Carrie Ann Inaba Just Clapped Back At The Criticism Over Her “Dancing With The Stars” Scoring

As someone who has loved Dancing with the Stars since I was a literal child, it’s been awesome to see just how popular the show has gotten over the past couple seasons. Everyone and their mother watches it, and the former competitive dancer in me is LIVINGGGG for all the dance talk!

And one thing about being a dancer means I’m pretty critical of the judging, especially when it doesn’t seem fair. But I’m certainly not the only one.

In case you’re unaware, Dancing with the Stars has three judges: Carrie Ann Inaba, Derek Hough (the best one, yes, I said it), and Bruno Tonioli. And for at least the last two seasons, fans have noticed Carrie Ann’s scoring isn’t the most consistent.

I won’t name every single criticism she’s getting (because there are a lot), but to name a few: people allege that she’s harder on the female contestants than the men, lets favouritism affect her scoring instead of remaining unbiased, and is overall inconsistent.

One data scientist on TikTok even analyzed all of Carrie Ann’s scores compared to her fellow judges with a statistical analysis, and proved mathematically that her scoring is the least consistent and most biased. Yep, the lore runs DEEP.

And the criticism isn’t just happening online — Carrie Ann has been boo’ed by the IRL audience many times over the past couple seasons. So ICYMI, she’s well aware people are not fond of her as a judge.

Enter Taylor Swift. (Hang in there.) She recently released a song called “Actually Romantic” (which has its own lore, but that’s a story for another time). The song is essentially a clap-back to one’s haters, pointing out that it actually takes a lot of effort to hate someone, which is actually, well, kinda sweet.

Well, Carrie Ann must’ve resonated with “Actually Romantic,” because on Oct. 22, she posted a TikTok to the song, seemingly responding to all the backlash. In the video, we can see the text “my wednesday morning anthem” on the screen, and Carrie Ann is lip syncing the chorus: “But it’s actually sweet, all the time you’ve spent on me / It’s honestly wild, all the effort you’ve put in / It’s actually romantic,” and blows a kiss at the end.

And now, you’re probably wondering what the heck people had to say in the comments on that video…and it does NOT disappoint. The top comment has over 95K likes, and it reads: “really good TikTok. no notes. perfect! 8.” — a genius way to poke fun, if you ask me. Carrie herself even liked that comment.

In addition to this, she also addressed the criticism in her Instagram comments after Dedication Night on Oct. 17, according to Us Weekly. “It’s okay to disagree about what we see. That’s what makes our show great,” she said. “You have a say in the matter. We want you to vote for what you love and believe in.”

So there ya go: Carrie Ann is well aware of the criticism. And although I do wholeheartedly agree with the issues the internet is bringing up, I do have to say, it’s nice to see her handling it with a bit of humour. (How’s that for an unbiased judgement?)