Danielle Fishel’s ‘Boy Meets World’ co-stars think ‘DWTS’ judges have ‘personal vendetta’ against her
Danielle Fishel’s “Boy Meets World” co-stars think the “Dancing With the Stars” judges have a “personal vendetta” against her.
“I held back the anger,” Rider Strong admitted on Saturday’s episode of the “Pod Meets World” podcast, in regards to watching the judges score Fishel’s performances each week.
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“I wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt. At this point, it’s starting to feel like a personal vendetta,” Strong, 45, confessed. “Are you guys open to the potential that Danielle might be working her ass off?”
Co-host Will Friedle felt the same way and specifically called out judge Carrie Ann Inaba, who he accused of having unfair favoritism for certain contestants when it comes to her scoring.
“Carrie Ann has her favorites, and she’ll have two or three that no matter what they do, they could walk on the stage, trip, hit their face, and she’d be like, ‘You tried so hard, 9!’”
“Danielle does the best thing where she’s doing triple flips and she’s like, ‘You’ve got to hold your shoulders different too,’ and it’s like, ‘What the f—k?’” Friedle, 49, said passionately.
Strong and Friedle aren’t the first to question Inaba’s judging this season.
Fishel’s pro partner, Pasha Pashkov, blasted the choreographer for her “unfair” criticism of their “Dedication Night” routine, which also happened to be a tribute to Fishel’s other “Boy Meets World” co-star and mentor, William Daniels.
Despite the routine being a fan-favorite with plenty of Fishel’s co-stars in the ballroom to support her, the dancing duo only earned a total score of 29 out of 40 from judges Inaba, Derek Hough and Bruno Tonioli, and guest judge Kym Johnson-Herjavec.
Inaba, 57, specifically, was not impressed with the routine, saying she felt like she was “watching the same dance over and over again,” each week, while receiving loud boos from the audience.
“I was not happy,” Pashkov told Variety. “I always get protective. For me, that comment felt unfair, especially being that she said that the dances looked similar.”
“But the thing is, we did have a quickstep and we had a jive this week. These are two dances that very, very similar,” he explained.
“If we had dances that were drastically different and they felt the same, I’d understand. But, based on the dances that we had, that did not feel like it made sense to me.”
“In my heart, I’m overprotective because I know how hard Danielle is working. I don’t think she deserved that comment,” he concluded.
Fishel, 44, has been adamant that she is open to the judges’ criticism and hopes that it will help her improve each week of the competition. She admitted to the outlet that Inaba was “not wrong” in her feedback and wanted to prove them wrong with her and Pashkov’s next routine.
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