Former ‘DWTS’ Contestant Danielle Fishel Says Judges Tougher On Female Contestants: “Men Get A Pass”

Danielle Fishel, the former Dancing With The Stars contestant who got booted from the show last year, says female competitors generally have a tougher time winning over judges than male dancers.

On her podcast Ballroom Breakdown, Fishel, best known for her Boy Meets World role, was discussing DWTS‘ Horror Movie Night episode with her guest Kym Johnson. The two were responding to DWTS guest judge Shirley Ballas giving both Julia Stiles and Tatyana Ali scores of 4 when the judge had awarded Tyler Cameron a 5.

“I do believe that the judges, all of them, have a tendency to be harder on the women than they are on the male celebs,” Fishel said. “I could be wrong. But, in my opinion, I think sometimes the men get a pass that the women don’t get.”

Watch the discussion below.

Johnson said she, too, was “surprised” that Ballas had preferred Cameron’s dance to the performances of Stiles and Ali, noting, “I thought the girls were better than that.”

Said Fishel, “I thought, ‘There’s no way that this dance was better than what we had seen. And so, if you were going to give the ladies 4s, I feel like [his] was worthy of a 4 as well.”

Fishel also said she thinks the pro-male bias can extend to audiences. “That same can be said for the audience at home, watching the judges,” she said. “The men get away with being able to give a constructive criticism here or there, whereas the women judges, Carrie Ann and the guest judges, they get booed.”

“So in general,” she concluded, “I think we see a little bit of unfairness with how women are treated in multiple different ways on the show.”