What the Fuck: Dancing With The Stars Judges Accused of Treating ’90s TV Actor Unfairly
Actors Will Friedle and Rider Strong share their support for their former “Boy Meets World” co-star Danielle Fishel as she continues her journey on “Dancing With the Stars.”
On their iHeart “Pod Meets World” podcast on Saturday, Friedle and Strong defended Fishel’s performance on the Oct. 28 Halloween-themed episode of “DWTS,” in which she and partner Pasha Pashkov danced a Viennese waltz to Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars’ “Die With a Smile.”
Fishel and Pashkov received 33 out of 40 points for the number, just one point higher than Elaine Hendrix and Alan Bersten’s score. Hendrix, an actor whose credits include “The Parent Trap” and “Dynasty,” was sidelined with a rib injury before the broadcast, forcing judges Derek Hough, Carrie Ann Inaba and Bruno Tonioli to evaluate his rehearsal footage rather than a polished performance.
After acknowledging that their views come “with the bias of having a friend on the show,” Friedle and Strong accused Hough, Inaba and Tonioli of judging Fishel too harshly.
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“Carrie Ann has her favorites,” Friedle said. “She’ll have two or three that, no matter what they do (they might go up on stage, trip, hit their face) and she’d be like, ‘You tried so hard, 9!’ And then Danielle does the best thing she does: she does triple jumps and she’s like, ‘You’ve got to keep your shoulders different too,’ and she’s like, ‘What the fuck?'”
Strong echoed those sentiments, noting, “I bottled up the anger. I wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt. At this point, it’s starting to feel like a personal vendetta.”
Elsewhere in the podcast, the two actors suggested that Fishel was being held to “a higher standard” because her portrayal of teenager Topanga Lawrence on “Boy Meets World,” which aired from 1993 to 2000, remains etched in the minds of the “DWTS” judges.
“This is a mother, this is someone who is 45 years old,” Strong said. “I think because she looks so young and they still associate her as Topanga, they think of her as a young American bride. And that’s not really fair.”
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He went on to note, “There’s a little bit of, you know, ‘You’ve been a star your whole life, you’ve been in the spotlight for a long time,’ and I think that’s working against him.”
Fortunately for Fishel, she and Pashkov were safe after Tuesday’s episode, and the pair will compete on this week’s show. However, Friedle and Strong’s defense of their co-host and former podcast co-star comes weeks after another “DWTS” season 34 contestant, Hilaria Baldwin, suggested she had been “bullied” off the show after being eliminated on the Oct. 9 episode.
Baldwin, wife of actor Alec Baldwin, did not single out any of the “DWTS” judges in her complaints, but still criticized the “strategic and highly coordinated bullying” she received from fans of the show while she was a contestant.
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“There’s a big problem online right now. It’s a big problem,” he said. on the show’s official podcast following its elimination. “We don’t see each other. We make enemies of each other. And I’m talking about my colleagues. The inhumanity of women towards women. We have to stop. We will never get anywhere.”
Listen to the November 1 episode of “Pod Meets World” here. Friedle and Strong’s comments on Fishel’s “DWTS” score can be found around the 3:47 and, later, 39:09 mark.
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