Dancing next is the fashionista, entrepreneur, and criminal Anna Delvey.Â
As someone who has watched Dancing with the Stars for a while, the show is known for casting people with questionable backgrounds. In 2020, Carole Baskin was a contestant on the show. She went home on the third night due to her portrayal on the show Tiger King and her low scores from the judges. Carole Baskin was shown in the show to have killed her husband and is very disliked by viewers of Tiger King due to her feud with Joe Exotic
The most controversial contestant of season 33 has to be Anna Delvey. In 2017, she was arrested and charged in New York with multiple counts of first and second-degree grand larceny and theft of services. She was released from prison in February of 2021. A couple of weeks later, she was taken back into custody by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE) for overstaying her visa allegedly. She remained in custody until October 2022.Â
On Sept. 4, Dancing with the Stars posted their season 33 cast list for the celebs. Headlines and posts formed quickly about the casting of Delvey. Some people were excited about her on the show, but most were not. Many headlines bashed the casting directors of Dancing with the Stars for having Delvey on the show. People were excited for her to be on the show because she’s said to be “iconic.” In 2022, Netflix released a show called Inventing Anna, starring Julie Garner, which shows how Delvey stole the money of the New York elites. Many enjoyed the show and thought her character to be of icon level when, in reality, she was a con artist.Â
I have never watched Inventing Anna, but I knew about her life in New York due to social media posts from others. Some people, myself included, do not care for Delvey being on the show. For me, it’s not what she has done in the past, but that she seems ungrateful for the second chance on Dancing with the Stars.Â
In an interview with Us, before the show started, Delvey was asked where she would put her Len Goodman Mirrorball Trophy if she had won. She told them, “Storage.” As one who has watched Dancing with the Stars since I was eight and was a fan of the judge, Len Goodman, who died in April of last year from prostate cancer, I was saddened by her statement. It seemed that Delvey had no respect for the show and was only on it to make money.Â
On Sept. 24, the second week of the contest, Delvey was eliminated. When asked by host Julianna Hough what she had taken from the show, she replied, “Nothing.”
I am angry and saddened that someone, given a second chance to prove that she changed and was not like the woman who stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from the New York elites, acted like this show was nothing. I wish she had been trying to improve her image in the media through the show instead of keeping her original image which she did. Her exiting also affects her partner Ezra Sosa, who this was his first year ever being a pro.
I am glad that Anna was eliminated and believe she should have never been a part of the show. DWTS has a problem with casting controversial contestants because they want more views. The show only continues if there is a lot of buzz around the show which is why the show continues to have controversial people on the show. Without the headlines about the casting, the show would not have the base to be running.