Go Ahead, Vote For Guillermo On Dancing With The Stars
Listen, I know he's not a great dancer, but that's not really what the show is about.
In the final minutes of each episode of Dancing With the Stars, one of the celebs and their pro partners vying for the Mirrorball Trophy are sent packing. And every single week this season, one star lands in the final three, yet lives to tango again: Guillermo Rodriguez.
Rodriguez has become a divisive figure in the DWTS fandom, to say the least. The 55-year-old Jimmy Kimmel Live! comedian has won viewers’ hearts and votes with his energetic and joyful — if not particularly skilled — performances with pro Witney Carson. But as the competition progresses, and Rodriguez continues to survive eliminations, some fans have begun to grow frustrated, arguing that he doesn’t deserve a spot over more promising eliminated dancers like Taylor Hanson and, most recently, Ciara Miller. Even his fellow cast member Jackson Olson has taken a shot at Rodriguez for his performance quality.
I get the sentiment, I really do, but honestly, Rodriguez is part of what makes the show fun to watch. There’s a case to be made for keeping him on, at least for a few more weeks.
All Eyes On Guillermo
Let’s get this out of the way: I am not saying Rodriguez is at the same skill level as everyone else. The comedian earned one of Dancing With the Stars’ lowest scores of all time, with a cumulative 10 for his premiere week Cha-Cha to “Mr. Big Stuff,” which he ended by quite literally rolling around on the floor.
But Carrie Ann Inaba said it best during her Week 1 critique of Rodriguez and Carson: “Entertainment value and how the audience responds to what you’re doing matters.” If it didn’t, they wouldn’t keep coming back week after week. There’s a public vote for a reason, after all.
Rodriguez’s performances are the definition of “so bad they’re good.” While not technically challenging, they’re simply be fun to watch. While one could argue his actual movements are pretty limited, and the quality of his execution isn’t exactly crisp, he’s delivered iconic, viral moments week after week, from his floor roll, to his assisted knee-walks on Week 2, to his hip gyrations and shirtless finale on Week 3 — and viewers are eating them up.
As always, the “actually good” stars like Maura Higgins, Amber Glenn, and Harry Shum Jr. have consistently taken up the top of the leaderboard this season. They’re fun to watch because they deliver performances of practically professional quality. The choreography is speedy, complex, and innovative, and the dancers themselves are sharp, locked-in, and on-beat.
Other dancers, meanwhile, fall in the middle — these are your Tatyana Alis, your Jackson Olsons, your Julia Stiles. And while their effort is admirable, they’re not the most interesting watches, especially when compared to the raw talent of stars like Higgins, or the pure audience appeal of stars like Rodriguez.
Being the “best” dancer doesn’t mean you’re guaranteed votes. Last season, Whitney Leavitt consistently landed high scores from the judges, but was still eliminated in Week 10. And I also doubt Rodriguez will coast to the finale while landing at the bottom the leaderboard every week — no past winner has. Ultimately, it’s Dancing With the Stars, not the Olympics. There’s no shame in viewers gravitating towards entertainment quality over skill until the competition gets more intense.
Who Deserves To Stay?
It’s easy to say Rodriguez deserves to be on the stage, but it gets harder to argue when you see who is sent home instead. The DWTS community was particularly shocked when Miller and her partner Brandon Armstrong were eliminated instead of Rodriguez and Carson. Not only was the Summer House star a technically better dancer than Rodriguez, but fans were disappointed to see a talented Black women eliminated, seemingly to keep a significantly less promising man on the show.
It’s true that women stars aren’t given as much leeway to be, well, bad at dancing on DWTS. Giada De Laurentiis, who also scored near the bottom of the leaderboard, was promptly eliminated in Week 2, while Rodriguez chassés into Week 5. A similar pattern emerged last season, when Andy Richter’s run on the show exceeded most viewers’ wildest expectations, making it to Week 9, outlasting average-scoring women like Danielle Fishel and Jen Affleck.
Dancing With the Stars also has a documented history of Black stars facing racism. Plus, over its 35 seasons, the show has only one Black female winner, Amber Riley, in 2013.
This is an issue, for sure, but Rodriguez shouldn’t be blamed for staying over this seasons’ contestants. If Richter’s run last season is any indication, he will probably stick around for quite a while, in a category of his own at the bottom of the leaderboard. The stars that are standing in the way of some eliminated couples however, are the middle-of-the-road men. Average-performing male stars with devoted fanbases like Tyler Cameron and Connor Wood will likely outlast decent and much better women stars — just as Dylan Efron did last season, making it all the way to the finale without moving his feet very much.
Sharna Burgess’ choreography that had Cameron rip off his shirt mid-dance is just as strategic as Carson having Rodriguez don a coconut bra — they’re both, respectfully, making up for some lack of talent. The difference is, Rodriguez isn’t trying to convince anyone he’s good. He’s having a blast on stage, and his joy is contagious — the voters are simply rewarding him for it.
