Dancing with the Stars Voting Issues and Rigging the Results
My twitter accounts (@tvblog and @puredwts) are getting flooded with people that are angry at the issues they had with voting for the final 3 couples on Dancing with the Stars last night. It seems like the voting issues were better this morning, but people are still upset. This same sentiment has poured over into the comments for this site and even many to my email account. Here’s a sample from an email I got:
Hi John. What is going on?
Last night I could not sign in to vote, just kept getting: ‘Ooops! There is a problem. Try again’. I spent well over an hour trying to sign in to vote, with no success. I have been voting for nine seasons, and never had any problem before. My neighbour also could not vote. Same message, and reading the comments and blogs it seems we were not alone. This is not fair. I do not want to believe all the nonsence about the ‘tea party’ swamping the voting, but if Bristol wins tonight, there is going to be a lot more speculation that this season was rigged.
Here’s my reply to that email which I think is worth sharing here on Pure DWTS:
It’s hard to say what was going on. Unfortunately, I haven’t seen ABC address it anywhere. No doubt there were some major issues last night.
My consolation is that the voting was bad for supporters for all the couples. So, I don’t think that will have as big of an impact on the voting as one might think.
Certainly some are saying that it’s the Tea Party overwhelming the phones and website. I guess that’s a possibility, but I think you could just as easily make the argument that it’s the Jennifer and Kyle fans and the anti-tea party people that are doing the overwhelming response. The results tonight will likely show this.
Many will continue to speculate that it’s rigged. I just don’t see any reason the show would rig it. I think the producers will be fine with any outcome. Think about it from the producers perspective:
Jennifer Wins – All will be right in the universe since the best dancer won (or something like that). The producers will be happy that the DWTS purists are happy the dancer won.
Bristol Wins – They get to tell the story that Anyone has a chance to win the show, not just the dancers (which is the common complaint). Plus, they can tell the whole “growth” story.
Kyle Wins – I haven’t seen anyone predicting this. That’s what would make the producers so happy. If Kyle wins EVERYONE will be shocked (probably even the Kyle and Lacey fans).
Basically, the producers are in a great position where they will be able to tell a great story no matter what happens. So, why would they spend any time rigging the DWTS results? Not to mention there are major legal issues if they are doing something to rig DWTS.
Go and check out Heidi and Courtney’s in depth analysis of the possible DWTS season 11 winner results. If you care about DWTS at all, then you’ll find their thoughts very interesting.
DISCLAIMER: Pure DWTS is just a DWTS Fan site and has no connection implied or otherwise to ABC, Dancing with the Stars, etc etc etc.
Everyone from the show always said how much fun he was and how much they liked him. I...
Very good post, John – I’m glad someone addressed this. I can’t think of anyone who DIDN’T have issues voting last night, either by phone or by email (other than the international voters, who had the blessing of being in a different time zone). I literally was pressing redial over and over on both my cell and landline (as was my mother), and only managed to get ONE VOTE in for Jennifer & Derek in two hours of trying, either due to a busy signal (which I’m going to interpret as a good sign) or the dreaded error message (“Sorry, you’ve used up all the votes from this line”). As for online voting – I tried getting onto the site for about an hour last night and gave up after it timed out on me every time. I got my votes in this morning without any problems, but I can understand the frustration of everyone who tried to vote online last night. While I like to think that it was just due to EVERYONE trying to vote at once, a suspicious part of me wonders just who’s fans were clogging up the server – was it an even mix of everyone? Or did voters from one group of fans find a way to thwart the others? I’m hoping that nobody played dirty, and it was just due to congestion. But as I was telling Heidi earlier – I remember a few seasons back on Idol (I’m thinking either ’04 or ’05, and I still have my doubts about the validity of this one), there was a bit of a scandal when some fans discovered that you could tie up the phone lines by not hanging up after your phone vote had gone through – I guess the other end didn’t automatically hang up back then, and some fans with less integrity were using this tactic to stall voting for certain contestants. There are now measures in place to take care of this, but whenever there’s a surprising elimination (or a suspicious continued presence on the show), I have to wonder if some fans have somehow managed the beat the system. I’m gonna put faith in humanity that everyone is fighting fair, but still – ABC needs to do something to address these issues everyone’s been having. Tom preaches to everyone to “vote for your favorites!”, but that’s a bit hard if you can’t even get through…
Thanks John for addressing this. I was able to vote online this morning, so I was lucky. I really think the overload is just a combination of the Palin voters plus the Kyle and Jennifer voters who are trying to overtake Bristol’s fans. Let’s face it, most people on this site were going out of their way to vote more times than they ever did before, and I’m sure they are not the only ones! That would sure cause a problem, so I don’t think there is any scandal/conspiracy happening.
