‘Dancing With the Stars’ Voting System Catching Heat After Last Night’s Elimination

The voting system on Dancing With the Stars has long been a subject of discussion, and it seems fans are getting fed up with the reality show’s method of choosing who goes home this week.

This season, the voting is only open during the live show, which means viewers have just hours to vote and West Coast viewers don’t even get to see the evening’s performances before they’re expected to cast their votes. The voting determines the bottom two couples, one of whom is ultimately sent home by the judges.

Because of this system, contestants have to ask fans to vote before the show even starts, and the dances likely aren’t even taken into consideration, considering the fact that the last few performers hit the floor so close to the end of the voting window.

This week, Karamo Brown was sent home, and while he wasn’t the best dancer on the show, he certainly wasn’t the worst — that honor belongs to former White House press secretary Sean Spicer, who has not yet landed in the bottom two thanks to fan voting. Prior to Brown, Sailor Brinkley-Cook was eliminated after being in the bottom with Ally Brooke, another frontrunner.

Many fans on Twitter expressed their ire at the fact that Spicer is still on the show only thanks to viewer votes, with one person writing, “How is Sean Spicer still on Dancing with the Stars? Who is voting for him I just wanna talk.”

“Again I say if Sean Spicer had any integrity he would’ve taken himself off of dancing with the stars tonight,” someone else tweeted. “He can’t dance; its horrible and the only reason he’s there is that the Trumpsters keep voting him in. It is not what the show is about.”

Some people pointed out that Spicer’s involvement on the show has made the voting political.

“This is why a political party – any political party – rep should not be on the show,” one tweet read. “Other much more talented dancers are eliminated b/c some are voting for him solely because he is a republican. Dancing With the Stars should not be about politics.”

“Sean Spicer is literally the worst dancer that I have ever seen on Dancing with the Stars and the only reason he is still on is because Republicans feel like they are gaining leverage politically by voting for him?” someone else asked. “This is a dancing show??”

The show previously faced backlash over its voting system last season when Bobby Bones won the Mirrorball Trophy after multiple other contestants had scored higher than him throughout the season.

Photo Credit: Getty / Eric McCandless