Hilaria Baldwin Says ‘DWTS’ Is More of a ‘Reality Show’ Than a ‘Dance Competition’

Paige Strout October 21, 2025, 2:52 pm

Hilaria Baldwin on Season 34, Episode 3, of ABC's 'Dancing With the Stars,' September 30, 2025. — Disney/Frank Micelotta

There’s one aspect of Dancing With the Stars that Hilaria Baldwin did not enjoy discovering.

“They remind you at the beginning, they’re like, ‘This is a reality show. It’s not really a dance competition, it’s a reality show,'” Baldwin shared in an interview with E! News published on Tuesday, October 21. “I think that[‘s] where my heart got hurt a bit is that I just love to dance, I want to have fun. And there is gonna be a certain level of drama and some negativity.”

When Season 34 of DWTS premiered last month, Baldwin quickly proved her dance skills by landing near the top or middle of the leaderboard with her pro partner, Gleb Savchenko. Her journey on the show was cut short, as she and Savchenko were eliminated during this season’s Disney Night episode on October 7.

“It’s a very fun show, and I’m very grateful for the experience I had,” Baldwin told the outlet. “Every single moment was just so fun, and I wouldn’t be sad if I didn’t have a good time. You’re not sad when it’s a bad experience, you know?”

Baldwin went on to note that there are “big problems in the world,” and her DWTS elimination is not one of them. “I’ve talked to some people who didn’t have a good time doing the show, and they were like, ‘Oh my god, I was so excited when I got off,'” she said. “That wasn’t my experience, because I had the best time.”

Alfonso Ribeiro, Julianne Hough, Hilaria Baldwin, and Gleb Savchenko on Season 34, Episode 4 of ABC's 'Dancing With the Stars,' October 7, 2025.

Disney/Eric McCandless

While Baldwin had a fun time on the show, she didn’t have as pleasant an experience with some DWTS fans. “There is a strategy I guess the voters learn, where they’ll get together and they’ll vote for everybody else besides the couple that they don’t like,” she claimed. “They basically push up everybody else’s votes to be able to drown down the couple that they don’t want to make it.”

Bobby Bones on Hilaria Baldwin's 'Dancing With the Stars' Elimination and 'Bullying' Claims

Her comments mirrored what she told Us Weekly about her elimination earlier this month, claiming “mean girls” on social media were behind her early DWTS exit.

“I guess what people were doing is they were having campaigns where they wouldn’t just vote for their favorite — because you can vote 10 times for a couple — they were voting for all the other couples except us, so they were boosting everybody else and trying to drown out my fan base,” she alleged. ”

She also claimed in an October 10 Instagram video that her elimination was the result of “very coordinated, strategic bullying.” She added, “As I feel the darkness that undoubtedly brings to me, I always want to remember that my life belongs to the whole community and I want to leave a lasting mark of courage to speak up against what is simply wrong.”

Dancing With the Stars, Season 34, Tuesdays, 8/7c, ABC and Disney+ (Streaming Next Day on Hulu)

For a more extended celebration of two decades of Dancing With the Stars, from exclusive interviews to retrospectives and must-see photos, pick up a copy of TV Guide Magazine’s Dancing With the Stars 20th Anniversary special issue, available for purchase online at DWTS.TVGM2025.com and on newsstands now.