Bruno Tonioli Discusses Judging On Dancing With The Stars And How He’s Not Biased
Bruno Tonioli was a guest on Access Hollywood today. They asked him if William is his favorite since he gets up and goes wild for him after a performance, but, Bruno says he’s not biased. Below is his take on William…
“I don’t have a favorite. I respond to what happens in front of me. And, you know, you can’t deny it. He’s hot. Hot is hot. And he’s good. He’s actually good,” Bruno said on Friday’s Access Hollywood Live.
Known for his fun-spirited, and sometimes saucy comments (and hip rolls while delivering them), Bruno admitted he was unaware of William before the competition, but the Latino hunk has continued to impress on the dance floor, churning out excellent performances with professional partner Cheryl Burke, week after week.
“I had no idea who he was to be honest… It’s not just because he’s good looking. He produces electrifying performances, but you can be good looking and boring as hell. He’s not. He actually performs wonderful dances,” Bruno continued. “Hotness helps, but the hotness alone? You can have the hottest person in the world, the most beautiful person in the world and they don’t have personality, they don’t have depth to it. It’s boring. It’s like watching, you know, a mannequin.”
I’ve loved some of William’s dances too, but, I think there has been some favortism going on with the judging. Then again, we are all biased at times with our favorite dancers. So, can we not expect the judges to be the same? I don’t know…maybe if they weren’t picking on Roshon so much, I wouldn’t feel that way?
More for how Bruno feels at Access Hollywood. Hopefully they will have a video of this interview up shortly.
UPDATE: And here it is thanks to XKorita05 at You Tube (a good one to follow if you are a big William Levy fan)….
I’m with you Vogue. I’m kind of going out on a limb with my opinion, but I guess it’s not too crazy.
I’ve been thinking for a while about this, and one thing we have to remember is that they have mere seconds to decide the score and they only get one look at the dance. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve looked at a dance the first time and was like “Wow! That was fantastic!” and then looked at it more closely and was like “Hm, not as good as I thought before…” They don’t get that chance you know? While I don’t doubt that there is at least some manipulation, I also don’t doubt that sometimes they genuinely feel they deserve a certain score.
Just a food for thought. Not taking sides, but my outlook on this whole fiasco is somewhat altered stepping a bit into the judges’ shoes. Thanks for the post, Vogue!
I expect more out of judges than I do of fans like myself. While I’m not heavily into all the conspiracy theories floating around, I do believe that Bruno is scoring with a … lenient eye because he finds Willy hot. IMO, his dancing is NOT worth 10s.
Anyone that is willing to believe that Bruno is not biased in favor of William needs toi get their head examined.
The truth is the truth. Carrie Ann loved Gladys Knight, Len loves Katherine Jenkins. The judges always have their favorites.
Nicole Scherzinger was the best dancer ever on the show and she got undeservedly caned *every week* by Len almost until the finale. It’s the nature of the beast.
Thanks for your thoughts, Guys! Evaine, I loved William’s Argentine Tango. I thought that was atleast one “10″ worthy? He blew me away with that.
Will, very true how we get excited and want to score them higher at first. I’ve done that a lot at times too and then think the better of it later. I’ve often wondered about manipulation too.
Evaine, I have to agree with you. They are judges there for a reason, they take on that responsibility to do that role, But this William scoring thing with Bruno and CAI, has gotten out of hand this season, William is good, great no, deserves a 10 HELL NO, especially in one breath they are picking to bits one person’s dance and totally let the same thing go when it comes to William, then gives him a 10 please.
So basically what is it called if not Biased?
Just the fact that Bruno feels he has to defend himself against the William-bias thing means just one thing to me…where there’s smoke there’s fire( and I don’t mean the sexy kind) Bruno knows something smells fishy to us viewers.
*LOL* I think you mean he blew you away with the AT, Vogue.
LOL Evaine. I saw that I needed to edit that right after I posted it. lollllll
It gave me a much needed chuckle today. *hugs you*
lolll I’m such a clutz always! ((((hugs you right back)))) xxx
Did Bruno say William was HOT? Geez, I would have never known that he felt that way. Enough with the HOT already. To me, William is lukewarm at best.
Can u imagine how excited Bruno must get over William when watching the show back…..
So he’s a liar as well as being biased? *yawn* No surprise there!
This season has been so weird. And if Bruno isn’t biased, there ain’t a cow in Texas….Puleeze…if William has had one 10 worthy dance this season, I haven’t seen it. And to come in 2nd in the marathon for sliding on your knees? Guess we now wait for Carrie Ann to tell us she isn’t scoring William on his “hotness” either.
