‘Dancing With the Stars’: Derek Hough Blasts ‘Confusing’ Aspect of This Season

Dancing With the Stars fans aren’t the only ones confused by the voting rules. Even judge Derek Hough admitted that head judge Len Goodman’s tie-breaker vote does not make sense. During the Oct. 12 episode, the four judges were evenly split on who should go home, but Goodman’s vote carried more weight, so his choice was saved. It frustrated viewers at home, who didn’t understand why Goodman got “two” votes.

“I still don’t understand it, and I’ve said this to producers. I was like, ‘Guys, we gotta reword this thing because the tie doesn’t make sense,’” Hough recently told Us Weekly. “So basically, this is kind of the way I’m explaining it: Essentially, Len [Goodman] has two votes, that’s it? Len has the weight of two votes. I wish we just said it like that because that makes so much more sense.”

However, Hough still believes the system is “fair” because of Goodman’s position as head judge. “There’s no show that exists where the original judges from season 1 [are still there in] season 30. It’s pretty impressive. It’s pretty remarkable,” he said.

DWTS usually only has three judges, but Hough was asked to stay on for Season 30 after sitting in for Goodman last season. With four judges, it is more likely that a tie could happen. So, according to the rulebook, Goodman’s vote counts as two while Carrie Ann Inaba, Bruno Tonioli and Hough’s votes are one each. Goodman is only asked to vote if the other three judges do not come to a unanimous decision.

At the end of the Oct. 12 episode, Tonioli and Inaba voted to save The Bachelor star Matt James and Lindsay Arnold, while Hough and Goodman chose to save Real Housewives of Atlanta star Kenya Moore and Brandon Armstrong. Since Goodman also picked Moore, she was saved. (Moore was later eliminated at the end of the Oct. 25 episode.)

While Hough didn’t provide an idea for an alternative, Artem Chigvintsev, who is dancing with actress Melora Hardin this season, told Us Weekly the DWTS producers should save whoever got the most votes between the bottom two if the judges can’t make a decision. “Let’s break it down to who got the most votes because then it’s fair [and] square. Then it gets to the point, you can’t be mad at this, because it is decided then. The audience becomes a fifth judge in a sense,” he said.

During Hough’s recent interview with PopCulture.com, he said the one competitor who has completely surprised him is Oliva Jade Giannulli. “She’s a great performer. She’s really charismatic,” he said. “It’s very natural. But also just the technique is really good, and so I was pretty impressed. I’m pretty surprised by her.”

DWTS returns on Monday at 8 p.m. ET on ABC with Janet Jackson night. The remaining celebrity contestants are Giannulli, Hardin, Jimmie Allen, Amanda Kloots, Suni Lee, Cody Rigsby, Iman Shumpert, and JoJo Siwa.