By: Megan Saul

Culture Editor

Dancing with the Stars (DWTS), a reality competition show that pairs a professional dancer with a celebrity, recently came back on television for its 33rd season. DWTS consists of thirteen pairs of dancers competing to win the Len Goodman Mirror Ball Trophy and a cash prize. Each week’s performances have a different theme and each pair has a different dance style they have to follow. So far, there have been four episodes, Premiere Night, Oscars Night, Soul Train Night, and Hair Metal Night. 

The judges for this year’s competition are Carrie Ann Inaba, Derek Hough, and Bruno Tonioli. Some weeks also have guest judges related to the theme. The hosts of DWTS are Alfonso Ribeiro and Julianne Hough. Many of these judges are returning to the show after previously being on as a judge and professional dancer. While these judges give the contestants’ scores after their performance, the pairs that stay on the show depend on fan votes. So far, the judges’ and fans’ votes led to the elimination of pairs Pasha Pashkov and Tori Spelling, Ezra Sosa and Anna Delvey, Reginald VelJohnson and Emma Slater, and Eric Roberts and Britt Stewart.

This season’s pairs were chosen based on popularity, personality, and appearance. The celebrities come from a range of backgrounds and are known for their different jobs, such as being professional athletes, contestants on reality television shows, actors, models, and even criminals. Stars Joey Graziadei and Jenn Tran are not new to being on a reality show as they were recently on season 28 of The Bachelor and season 21 of The Bachelorette. Two of the stars on DWTS gained popularity during the recent Olympic games when they both won bronze medals. This includes gymnast and pommel horse specialist Stephen Nedoroscik and rugby player Ilona Maher. Each of the stars is paired with a dancer who has extensive training and experience. The professional dancers for this season include Witney Carson, Daniella Karagach, Brandon Armstrong, Gleb Savchenko, Alan Bersten, Valentin Chmerkovskiy, Sasha Farber, Slater, Stewart, Pashkov, Jenna Johnson, Rylee Arnold, and Sosa. All of these dancers are returning to the show except for newcomer, Sosa. 

Many of these pairs have gained popularity on social media from fans across the country. However, fans have ridiculed other stars this season, specifically Delvey. Many fans argued that the show should not have allowed a convicted criminal to be one of the stars as it seemed to promote the crimes she committed. After getting asked what she was going to take away from her time on DWTS, Delvey responded with “nothing.” She also said on NBS News, “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. 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.”

While only four couples have been eliminated so far, many more will continue to be eliminated throughout the rest of the season. Stay tuned for the episodes released every Tuesday night until the finale on Nov. 26, and be sure to vote for your favorite pair!

(Sources: Cosmopolitan, Entertainment Weekly, Variety)