE BEEN WATCHING DWTS SINCE IT STARTED IN 05, IT’S NOT FAIR NOT TO BE VOTING THIS YEAR.
I live in Oregon. I may not even watch Dancing with the Stars since we are not even counted in the vote. We are supposed to vote without even seeing the dancing. This is totally unfair.
With technology being instant there is absolutely no reason the results from every time zone could not be calculated by the time the next show airs. Living in the Pacific TZ so many of us say: Who are these people who vote for the dancers that make it thru? Obviously the executives don’t want a broad voting base. So why should half of the country want to be invested in the show . . . by the ratings they are not.
Bad change. Hawaii outta luck too. I stopped recording for the future. Used to be my favorite show. Now. Meh.
Surely someone intelligent is firing the current producers
I thought I was just too late trying to vote right after the show on the west coast. I had left the show for a couple of years, but thought I’d come back. Can’t even vote! Bye bye channel seven, I guess!
Maybe half the country should react by not watching. There go the ratings. Ha ha. I hope it happens.
It stinks that we in West can’t vote. I’m not watching any more
This is totally ridiculous – I have always voted and to ignore the west must be a Republican slap to those who would never
Vote for Spicer. Change your voting or this wonderful show is history!
I totally agree with all the comments about the West Coast not being able to vote. Sean Spicer would have been gone in Week 1 or 2 if that were the case. Trump is tweeting to all his crazy followers to vote for him. He has no rhythm, can’t dance at all and really talented people are getting sent home. You can see on the judges and Tom Bergeron’s faces that they’re flabbergasted when he’s saved. If West Coast viewers could vote; there would be a more fair result.
abc are filed with mornons it seems sadly. well there are other shows I can watch I like the Voice so will stick to that now