Laurie Hernandez ‘Dancing With The Stars’ Win NOT “Rigged,” Despite Report

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Laurie Hernandez’s winning of “Dancing With The Stars” was NOT “rigged,” despite a new report. Gossip Cop can exclusively correct this falsehood. We’re assured it’s “nonsense.”

According to the repeatedly disproven National Enquirer, Hernandez’s win during Tuesday’s finale of “Dancing with the Stars” has brought “new talk of the show being rigged.” The supermarket tabloid alleges a “show insider” told the publication the Olympic gold medal-winning gymnast was a “favorite” of the show’s producers to win Season 23, much like “Bindi Irwin was always set to win the show’s 21st season.” A so-called “on-set source” is quoted as saying, “[Laurie]’s this year’s Bindi… Squeaky-clean, adorable and incredibly popular. She’s the anti-Lochte. It sets up a natural rivalry and a huge reason to tune in.”

The often unreliable magazine boasts how its sister outlet RadarOnline previously reported “Amber Rose had her own suspicions about the competition.” The tabloid quotes the website’s ill-informed “insider” alleging, “Amber saw the way Laurie Hernandez was given the top spot in the GMA cast announcement, and it made her think that they are playing favorites.” Rather than dealing with the facts and scores, the Enquirer fixates on Irwin for the remainder of the article, and has its supposed “source” claim, “Show execs always prefer a good story to good dancing.” If that were the case, Season 23 runner-up James Hinchcliffe, who nearly died in a car crash, had a far better “story” than Hernandez.

Of course, anyone who watched this season’s “Dancing With The Stars” knows the show was not “rigged” for Hernandez to win. The teen is a gold medal-winning athlete, who has perfected numerous routines that made her an Olympic superstar. Much like that, she similarly perfected dance numbers that put her week-after-week on the top of the “Dancing With The Stars” leader board. Perhaps one can argue whether or not it’s fair to have a skilled gymnast like 16-year-old Hernandez compete against 66-year-old former Texas governor Rick Perry, but the dance competition was most assuredly not “rigged” in her favor. And Hernandez is legitimately so talented a dancer, she’s joining the show’s pros on tour.

As for the allegation that Irwin’s season was rigged, too, that’s absurd. Throughout Season 21, the young actress and TV host simply outperformed her competitors fair and square. Oddly, the tabloid doesn’t claim Season 22, in which Nyle DiMarco won, was rigged. And Gossip Cop already refuted the contention that Rose thought “Dancing With The Stars” was fixed in Hernandez’s favor. At the time that story was published, a source close to Rose assured us the report was 100 percent “not true.”

Still, Gossip Cop checked with a “Dancing With The Stars” insider who tells us the tabloid’s latest article about the competition being “rigged” in favor of Hernandez is complete “nonsense.” Picking up on the story’s verbiage about the gymnast being “incredibly popular,” our impeccable source says, “That’s because she’s such a phenomenal dancer. Period.” Besides, as our insider notes, “The judges gives their scores. But America votes and James [Hinchcliffe] was spectacular, but Laurie was hands-down consistently the winner.”