The beloved Television show “Dancing With the Stars” is back for season 33 with fan anticipation rising to see how the stars align this year. Casting for the show is always a hot topic as they pair “stars” with well-known dance pros who come back every season. The show is known for pushing the label on who qualifies as a “star” but for this season the public thinks they went too far, inviting a convicted felon who they call an entrepreneur as a star.
The said “Entrepreneur & Fashionista” is famous con artist Anna Delvey, who is notorious for scamming multi-million dollars worth of money and claiming to be a rich heiress. Anna is not an heiress and was put behind bars for the scale of her crimes, her crimes were so mind-boggling they called for a show covering them called “Inventing Anna”.
Anna Devley is well-known without a doubt. So it could argued she fits into the category of “star” like other figures such as Bindi Irwin and Charli Damelio who also have unique claims to fame. This is a valid point, as there are no strict guidelines as to what makes a “Star” other than the public eye in some way.
Anna brings a new category of fame to Dancing with the Stars, but how does her presence affect the DWTS pros? The pros are recurring professional dancers who pair up with pros and teach them. Anna was paired with a first-year pro Ezra Sosa. Season 33 is Ezra’s first season, so he and Anna are both beginning the show at the same time but with different skill levels of course.
However, most of the controversy has come from the ankle bracelet Anna gets to sport all her dancing time on the show. This is because of her probation sentence and house arrest in her home country of Germany. Anna and the DWTS producers pulled a lot of strings to even get her to America, obviously ending in her ankle bracelet.
Though Anna is a convicted criminal, there have been controversial characters on the show as well. One to note was Carole Baskins on season 29. Carole Baskins was popularized for the possibility of her killing her husband on the reality TV show “Tiger King”. Carole was never convicted and didn’t make it super far on the show so it didn’t get a huge reaction like Anna.
Anna’s appearance on the show stirred the pot and got attention back on the lengthy running show, but there’s speculation that the producers knew she wouldn’t get far. Her first dance went okay, with her and Ezra receiving middle-of-the-pack scores. However, in the newly released second week, the duo quickly fell to the bottom. In a shocking turn of events after the dances, the judges announced there was a surprise double elimination.
Heads turned at this news, as it did not look good for Anna. Expectedly, the duo was eliminated after their short two-week run on the show. After elimination, the press tends to swarm. The first week Anna’s press quotes were questionable as she went out of her way to say she was glad she never had to do that dance again. So as expected Anna said something pretty questionable in her final press release, saying she took nothing from the experience with a straight face. This leads viewers to conclude Anna could care less about her elimination.
The DWTS producers took a massive risk casting Anna on the show, and it’s not clear if it has paid off yet or not. Anna and Ezra had a short run on the show but definitely captured media attention and the rants of angry fans. Season 33 still has a lengthy run left, so it’s doubtful this casting will damage the reputation of the show. One thing is for certain though, that people have their eyes on DWTS!