On the Dancing with the Stars Season 27 Live Finale (November 19, 8 pm, ABC), the final four couples will perform twice: a repeat performance and a freestyle. The final four couples are: Harry Potter actress Evanna Lynch and Keo Motsepe; Sports Illustrated model Alexis Ren and Alan Bersten; young actor Milo Manheim and Witney Carson; and country radio host Bobby Bones and Sharna Burgess. Many DWTS fans are not pleased with how Bobby Bones overcame last-place odds to make the finals — especially after Juan Pablo Di Pace and Cheryl Burke were eliminated after receiving perfect scores. And then there’s the fact that Bobby Bones isn’t the greatest dancer on the show. But that’s what happens when America votes. Sometimes the least qualified candidate wins.
The resistance to Bobby Bones is real. There’s now a petition to change the DWTS scoring system (some are referring to it as a petition to kick Bobby Bones off the show, which of course isn’t going to happen). The petition was started by a longtime DWTS viewer who wants the voting algorithm changed, so the judges’ scores have more weight than the votes of viewers at home. The petition notes that while Bobby Bones is “loveable”, he’s also been consistently at the bottom of the competition, score-wise. And by the semifinals round, the competition “should be more about dancing than personality and popularity.” So far the petition has more than 230 signatures: the goal is 500. The petition references former DWTS celeb contestant Mark Cuban’s data analysis of the DWTS voting system, in 2010.