It kinda reminds you of some of the presidential elections, doesn’t it? LOL
I remember in the first couple of seasons with DWTS that I always had a problem trying to vote online; couldn’t log on or it would time out while voting. In later seasons those problems seemed to be ironed out and I sometimes I would wait until early Tuesday morning to cast my votes.
I have more of a problem with the judges’ scores than the public scores. It really gives the appearance that they were told by the producers to get Bristol through to the finals. When there is an older dancer or a dancer with a disability, they would always say we cannot take that into consideration but have to score you on the dance. That seemed to fly out the window this season and that is what I found most frustrating and suspicious.
LOL It very much does remind me of a Presidential election Magnolia. I had trouble voting on-line too. Last week, I had trouble with getting through on the phone. The system is in dire need of some revamping. If Bristol wins tonight, I’ll think it was rigged too.
This happens every single season and this season is no exception. People are always saying the voting is rigged. This happens every time a person’s favorites get eliminated. David Hasselhoff got eliminated. His fans complained the voting was rigged because no one could get through to vote. Michael Bolton was eliminated. His fans said the voting was rigged. Magaret Cho… “it’s rigged.” The Situation… “it’s rigged.” It’s always happening. Saying that Bristol being on the show or making it in the finals because voting is rigged is nothing different.
Jennifer and Kyle’s fans aren’t the only ones who had trouble getting in to vote. Bristol’s fans did too. ABC pay money for servers and phone lines. They’re not free! The economy isn’t so good right now and millions of people are watching the show every week. ABC cannot afford to pay more to allow every single of the 15+ viewers to get in and vote. It is not possible to allow so many millions of people to vote at the same time. Getting more room or bandwith and phone lines is just not that easy. That’s why it’s “first come, first serve.” This is why I often advise people that they start voting at the beginning or during each show. Don’t wait til after the show is over! If you don’t get in soon enough. Sorry! You have to wait your turn (in other words, wait til the phone lines and servers can take in more people so you have to keep trying). I was surprised that it was easy to vote this morning because last night was a huge mess, even during the show which was unusual for me. Normally, people wait til the last minute close to 11:00 to finish voting.
I agree with the author. There’s no reason to rig the voting. More than 16 or 17 million people watch the show. Ratings are still very high. Why rig the voting system? The producers wanted more high ratings and they’re getting it with massive media on Bristol and millions of viewers. What more do they need?
As for people saying they’ll never watch again, that’s another thing I hear every single season. But they end up coming back and watching the show the next season so I wouldn’t even pay attention to them.
It’s only a TV show and people need to chill out. “Reality” associated with TV doesn’t mean that the world is gonna end or everyone’s going to die if Bristol wins. It just means one of them wins and that’s the end of it. They only win a mirror ball trophy, not a million dollar or whatever. They win then we just keep going to the next season.
Katy,
Check out Heidi’s stats post and you’ll see that the judges scores have less meaning than votes. Mark Cuban even did a post showing the same thing. So, don’t get too mad about the judges scoring too high.