Of course the judges are biased. I can’t believe any of them would say that with a straight face. They may not be cognizant of it, but they are biased. Both for and against. Sure, they only have a few seconds – but how often is your first impression what you EXPECT to see and not what is actually there?
Everyone has biases; I expect a good judge to do their best to recognize and control theirs. I doubt you’d get Len or CAI to admit they are biased either! At least Len had the honesty to admit he underscored Donald.
They don’t have an easy job, but they agreed to do it and are well paid to make those tough, fast decisions.
Bruno isn’t biased. False.
I still think they should go to a ‘technical’ and ‘artistic’ scoring system. Then someone gets points for the great show (ala gladys), but is JUDGED on how well they dance. The lines get blurred when it is just one score and you have no idea what they are judging on. William doesn’t dance, and gets high scores for his ‘performance’ (and shirtlessness). Roshon gets judged on how well he dances and that is easier to nitpick and go lower on.
The did it on season 11 with the smaller raised stage (still watch that to see what Jennifer and Derek did technically wrong in the AT to only get 9′s, but I digress…)
Lord, SueB, that AT was freakin’ perfection. Dances that aren’t even close to that are getting 10′s this season.
Vogue and Will, totally agree with you.
In addition, I don’t expect “fair judging”, because I don’t really know how they’d do that on this kind of show–most of the audience would be bored if they went into details of level of difficulty/execution/artistic expression.
And I can feel with Bruno–I know that Roshon’s doing much more difficult stuff and better, but it does nothing for me–feel like I’m watching a kid goof off when he and Chelsie dance. William and Cheryl’s dances I find much more compelling (and I DON’T think he’s hot–I can’t stand muscle-bound men and find him much more attractive with his shirt on.)
here are my 2 cents:
bias is a human condition – we can’t help it. We favor some while we disfavor others. Sometimes there seems to be no rhyme or reason to it.
good judges of all stripes must learn to put that bias aside when donning their judging robes. great judges recuse themselves when they find that they cannot.
for Bruno to say he is not biased is bull. they all are, just like we all are, only with CAI and Bruno it just seems more obvious as to which body parts they’re biasing with. while i do agree with Will at #1, it’s a difficult call to make in the few seconds they have …. all the while keeping in mind this is supposed to be an entertainment show, not a strict ballroom competition … it is their job, it is why they get paid the big bucks. they have to try harder. they can start by focusing on the fact that they are not the stars of this show.
all these attempts to manipulate the outcome is bound to backfire …. “what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive”
ok, that was more like 10 cents ….. many thanks for indulging my rant LOL
love this site, can’t say that enough.
You all have to remember that English is Bruno’s second language. When Bruno hears the word “bias” he thinks you are saying “bisexual”; he is saying he is not. Therefore, Free Willy gets 10s for taking his shirt off! See how easy it is to figure this out.
I am still shocked about his scoring of Maria and Derek’s Rumba. Bruno never saw someone dance like that (on the melodic line) in week 3; but yet it only gets a 9!
@Linde, IMO, you said it best, the 3 Stooges need to remember they aren’t the stars of DWTS.
I find it interesting that GSN has pnly shown seasoon 4 and Season 12 of DWTS. Perhaps TPTB don’t want the fans to see how much more the show is manipulated than it was in the past.
Linz, your comment about Bruno mistaking bias for bisexual was hysterical. That made me LOL. I suppose we need to keep our sense of humor whilst this season seems to be crashing and burning around us..at least as far as the judging is concerned.
Thanks Natalie. I feel the same way. This season started with such promise, until TPTB get their greedy little hands on it. In past seasons, I didn’t always agree with the scoring, but it always seemed the right ones ended up in the finale (Bristal season excluded). This year with all the overscoring and underscoring, the sick dance duel and the upcoming double elimination (should have happened earlier in season), I really hate what has happened to my beautiful, happy show. I always proudly proclaimed that the only reality show I watched was DWTS because it was such a positive show. Now it is TPTB’s show – full of manipulations (sounds like Survivor alliances). And the worst part of it all, they just do not care about the core audience who has been there from the beginning. I bet they think all this chatter about this season is good because everyone is talking about DWTS. No such thing as bad publicity? But that leaves DWTS with a bad reputation; and a bad taste in the mouths of the people that has supported the show all these years.
The 3 judges….CarrieAnn, Len and Bruno need to get out on the dance floor with a partner and dance for points. They certainly can mouth off but when push comes to shove, how would they feel being judged for a dance that they thought was great. Carrie Ann starts out with glowing acknowledgements but she always throws in there a “but”. Len is Len….we all know he has his favorites. Bruno is outrageous but funny. I don’t think any of them could out dance what we have seen so far, barring a few.