‘DWTS’ Fans Disappointed About 500th Episode, Wish More Former Pros Appeared
Photos by: Disney/Eric McCandless Reading Time: 3 minutes
Now that Dancing With The Stars has premiered their landmark 500th episode, fans are reacting to the show’s opening number which featured former pro Sharna Burgess. Longtime viewers of the show are upset that the number didn’t feature more pros, similar to last season’s Len Goodman tribute dance.
Fans Wish DWTS Featured More Pros For 500th Episode
Fans were underwhelmed with Tuesday night’s 500th episode opening number. The dance, featuring “Crazy in Love” by Beyonce, included this seasons professional dancers, judge Derek Hough, host Julianne Hough and former pro Sharna Burgess.
Dancing With The Stars fans wish that the show would’ve put more emphasis on getting past pros for this opening number. Last season, fans were given the treat of former pros for the monumental Len Goodman tribute dance. The dance, which was choreographed by Jenna Johnson and Val Chmerkovskiy, featured former pros Kym Herjavec, Anna Trebunskaya, Karina Smirnoff, Edyta Sliwinska, Tony Dovolani, Louis van Amstel, Maks Chmerkovskiy and Mark Ballas.
Following the episode, fans went to Reddit. They posted that the 500th episode was disappointing due to the lack of professional dancers.
“They hyped up that it was the 500th episode SO MUCH and talked about this celebration and it was basically just another regular episode,” a user wrote.
“And what happened to the tribute to Len like ???? yeah they mentioned but wasn’t much a tribute at all,” another user wrote.
“Happy to see Sharna on the floor, but why not bring out more past pros??” another user wrote.
Sharna Burgess Admits There Was Supposed to Be More Pros In the Opening Number
Days after the DWTS 500th episode opening number, Sharna Burgess posted a tell-all Instagram video about the number. Fans then took to Reddit to discuss her video further.
“She said that because of budget they could not get a huge group in the number, she ‘represents’ all of them lol she said a group chat was already made with many who were gonna be in the number,” a user wrote.
Fans later shared their disappointment for the show’s budget. Ahead of the season, it was revealed that the budget had changed significantly. Due to the budget, the season was originally set to only have 10 or 11 couples. Typically, the show features 14 couples.
Now, fans are really seeing how this has impacted the show. Just a year ago, multiple pros were able to return in honor of Len Goodman. Now, the show was only able to bring back one pro.
“I’m sure they could have afforded more then just Sharna. I mean if they have money for useless guest judges no one cares about (minus Mark) and all the extra dancers they bring in that take away from the actual pros then I’m pretty sure they could afford previous pros,” another user wrote. “They use the same excuse for their tour issues when we can all see what they charge for tickets. What was the excuse for bringing in previous pros to sit in the audience and never show them? Lol.”
Other Professional Dancers Were Seen in The Audience
Fans were further aggravated when they learned that married couple Peta Murgatroyd and Maks Chmerkovskiy were in attendance. Many believed that they should’ve been invited to join in on the dance. Last season, Murgatroyd was a professional and Chmerkovskiy returned for the Len Goodman number.
Beside the married couple sat former pro Artem Chigvinstev. Fans were shocked to see him in attendance, due to his ongoing divorce from former WWE star Nikki Garcia. Above all, many wondered why Mark Ballas didn’t return for this number. Ballas was a guest judge earlier in the season, so he definitely could have returned for this number.
