The Dancing with the Stars tiebreaker has confused viewers the entire season.
The main confusion is the fact that it is called a tiebreaker when that isn’t really what it is.
For example, when Matt James of The Bachelor was eliminated, it was 2-1 for Matt and then Len Goodman chose to keep Kenya Moore and it was considered a tiebreaker.
That is not what happened.
The tiebreaker rule on Dancing with the Stars indicates that if the four judges are split 2-2, then whoever Len voted for, as the head judge, wins.
It happened again when two judges picked Mel C to win but Len went with Olivia Jade and sent Mel home.
Derek Hough said he was also confused by the terminology and he said he talked to producers about it.
Derek Hough on Dancing with the Stars tiebreaker controversy
Derek Hough spoke to Us Weekly and he said that he understands why fans are so confused about the Dancing with the Stars tiebreaker rule.
“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 said.
He then broke down the rule, explaining that all four judges get a vote and Len’s vote is the deciding one if the vote goes two-to-two
“So basically, this is kind of the way I’m explaining it: Essentially, Len [Goodman] has two votes, that’s it?” Derek said. “Len has the weight of two votes. I wish we just said it like that because that makes so much more sense.”
Derek supports Dancing with the Stars tiebreaker
However, while Derek said the rule is confusing, he also said that the rule is fair in how it plays out.
“He’s the head judge,” Hough said. “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.”
As mentioned, the two times it came into play was when Kenya Moore stayed over Matt James and then when Olivia Jade remained on the show over Mel C.
Both times, fans took to social media to complain. However, Derek doesn’t mind, although he agrees it should be explained better to fans.
For now, this is the only option for breaking ties if the judges are split, but Dancing with the Stars might want to consider changing things up, even if just in wording, to keep fans happy at home.
Dancing with the Stars airs on Monday nights at 8/7c on ABC.