Thank God ABC Stepped In To Address the Whitney Leavitt and Mark Ballas Hate After ‘Dancing With the Stars’ Season 34

All throughout Season 34 of Dancing With the Stars, fans begged ABC to step in and address the hate campaign directed at certain contestants. While it happened to many of the dancers whose routines elicited strong reactions, one seemed to be on the receiving end more than any other: Whitney Leavitt.

In the 10 or so weeks of competition that she made it through, The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives star managed to secure some of the highest scores of the season, an epic high that was countered by the lows of being a social media pariah. A quick glance at her comments section on any video associated with the dancing competition reveals a strong fanbase and an even stronger force of opposition. Name-calling, harassment, body shaming and threats of violence alike, made worse as the season went on and Leavitt emerged as a serious contender for the Mirrorball Trophy.

The movement continued all the way through her elimination on the night of the semi-finals and even after, with thousands of comments being left on her Instagram and TikTok, making fun of her dances, her appearance, her partner, her husband, etc. The hate was — and in many ways still is — relentless. Thankfully for the fans of Leavitt and her partner, DWTS legend Mark Ballas, ABC and Call Her Daddy worked to not only give them a platform to open up about the experience, but to perform their highly requested and highly anticipated freestyle.

The interview, which Call Her Daddy host Alex Cooper addresses as being a partnered video with ABC and Dancing With the Stars at the top, has already amassed 2 million views in just a day, with fans thanking the network and the podcast for finally allowing Leavitt and Ballas to open up about the experience. Despite it literally being a sanctioned video and the duo having no control over the release of the episode, hate has continued to pile up, with some calling these two “weird” and “gross” for trying to steal the spotlight from this season’s winner.

Long story short: they cannot and will not ever be able to win.

At one point in the hour-long video, in which they also address Leavitt’s reaction to Jen Affleck‘s elimination and their controversial ticket giveaway, Ballas — who up until this point had been widely considered a fan-favorite pro — shares a heartbreaking message he received while putting his son to bed. “Are you that cheap of a c*nt to rot and do this? Damn, you’re special. You’re completely worthless, and I hope you burn in hell one day,” it reads.

What’s worse is that when Cooper turns to Leavitt to see if she has any messages of the like, she shrugs and says that, as the “villain” of Secret Lives, these messages have become par for the course and nothing new. Let that sink in… Messages telling her to “burn in hell” are a dime a dozen. In fact, she says that the only thing that hurt her was seeing hate directed at Ballas.

I can’t say this with 100 percent certainty, obviously, but I do think that ABC and Cooper working together to give Leavitt and Ballas a platform to address the hate is their way of apologizing for not speaking up sooner. It would have been one thing to let these two perform their final dance and post it — because, let’s be clear, they wouldn’t have been able to do that without permission — but to have them sit down on one of the biggest podcasts in the world and talk about their experience, that speaks volumes.

It’s not the same as Prime Video threatening to ban viewers of The Summer I Turned Pretty over hate speech and bullying directed at the actors, but it is a start. I wish ABC had come out sooner, truthfully, but I do think that it’s possible they only realized the gravity of the situation after their elimination and perhaps messages were shared with production members.

In the end, I’m just glad that they were able to share their freestyle — which actually addresses much of the hate she has been on the receiving end of since emerging on the scene with Secret Lives — and put this rollercoaster of a season to bed. I just hope that next season, this traumatic bout of negativity and vitriol doesn’t end with another contestant having to do a whole sit-down just to beg people to ease up.

Peace out, Season 34, you were real… real exhausting. Let’s all be nicer next season.

All episodes of Dancing With the Stars Season 34 are now available to stream on Hulu and Disney+.

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