As Dancing With the Stars continues announcing new Season 34 contestants, which fans will see in action when the episodes hit the 2025 TV schedule this fall, there's much speculation about who else will be in the running for the Len Goodman Mirrorball Trophy. The dancing competition series has welcomed a variety of celebrities into the ballroom, with a sizeable amount of controversial contestants like Sean Spicer and Season 33's onvicted scammer Anna Delvey being asked to compete. One EP has addressed why the reality show courts such figures, which makes a certain amount of TV exe sense.
Every time DWTS brings on a controversial celeb, one part of the fandom is quick to share critical opinions, saying that it can take away from the fun of the show for ABC to give a platform to polarizing people. But that’s just the thing, as ABC is banking on complainers to tune in so that they'll feul their own fires. The "clickbait casting" is viewed as a necessary tactic , and executive producer Ryan O’Dowd told Deadline why it makes sense to get audiences riled up.
Indifference is our biggest enemy when it comes to casting. Deena Katz has cast our show from season one and has done an unbelievable job. And I think we’re always talking amongst ourselves about how to book people who are part of the ongoing zeitgeist conversation. And with Anna Delvey, yes, she was controversial, but people had an opinion.
As with any season of Dancing With the Stars, not every viewer is going to like every contestant. That’s just how it is, and it’s hard to please everyone. But the show does a pretty good job of having a pretty big variety each season, even if it does mean bringing on at least one controversial contestant. At the very least, it shows that DWTS isn’t biased towards anyone and is willing to give anyone a chance, no matter the track record.
O’Dowd, who is the President of Unscripted TV at BBC Studios, shared an interesting Howard Stern anecdote to serve as an example:
I remember many, many years ago listening to Howard Stern, and there was a promo that he used to have running that would say something to the effect of the average Howard Stern lover listens for 42 minutes a day. The average Howard Stern hater listens for an hour and 37 minutes. Why? Because they just want to know what he’s going to say next.
The gist of the story is that having a controversial contestant on DWTS will bring more viewers because of what they’ve done and what they represent. It may not be the best idea, especially considering some of the stuff these contestants have done, but it definitely makes viewers more interested, rather than just a normal contestant who was known for a show in the ‘90s, for example.
They may not make it far, like Anna Delvey, whose bedazzled ankle bracelet didn’t make it past the second week, but O’Dowd makes a good point:
And so I think that kind of encapsulates this idea that it doesn’t matter why people are tuning in, you’ve just got to get ’em there. And that was a bit of the logic behind the Anna Delvey of it all.
It’s very likely that Dancing With the Stars will have at least one controversial contestant for Season 34, but it’s unknown who and whether they will bring the same “spark” as Delvey did last season. It should be interesting to see who else will be joining the cast, but it’s anyone’s guess at this point.
Considering the show is going into its 34th season, it seems like the controversies are doing quite well, or at the very least, fans don’t seem to care, nor does ABC. For now, while waiting for the rest of the cast to be announced, fans can watch the most recent season with a Hulu subscription or Disney+ subscription.
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