I’ll just say as someone who does web stuff for a living, it’s not easy to handle HUGE spikes in traffic. When I first started this site I got it taken down because of a spike in traffic. Luckily now I’ve got it pretty well optimized to handle most loads. Although, even with all my optimization it could get overwhelmed with the right confluence of events. So, I guess I could say I’m partially sympathetic to the challenge of hosting their voting site. That said, they have a lot more resources at their disposal to handle the load than a blogger like myself has. Plus, it’s not like this spike is really unanticipated. They should have planned better.
Liz,
Good comments. I’d only just comment that too many issues that annoy people and it will hurt ratings. Although, that would take consistent missteps season after season for it to matter (see American Idol).
They actually do win a bunch of money if they win. Check out this post about Shawn Johnson’s potential winnings: http://www.puredwts.com/2009/03/31/shawn-johnson-makes-big-money-on-dancing-with-the-stars/ Not quite a million, but $365k isn’t too bad. I’m sure each star has a unique amount though since some are bigger draws. The pros get paid more too, so it makes sense why people like Maks are upset about it.
The only reason I would agree with rigging the vote to keep Bristol from winning is because of the absolute insanity this season has generated. Of course, as I always say and have said before, it’s about entertainment and ratings. Sometimes though, even the “big dogs” can’t project the exact outcome of a drama or a controversy. Even a ratings manipulation can go sour while bringing in huge amounts of money. Sometimes the “drama” is ineffective and then sometimes a “drama” produces huge amounts of hate mail in addition to the high ratings. I would just hate to see another TV lost to political outrage over a dancing show.
(a little humor here)
In the final three, the only star who actually hasn’t had a “selling point” is Kyle, and whether or not Kyle actually wins the mirrorball trophy, he is the winner in this whole fiasco. Kyle has been placed on center stage, and this show will do more for his career than any other “star”. His positive attitude, upbeat personality, dedication to learning, sense of humor and lack of “drama” will catapult him even further than Disney could have imagined. Again, Kyle is the winner of the day and this show has been a very positive move for him. In my heart, I actually want Kyle to win, but most likely, Jennifer will take the trophy. By the way, Kyle has not messed up on his dances as much as Jennifer, in my opinion. She’s had a few goof-ups, not to mention all of the drama, crying, injury reports, etc. Yes, she’s a phenomenal dancer and very impressive, but I just like the fun that Kyle brings to the table.
I also don’t believe that this show is actually rigged by the show promoters, I do however believe that they should not allow someone to participate in the show if they are so “highly” politically connected. Although I was not particularly a Brandi fan, I felt very bad for her when she was eliminated last week. She is by far a much better dancer and has progressed in her dance abilities far more than the gal from Alaska who does not belong in the finals (it pains me to even speak her name). Political connections gave this contestant a huge unfair advantage over all the other contestants. For myself – if Alaska wins tonight, it’s bye bye DWTS for me. I have been a fan, but I can’t see how this is a dance contest or even a popularity contest. It’s a political affirmation! Good Luck Jennifer!
I don’t think the voting is rigged or there is a conspiracy afoot. I don’t think the show anticipated Bristol’s vociferous voters, many of whom are just out to make a statement. I think the judges were very easy on her at the beginning since she does not have any entertainment or similar professional background. I think once it became obvious that she had a strong voter base that was going to vote for her no matter what they just kept it going by keeping her scores up with the pack and giving her very kind critiques. I imagine the show was happy to have the increase in viewers and attention that Bristol brought to the show. I’m sure they thought they were keeping the integrity of the show intact by scoring her at or near the bottom. It is just, as Heidi so cogently explains, that without much discrepancy the judges’ scores are not that significant to the outcome. And the longer it went on the more it became a self-fulfilling prophesy as more casual viewers who were sympathetic to her jumped on the bandwagon of her being the underdog and most improved. I imagine at some point, too, they realized that if they turned on her after she had all of this demonstrated support, the show would have gotten criticized for that too. So, all in all, I think the show walked as find a line as it could to score her relatively low but still close enough to leave the results up to the voters and take advantage of her popularity and controversy.
