‘Dancing With the Stars’ Contestants Who Have Accused the Show of Being Rigged

Alexa PenaVega and Carlos PenaVega recently caused a bit of a stir while reflecting about their time on Dancing With the Stars. The married couple competed on Season 21 of the show in 2015 and discussed their journeys, while also spilling some behind-the-scenes tea.

At one point, Alexa recalled fellow Season 21 contestant Hayes Grier saying, “I think this show is rigged,” backstage. She pointed to the fact that he had millions of social media followers who could have been voting for him, but was still the sixth person eliminated. “I think the votes matter, I do, but the show is also produced,” Alexa pointed out, hinting that there might be more to the eliminations than what fans are told.

When a clip from the podcast was posted to Alexa’s TikTok, host Alfonso Ribeiro jumped in to shut down the speculation. “No chance. We want everyone who’s popular to stay on. It’s basic logic.”

In the full episode, Alexa also noted that Season 21 winner Bindi Irwin had a “top-notch” story, insinuating that producers possibly kept her around longer because of it.

Later in the episode, Carlos insisted that the show “know[s] who’s getting eliminated” before each episode because the eliminated couple is booked on a flight to New York for press immediately after the live show. Back when Carlos and Alexa were contestants the eliminated pair had to do an interview on The View the next day, according to the podcast hosts.

“At the time, somebody knew somebody at The View, and Mark [Ballas] knew we were getting eliminated. Mark knew,” Alexa claimed. “He already knew.” Carlos broke it down, telling listeners, “You guys are getting kicked off, and obviously they have to book tickets. They let The View know … this is the couple that’s coming. Mark knew somebody at The View. The View let him know, ‘Hey, listen, your name is on the list for tomorrow.’ He knew it was you guys going home.”

Courtesy Everett Collection

This wasn’t the first time that a former contestant has claimed the show is rigged. Season 18 contestant Sean Avery claimed that he was eliminated second because of a disagreement with a producer, and not because of where he actually fell with scores and viewer votes.

“I was upset at the package that they had brought in the week previous, and it was a very tacky attempt to show me as the bad boy of DWTS,” Avery explained. “And I think in reality TV or some sort of competition, if you have a disagreement with the producers, then generally that seals your fate quite early.”

Kyle Massey was the runner-up of Season 11, finishing in second place behind Jennifer Grey. When he appeared on Cheryl Burke‘s podcast in 2024, he said, “In my season, you know, one of the other contestants (he later clarified it was Grey) had a mishap in the finale. And because my mom lives on the East Coast, and the East Coast live is actually live, and then the West Coast is a recording of that live that’s edited. So the East Coast, the mishap was there, and then on West Coast, it was a clean performance. It was edited out, perfect 10s.”

Related

Mark Ballas & Witney Carson Had Tension on 'DWTS' Season 21

He clarified that the “mishap” was “a misstep [like] when you trip, but you don’t actually fall.” Massey alleged that they “completely edited it out of the entire thing” when the episode aired on the West Coast.

Burke’s ex-husband, Matthew Lawrence, alleged on an episode of his own podcast that he witnessed the show being “rigged” when he spent time on set with the former pro. His brother Joey Lawrence, who came in third place on Season 3, admitted, “I feel that there was always a lot of debate as to how much finagling was going on behind the scenes. You know, whether the audience vote and the judges’ votes, then the producers. I mean, there was certainly a scenario there that played out.”

In 2025, executive producer Ryan O’Dowd vehemently denied the speculation, telling Deadline, “We take that very seriously. We have never, nor would we ever, do anything to manipulate the votes. The show really needs to be credible. It needs to allow the viewers to have a voice and to really be the voice of who deserves to win. So we have never, nor would we ever, want to manipulate that in any way.”,