Fair or not so much? Dancing With the Stars‘ Len Goodman has always been the head judge, but viewers are becoming more and more confused by the rules when it comes to their weekly save.
Each week, two couples are placed in the bottom two and the judges get to choose which to save. However, if Derek Hough, Carrie Ann Inaba and Bruno Tonioli don’t all agree on who to save, Len, 77, must make the final call.
During the October 12 episode, Matt James and Lindsay Arnold landed in the bottom two next to Kenya Moore and Brandon Armstrong. Although both Bruno, 65, and Carrie Ann, 53, chose to save the former Bachelor, 29, Derek picked the 50-year-old RHOA alum — and Len agreed.
Fans were shocked again during Grease week when Melanie C and Gleb Savchenko were sent home as Len chose to save Olivia Jade Giannulli and Val Chmerkovskiy.
“I’m in favor of this situation,” the YouTube star, 22, told Us Weekly and other reporters after the episode. “Basically his vote counts, like, it’s a tie-breaker. He has the ultimate say. So that’s how it works for those confused.”
Val, 35, added, “Last week, I was really confused. This week, love it. I really understand it now.”
Pro Cheryl Burke explained the rule further, recalling when she didn’t make the final with Juan Pablo Di Pace during season 27 after coming off a perfect score.
“That was back when it was purely based off of judges’ scores and viewers’ votes. But the judges didn’t have that round where they could choose the couple to save, so in a way, I actually don’t mind it,” she said of this rule. “Now, do I think that it’s confusing this season? Maybe a little bit because there are four judges, but I didn’t realize until recently that Len’s vote is considered as two votes. I don’t know if that was explained or not.”
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Artem Chigvintsev, for his part, has a different idea about what to do if there’s a tie. Watch the video above and scroll down to see all the cast’s reactions to the save rule: