‘Dancing With Stars’ Fans Have Plenty of Carrie Ann Inaba Comments After Kaitlyn Bristowe’s Win

It’s been a season of ups and downs for Dancing With the Stars judge Carrie Ann Inaba when it comes to former Bachelorette Kaitlyn Bristowe and pro partner Artem Chigvintsev’s journey to the Mirrorball Trophy. Prior to Monday’s finale, #TeamWillYouAcceptThisDance butted heads a number of times with the longtime judge, bristling against her critiques when she began asking for more from the ABC leading lady midway through the season.

Things got tense for a while, with Inaba revealing she was “bullied” by fans over her judging and Chigvintsev claiming the criticism had begun to feel “personal,” but the two parties were able to patch things up ahead of the finale, with Inaba even proclaiming their Paso Doble to “Toxic” by Britney Spears one of her top three favorite dances of all time before Bristowe and Chigvintsev were named the Season 29 champions. That didn’t keep fans from feeling like the tension from earlier in the season was completely dissipated, however. Keep scrolling to see viewers’ reactions to the conclusion of the trio’s journey.

Justice for Carrie Ann

Many fans recalled Inaba’s reveal that she was being “bullied” over her comments about Bristowe, with some speculating that she changed up her judging in response:

‘Jump on Board’

Others jumped on board blaming the other judges or Bachelor Nation as a whole for how the season played out:

Apologize

Some fans even insisted that Bristowe owed Inaba an apology for the way she was treated:

Too Much Drama

Some fans accused Bristowe of acting “bratty” during the season when she bristled against the judges’ feedback, saying she didn’t deserve to win because of it:

Where It All Began

The drama with the former Bachelorette and longtime judge began when Inaba said it felt like Bristowe “gave up” during her Villains Night dance. Bristowe took to Instagram after the show, telling her followers she felt Inaba had been “really hard” on her.  “I felt very bummed out after tonight because of the amount of work we all put into the weeks and every dance — not just me, every dancer in the competition — you work so hard,” she said. 

Chigvintsev told Entertainment Tonight that the criticism was starting to feel “personal,” and like Inaba had “different expectations” for their team. He continued that “watching back the dance itself, it’s like, ‘Oh, you can kick sharper!’ Well, I can say that about everybody who dances on the show today. I don’t know. It’s really odd.”

Being ‘Bullied’

Inaba revealed on The Talk earlier this month, after taking heat online for docking Bristowe and Chigvintsev a point for a lift, that she gets “bullied” by fans for her scoring. “I still get bullied,” she said, adding that the backlash generally starts “right about this time… because of the way I judge people. I can’t believe it still happens as adults.”

The co-host continued that bullying “doesn’t make me change the way I judge. I’m not about to change because you try to bully me. It only makes me stand stronger in my convictions and what I believe in,” adding that she judges based on her own expertise as a dancer, not popular opinion.

Mirrorball Trophy

Bristowe and Chigvintsev eventually made up with Inaba, thanking her after winning their first perfect score of the season, and would eventually go on to win the Mirrorball Trophy. Following their win, the reality personality told Entertainment Tonight that the long journey it took toward the trophy “makes it all so much better… That it was taken away, that I still believed in it, that I worked hard for it, that I stayed true to myself through it.” She added, “you just never know when it’s going to happen and the fact that everything just aligned for us and that we’re here with the Mirrorball, like, what?”

 Chigvintsev admitted he “felt that [my] old dancing dreams were done and dusted, and that I was never going to be able to perform on that stage at all,” which made winning his first Mirrorball even sweeter. “Yeah, it’s absolutely crazy. It made me so emotional because of that,” he said.