Ok, how is Bristol winning going to hurt the show if the majority of the viewers voted for her? Bristol is still on because of the majority of votes people are sending her way. Bristol is still on because most of the viewers want her on there. It’s really that simple. It’s 50% of the judges scores and 50% of the viewers’ votes.
And as for the money that Shawn got, why didn’t they ever say that other champions like Donny, Apollo, Helio etc… got paid for winning? Why just Shawn? I never heard of any champions winning a thing except for the mirror ball trophy. I also read the celebs get more money each week than the pros do. After all, the show is about the celebs so that makes sense.
Liz,
I tend to agree that Bristol winning DWTS won’t be the downfall of DWTS. It will cause some viewers to leave, but DWTS will be fine (unless this happens over and over).
The show never talks about the celebrities getting paid. It just gets leaked sometimes (like in Shawn’s case). Point is that the longer you stay on the show the more the celebs get paid. Although, I bet a number of them don’t get paid very much and instead do it as a way to spark their career. I vaguely remember Mark Cuban (billionaire) saying he donated everything he made on the show to some charity.
Liz, you’re operating under the assumption that the majority of voters are voting for Bristol – which may or may not be the case. The majority of voters could be voting once or twice for Jennifer or Kyle, but perhaps aren’t as persistent as a smaller population of voters that vote relentlessly for Bristol. And you can’t assume that the majority of viewers want her on there – again, we don’t know who exactly is voting, and then there’s the viewers that don’t vote. It’s not “really that simple”. While it may or may not be the downfall of the show if she wins, I do think it will affect perceptions of the show – the perceptions of the pros, the viewers, and future celebs that might think twice before signing on after seeing what a fiasco this season was.
Two of us spent 40 minutes on two different cell phones getting the busy signal last night when we tried to vote for Jennifer. If Bristol does win, then I’ll believe that her supporters not only voted for her but also jammed Jennifer’s phone lines by keeping them open. Maybe “Idol” fixed their problem years ago, but DWTS will have a very suspicious TV audience next season, one which I’m likely to skip altogether.
I work for a phone company up here in Canada (And am retiring after 32 years + of service on December 15th). When you call one of those automated lines, once the recorded message has run, the line disconnects at their end and an extra line option comes into play. It goes by the clever name of Cut-Off On Disconnect. Which does exactly what it says – disconnects the call and totally cuts the connection, freeing the line up for the next caller in. I can’t believe that an account as large as ABC would not have this option in their set-up.
Shawn’s salary was public knowledge because she was a minor at the time she dance. There was required documentation that was public information under the law.
If you don’t understand why we believe the show will be hurt if Bristol wins at this point, well, you haven’t been paying attention. And, as Courtney says, you have absolutely no way of knowing, regardless of who wins, who the majority voted for.
Only one problem, Suz – the ratings aren’t any higher than they were a year ago. You can only compare fall season to fall season, for obvious reason. DWTS was STILL a ratings juggernaut last season and the season before. The producers had no reason to go this route. I don’t know why they feel the need to tinker. It’s highly annoying.
Cathy, as I explained to Courtney earlier, you can’t “keep the phone line open” – I’d say try it next week but we’re at the end.
I don’t happen to think Teabaggers are mental giants, so I doubt they figured a way around the phone on the DWTS end automatically hanging up regardless of whether you get through or not. I suppose they could wait for it to hang up instead of hanging it up, but if they get through it’s almost instantaneous. If they get a busy signal it take several seconds I think. I wouldn’t know – I never got a busy signal last night because I did what I tell everyone to do – vote IMMEDIATELY. 
If they try that, then they’d be kicking themselves if they actually got through on Jen’s line, wouldn’t they? 
Or you can read what Evaine wrote.
I can confirm that they have what she says.
OK, just playing devil’s advocate here…what if a group of people continued to call even after the votes were cast? You’d still get the recording saying that your vote quota had been reached, but would that tie up the phone lines for others trying to cast their votes?
