Why Antonio Sabàto Jr. Believes 'DWTS' Is Rigged

Is every little detail about Dancing with the Stars totally organic? Season 19 contestant Antonio Sabato Jr. doesn’t think so. The actor and model once competed on the show back in 2014. When he recently reflected on that time, he didn’t have the nicest things to say. These are the details of Antonio‘s personal experience performing on the hit reality TV show.

Antonio Sabàto Jr. Doesn’t Remember DWTS Fondly

Antonio sat down with another former Dancing With the Stars contestant, Cheryl Burke. He joined her on her podcast, Sex, Lies, and Spray Tans to chat it up. At one point, he told Cheryl, “To be honest, I think that that the show is partly rigged in a sense. Yeah, it is rigged.” He went on to say:

“First of all, if you’re not a dancer or you don’t have dancing skills from a young age, you’re not going to win. I think that somebody who’s never danced — because the premise of the show would be celebrities who’s never danced — but the majority of winners are dancers.”

antonio sabato jr selfie — Instagram / Antonio Sabàto Jr.

From his perspective, the only people who have a real shot at winning the show are people who’ve trained professionally as dancers in the past. Antonio isn’t the only celeb to participate on Dancing with the Stars who didn’t come from a full-fledged dance background, though.

In Season 1, Rachel Hunter joined as a supermodel and Evander Holyfield joined as a heavyweight boxer. Additionally, Kelly Monaco joined as an actress from General Hospital. In Season 2, Jerry Rice joined as an NFL wide receiver, Master P joined as a rapper, and Kenny Mayne joined as an ESPN anchorman. The list goes on like that with each new season.

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Of course, there has also been a long list of professionally trained dancers who’ve joined the show, in accordance to Antonio‘s belief system. Some examples include Heather Morris from Glee, Zendaya, and Ally Brooke from Fifth Harmony. Antonio went into further depth with Cheryl about the reason he personally believes he didn’t last very long on Dancing with the Stars. While he was filming, he was also hosting a show called, Fix It and Finish It. He was being spread thin between his obligations. He spoke on that ordeal, saying:

”If I didn’t have another job and we were just, like, in Hollywood and me driving five minutes, and we had all the time in the world and also the time in the world to relax in moments where you’re not traveling instead of taking red-eyes every single week, I think I would’ve probably lasted at least another week or two. If we would have been free of all the other craziness, I would have had a chance of winning it.”

Do you agree that Dancing with the Stars is rigged in favor of people with professional dance backgrounds? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below.