Wendy Williams Criticized Her Dancing With the Stars Experience as Totally Scripted

“Dancing with the Stars” has been a television fixture for years, and its polished format is clearly built around a proven formula. But not every celebrity contestant has been comfortable with that approach. Wendy Williams, in particular, spoke candidly about her frustrations after appearing on the show in 2011.

Williams competed during Season 12, leaving the show after just two weeks. Shortly afterward, she told ABC News that the experience had been enjoyable, even as she tried to juggle grueling rehearsals with her career and family responsibilities. “You’ll be in, like, the best shape of your life, but your whole life will be upside down,” she joked. Despite the demands, Williams summed up the experience positively, calling it “wonderful.”

Fast forward to 2014, though, and Williams started spilling the tea, even claiming that “Dancing with the Stars” was “fake.” Williams first addressed it on “The Wendy Williams Show” after a tense clip of NeNe Leakes and Tony Dovolani (who’d also been Williams’ partner when she was on the show) aired on “DWTS.” Dovolani told “Today” that the supposed “feud” had been blown out of proportion on the show, but Williams added another layer of spice to the mix. “They also script what they want you to say. I know this as a participant,” she said on “The Wendy Williams Show” (via TikTok). Williams added that while she was reading the aforementioned script, she’d often find it at odds with what she actually thought. “I’m like … ‘Wait. This is not how I’m feeling today, and I wouldn’t say that. I’m not going to say that!’ I would tell the camera,” she recounted. Williams later reiterated that on “Today,” recalling, “When they put you in the room and you have to talk to the camera about your experience … I was letting people know that they script what you say.” Bravo for the honesty!

Even so, Williams was unlikely to appreciate having her on-screen persona shaped by someone else. As Carson Daly joked when she discussed the issue on “Today,” “You’re not the right person to script, that’s for sure.” Williams said the scripting bothered her most because she felt producers were presenting her through the stereotype of the “angry Black woman.” Speaking to the audience of “The Wendy Williams Show,” she claimed, “If I’d gave a little bit more sassafras, ‘Mhmm, oh no you didn’t’ … I discovered I would have stayed, ’cause that’s how they were writing my script: to be ‘angry Black woman’” (via TikTok).

Williams also said her dance partner, Tony Dovolani, whom she openly adored and called “my Tony,” appeared to validate her concerns. She recalled asking him for a private, off-mic conversation about the situation. According to Williams, Dovolani replied, “My wife told me I should have talked to you about that.” Yikes.

Although Williams’ “DWTS” run ended almost immediately, she later joked that leaving may have worked out in her favor. On “The Wendy Williams Show,” she described the early elimination as “a blessing and a curse.” After her former friend NeNe Leakes was eliminated from the competition in 2014, Williams suggested the “Real Housewives of Atlanta” star might have felt similarly during another episode of “The Wendy Williams Show.” “You wanted to go home though anyway, right? … I know I’m not the only one who was about to stub my toe, you know, to get out of the competition,” she said with a wink. For Williams, it seems, getting off the dance floor became one of the show’s most memorable highlights.