Is Dancing with the Stars a popularity contest?

All I need in life is coffee, blankets, and a fresh episode of Dancing with the Stars (DWTS) to convince me that I have my life together — and that I can dance like a pro!

But as I sat down for my weekly dose of therapy this season — the 34th one, to be exact — something seemed off. DWTS felt more like “Dancing with Popularity,” and I can’t get this out of my head.

Let’s admit it, we all fell in love with the eventual winner, Robert Irwin, throughout the season. How can you not love him? He is a genuine, young wildlife conversationalist who has shown us he can dance the night away each week. Oh, and most importantly, he’s an Australian heartthrob!

However, a few questions came up among fans by the end of the season. Was Irwin’s win rigged? Was the winner decided before the show aired? Is this all just a popularity contest?

I mean, this year’s DWTS season saw an all-time high in finale votes, sitting at a whopping 72 million. Clouding this achievement for the show, though, were online rumours circulating about fans using multiple emails to vote for their favourite couples.

Some social media users allege fans of Irwin and American influencer Alix Earle, the runner-up this season, have been creating multiple emails to vote for them repeatedly and get them ahead in the competition.

One email can only give you a maximum of 10 votes for your favourite competitor, so it makes sense why fans would spam the system to give Irwin and Earle crazy amounts of votes. 

Both Irwin and Earle have a strong social media presence, which explains why they have so many fans. Irwin has an impressive 9.2 million Instagram followers, with Earle holding 5.3 million. You can’t really blame their fans for going overboard with voting. 

Based on the social media factor, I don’t think Irwin’s win was rigged or decided before the show even started, but I do feel like popularity plays a huge role in who breaks it or makes it on the dance floor. 

A lot of the other stars this season do not have the social media presence that Irwin or Earle do — even though they have significant followings, too. Scott Hoying of the acappella group Pentatonix and Whitney Leavitt and Jen Affleck from the reality television show, The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, each have between 1.2 to 1.5 million followers on Instagram.

The Instagram following says it all, and I expected Irwin and Earle to have gotten more votes just for their social media presence. But also, to be fair, they really did rock that dance floor each week.

So is social media and popularity a strategy to win it all? The creators of DWTS certainly casted younger celebs and public figures with huge social media engagement this season to accommodate a younger audience and generate more votes. 

The high ratings this season mean the creators are doing something right. Still, the show really puts younger stars on a pedestal, making it feel like a popularity contest among the contestants.

You can say the dance floor felt like more of a boxing ring this season.

Nevertheless, Irwin definitely earned the Len Goodman Mirrorball Trophy with dance partner Witney Carson this year. There is no scam there!