Fans of ABC’s Dancing With the Stars were furious at judge Carrie Ann Inaba during Tuesday’s performance for her score against actress Chandler Kinney.
Tuesday night’s episode – dubbed Halloween Nightmares – featured each star dancing with a theme involving their biggest fears.
The episode saw the first 10 scores of the season, many of which were handed out by Carrie Ann Inaba, while judges Derek Hough and Bruno Tonioli would usually give the same performance 9s.
Many fans were livid, though, when Carrie handed out a 9 for Chandler McKinney’s performance while Derek and Bruno gave the performance their first 10s of the season.
It didn’t take long for fans to flood social media to show their distaste for the scores, with many claiming that Inaba has been biased against women for years.
Chandler and her pro partner Brandon Armstrong danced a Viennese Waltz to Secrets, theme to Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin.
She revealed her biggest fear was a creepy doll at her grandma’s that seemed to move around the house… before she realized her family was pranking her.
They put together a stylish and elegant dance, which Bruno said he was, ‘spellbound’ by, adding it had, the, beauty and the sense of haunting that a classic gothic novel has.’
Inaba was not quite as glowing in her praise, saying that she and rugby star Ilona Maher had the hardest dances of the night, therefore are the ‘most critical’ to judge.’
‘So it was really strong, but I wouldn’t call it perfection just because it’s such a higher criteria,’ Inaba said as the crowd booed, but Derek Hough disagreed.
‘That, the texture, the arm movement, the thing is trying to capture the quality that you did in that dance really truly was in my opinion absolute perfection,’ he said.
Inaba gave Chandler and Brandon a 9, after delivering 10 scores for Dwight Howard, Danny Amendola, Jenn Tran (who was eliminated this episode), Joey Grazadei and Stephen Nedoroscik, while Derek and Bruno gave Chandler their first 10s all year.
Fans were livid, including @SierraWilson10, who said, ‘the scariest part of tonight’s episode is watching carrie ann continue to tear down the female contestants with bullshit critiques while praising the men for doing the bare minimum.’
@formidablekahan accused Inaba of gender bias, stating, ‘carrie anne hates women idc ilona and chandler deserve better,’ referring to Inaba giving Ilona Maher an 8 earlier in the episode as well, though both Derek and Bruno gave her 8’s as well.
@brittsrenten said Inaba’s gender bias goes back years, adding, ‘long time viewer here – CAI has been against black women FOR YEARS, it’s literally normani, tinashe, and charity all over again I’M SICK OF THIS!!!!!!!!!! thread to follow soon but I’m power voting my a** off for chandler rn.’
@Tommy_Ecker said, ‘So you’re giving 10s out like candy, but as soon as Chandler performs you just happen to “run out”???’
@Golden_Josette put her on blast by stating, ‘Carrie Ann not giving Chandler a 10 when she gave those mediocre men a 10!!!’
@brutalpisces echoed the previous sentiments, adding, ‘carrie ann giving these men who just did lifts and barely any dancing 10s but robs chandler of her perfect score … she will always be a woman hater.’
@camprealitypod quoted Inaba by saying what she said to Chandler: ‘“You actually have to earn a 9” – says the women who is been throwing out rando 10s tonight.’
@Golden_Josette added, ‘Chandler not getting a perfect score because Carrie Ann loves to underscore women every season.’