Glee star Amber Riley has made a BIG impression on Dancing With The Stars season 17 and has become a front-runner in the competition. Despite her size, she moves well and has been able to master the steps of dances like the cha-cha, tango and jive, as well as bringing in her bubbly personality which viewers seem to love.
However, DWTS seems to be biased against the black female celebrities that have been on it. To me, it seems that the judges (Carrie Ann Inaba, Len Goodman and Bruno Tonioli) are way more critical of black female celebrities' technique and precision than others. Maybe it's because they think all black people are supposed to have rhythm...
Most athletes like football players and figure skaters have done well on the show, plus comeback stories, sob stories, and injuries have all helped contestants get votes and survive eliminations.
An element that should be good but might work against her is her partner, Derek Hough. In the season after a professional wins, they usually get partnered with a bad dancer to give other contestants a chance. Derek, who is the best choreographer in my opinion, just won last season with Kelly Pickler and has won 4 DWTS titles total. I don't think that the producers expected Amber to do as well as she's doing so they paired her with him thinking that she wouldn't last long and be eliminated early.
However, she started off strong with an energetic cha-cha that blew everyone in the ballroom away and earned three 9's in the first week. Male celebrities have it easier because the female professional dancers just dance around them most of the time, or it's their name or personality that brings them votes each week. The female celebrities have to compete not only against the male celebrities but the female pros too.
The other black female celebrity, Christina Milian, was voted off this week despite receiving one of the first 10's of the season and an overall 28-out-of-30 for her cha-cha-cha. This elimination is already being viewed as "shocking" by many media outlets.
Many of the black female celebrities have done well on the show but been voted off early or come short of the Mirrorball Trophy. Vivica A. Fox was eliminated 4th in season 3 back in 2006, despite never receiving an overall score less than 22 out of 30. Laila Ali never received less than a 7 on any of her dances during the entire season 4 but came in 3rd. Mel B came in 2nd during season 5 despite having the highest average score during the entire season. Toni Braxton never received less than a 7 during season 7 but was eliminated 5th. Lil' Kim never received lower than a 7 on any of her dances during season 8 but only came in 5th.
The biggest example of this was season 11, when front-runner Brandy came in 4th and was eliminated instead of Bristol Palin, daughter of former Vice-Presidential candidate Sarah Palin. I didn't get why she was even on the show considering that she wasn't a good dancer or in the entertainment industry but her appearance on the show brought drama and controversy regarding viewer votes. I remember trying to vote for Brandy by calling her designated number but the line would say "Thanks for voting for Bristol and Mark" (Ballas, Palin's partner). What made it even worse was that Brandy finally received her much-deserved perfect score of 30 only the night before and was also chosen for the encore performance minutes before being eliminated.
No black female celebrities were chosen for seasons 1, 2, 6, 12, and 13 nor were any selected for the All-Stars season 14. Here is a breakdown of all the black female celebrities that have been contestants on DWTS and their respective finishes:
- Amber Riley (TBA; season 17)
- Christina Milian (eliminated 4th, season 17)
- Zendaya (runner-up, season 16)
- Gladys Knight (eliminated 5th, season 14)
- Sherri Shepherd (eliminated 3rd, season 14)
- Wendy Williams (eliminated 2nd, season 12)
- Brandy (4th place, season 11)
- Niecy Nash (eliminated 7th, season 10)
- Mya (runner-up, season 9)
- Lil' Kim (5th place, season 8)
- Toni Braxton (eliminated 5th, season 7)
- Mel B (runner-up, season 5)
- Laila Ali (3rd place, season 4)
- Monique Coleman (4th place; season 3)
- Vivica A. Fox (eliminated 4th, season 3)
Good luck to Amber because I truly hope that she can break the curse against black female celebrities on DWTS. Check out her breakout performance of the cha-cha during week 1 where she got a 27 out of 30: