“The whole premise of the show would be celebrities who’s never danced — but the majority of winners are dancers,” he told his old dance partner Cheryl Burke on her Sex, Lies, and Spray Tans podcast.
Antonio Sabàto Jr. wants the world to know Dancing With the Stars is rigged … at least that’s what he believes.
The actor competed on the ABC reality dance competition back in 2014, where he finished in eighth place alongside dancing partner Cheryl Burke.
He recently joined Burke on her Sex, Lies, and Spray Tans podcast to look back on his time on the show while also sharing some blunt opinions about production.
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“To be honest, I think that the show is partly rigged in a sense,” Sabàto told Burke. “Yeah. It is rigged, it’s rigged in this way…”
The 52-year-old explained that he believed those with a dance background have an unfair advantage.
“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 whole premise of the show would be celebrities who’s never danced — but the majority of winners are dancers.”
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Burke did attempt to debunk Sabàto’s theory by pointing out that she won in Season 3 with former NFL star Emmitt Smith, who had never danced.
“Yeah, but he had moves. He had soul. He was dancing at church, you know what I mean? He had that thing going,” Sabàto insisted before adding that Mario Lopez was similar when he competed
He also pointed out current DWTS co-host Alfonso Ribeiro — who won Season 19 — was “tap-dancing with Michael Jackson.”
“It’s like me racing my whole life of professional cars, and you just raced in a track, I’m going to beat you every time,” Sabàto said.
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He went on to recall how he was working on two different series simultaneously, hosting Fix It & Finish while also dancing on the show, so he was often traveleing between jobs.
“If I didn’t have another job and we were just 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,” he said.
“If we would have been free of all the other craziness,” he added, “I would have had a chance of winning it.”
TooFab has reached out to ABC for a comment.
Dancing With the Stars airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on ABC