There was a book written by a republican operative whose sole job was to create chaos for the opposition on voting day and he did that by tying up the phone lines of the democratic party office. He knew that they had volunteer who were going to be calling people to urge them to vote and potential voters would be calling them with questions about precinct locations, etc. (Just one of the many things he did to screw up and confuse the rivals).
I have never had so much trouble voting before. I got all my votes in during previous seasons without so much as a hiccup. This season, voting was downright ridiculous. Could robo calls cause this? Some sort of robo online voting program? I bet that more than a few people gave up trying to get through. I couldn’t vote at all this morning – appointments and prior commitments. And I bet I’m not the only one.
My little bit educated opinion on all this tying up of the phone lines is that it’s just a result of a lot more people trying to vote this time. It’s been all over the news – the mainstream news, not just the entertainment news and because the name Palin is mentioned, it causes lots more action – either for or against. Hell, a friend of mine up here wanted to hear news about the Korean thing, turned to CNN and the lead story was DWTS! I mean, that’s just NUTS!
So yeah, I think the problems this year have been just sheer volume of calls. For every side.
Yes, Heidi, point taken!
I do so wish the judges had scored her fairly weeks ago. Then if her voters had voted her through despite that, so be it. Thank goodness I found this site. I thought my eyes were deceiving me
Off to watch the finale – breathe deeply, and enjoy it!
Len Goodman isn’t real judging…every week he gives Kyle Massey a point lower than what the other 2 judges give him…2night he gave Kyle a freakking 8 & Bristol a 9….I mean seriously…r u a racist or just don’t want the black kid 2 win…but give all the 10s 2 Jennifer just becuz they feel sorry 4 her…well boo hoo!…Len Goodman needs a reality check!
I couldn’t agree more about Len. He has clearly been pro Bristol and Anti Kyle throughout. Dump Len! We need do not need bias here!
Congrats Jennifer! You truly deserve it!!!!!!
Now is everybody happy? Jennifer won; there was no voting conspiracy; all is right with the world!
I called in and voted once and from then on the 800 number I was calling simply did not work. The call would not go through and I got some kind of error message saying the number was not working. I was dialing the correct number. It simply would not go through. Therefore, my other 4 votes were not placed. I went to ABC.com to vote and found that I had to register and come up with a password which I did not want to have to do so I tried calling again to no avail. We are asked over and over and over to vote and yet hundreds, if not thousands of us, were not able to vote. Why would I get an error message on the correct 800 number when it worked the first time I dialed? Does not make sense.
I thought this was a dance competition not a political arena. Jennifer and Derek should win and if they don’t I guess they can take the show off the air. I know I won’t watch it anymore!
Uh…Hello??? It’s a TV dance show. So much whining and crying about conspiracies. Watch the show and enjoy the performances. This time, next week, nobody will even remember who won (or care).
John, thank you for making the most sense on this blog. Excellent analysis.
I’m afraid if the show does decide to continue to cast polarizing figures who really do little to advance the fun of dance technique then the show could have a ratings crisis down the road. Strictly has a problem, even American Idol isn’t what it used to be. When the overall quality of the product diminishes then the enthusiasm will wane. Carrie Anne said she’d like to see Lindsay Lohan on, and you know, so would I. I want to see more entertainers on the show because they do have a sense of what can be successful. Despite Lindsay going down the wrong road she is a great talent. Robert Downey Jr. had years of drug abuse and jail time but if you’re talented the industry will give you a chance. She’d definitely benefit from the rigour of going to practise everyday.
Amen, Mary. You know, there are polarizing figures that would be fine on the show and I think Lindsay would be one of them. But to continue to inject politics into a fun, entertaining show? BIG mistake. Huge. For some (many?) people on BOTH sides, it takes all the fun out of it. Of course, I don’t know if they can duplicate the level of crazy that Bristol incurred.