Cheryl Burke on Anna Delvey's 'DWTS' casting: 'Is it sending the right message that you need to be a convicted felon in order to be considered a star?'
After competing for 26 seasons on Dancing With the Stars, Cheryl Burke enjoyed Tuesday's premiere on her couch like the rest of us — and she has some hot takes.
The 40-year-old Sex, Lies, and Spray Tans podcast host dished to Yahoo Entertainment about the Season 33 premiere and the pair to beat (Chandler Kinney and Brandon Armstrong), the backlash to con artist Anna Delvey's casting and why she thinks Jenn Tran and Sasha Farber could go the distance outside of the ballroom.
Delvey, also known as Anna Sorokin, made her debut on Sept. 17 — glitter ankle monitor and all. The fake heiress's casting ruffled many feathers, as she's less known as a star and more for conning the upper crust of New York City.
"Am I shocked [she was cast]? No. But this is a family show," Burke said when asked about the backlash. "Is it sending the right message that you need to be a convicted felon in order to be considered a star on Dancing With the Stars? I don't know. Do you have to be under house arrest? Like, what happened to this show being a family show and Disney, you know?"
Although Burke thinks Delvey, who is paired with pro Ezra Sosa, was one of the night's worst performers, it wasn't because of her dance moves.
"I think that she has a lot of potential. Whenever I look and do these reviews and judge these couples, I put them in two separate categories, meaning each couple gets the technical dance ability score from me and then the full package," Burke said. "How vulnerable are these people? Are they letting me in as a viewer? Am I able to connect with this person? With Anna, yes, she has potential — actually more than some of the other contestants. But this wall that she has up is so thick that I wish she was partnered with Val [Chmerkovskiy] for this reason. Val would be able to break it down with the experience he has had on the show."
Kinney and Armstrong received the top score and Burke agrees they look like frontrunners. "If they continue on the same trajectory, they are [finalists]," she said, but calls Danny Amendola and pro Witney Carson her "dark horse" this season.
Chemistry in the ballroom is important, which is why each season usually creates some real-life couples. OK, more than a few. Burke said hookups happen way more than any of us know about. "I would say most of them, you have zero clue," she laughed.
When asked who she thinks is ripe for a "showmance," it was a quick answer from Burke: Tran and Farber.
"Of course we're rooting for her," Burke explained. (Most of the country is after the "cruel" Bachelorette finale played out in front of the world.)
"I didn't watch the full season of [TheBachelorette] but I do know that she is very self-aware. And I don't know if people who are self-aware should be a part of the Bachelor franchise. I almost think that she was too good for these men," Burke said. "With Sasha, what's gonna happen is there's going to be a natural mentor-student vibe, which is already there. But then also she feels safe with Sasha. Like, she referred to Sasha as one of her best friends already. So I hope that they make babies."
Model Brooks Nader and partner Gleb Savchenko have also sparked romance rumors, but Burke doesn't think these two will go the distance if there is in fact something going on.
"I just don't know if it'll be as long lasting as someone like Jenn and Sasha," she said. "I'm not psychic. I think that there's natural chemistry, but that also will fade soon. Especially if they get past this double elimination, which is going to be challenging for them."
DWTS is known to be physically grueling, but the mental toll it takes on contestants is often overlooked. Burke touched on this when she had ex-DWTS star Charity Lawson on her podcast. Burke said one positive change the network could make is to enlist an on-set therapist who is made available to both the stars and pros.
"I mean, I could have gone a few times," she said.
"First of all, seven days a week [like DWTS] is really intense — the quick turnaround, the pressure. It's not like any other competition that I've been a part of. It's one thing if it would've been like a new dance every two weeks, right? Like that would relieve a lot of pressure. But at the end of the day, this is part of what makes the show so good is the fact that they only have a few days to learn a new dance," Burke said. "But I think it's important to have resources on set and I'll stick by it forever because the fact that I hear [reality shows] Special Forces and Bachelor franchise have therapists on site and Dancing With the Stars doesn't is worrisome."
Dancing With the Stars airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.
