Season 34 of “Dancing With The Stars” had a resurgence with the younger generations online, and let me tell you, I am here for it. This season received some of the highest voting turnout in the 20 years it has been on the air. In multiple episodes, the hosts shared how the voting records were broken.

If you are unfamiliar with the show, the concept is one celebrity and one pro dancer are paired together and compete a new ballroom dance every week. They are then judged by the judge’s panel on a scale of one to 10. The twist is that America also gets a vote in who stays and who goes home each week, but they only get 10 votes per couple per voting method (online or text).

This year’s celebrity panel included Robert Irwin, Alix Earle, Andy Richter, Elaine Hendrix, Jordan Chiles, Dylan Efron, Baron Davis, Corey Feldman, Lauren Jauregui, Hilaria Baldwin, Jen Affleck, Whitney Leavitt, Scott Hoying and Danielle Fisher.

Now if you do not recognize some of these names, that is okay. They probably left in week two because they did not have the popular vote (former NBA player Baron Davis and actor Corey Feldman).

Week three and four Lauren Jauregui from Fifth Harmony and Hilaria Baldwin, Alec Baldwin’s wife, were sent home. I personally did not care, but I do know that some people were upset about Jauregui’s early elimination. Jauregui was also upset, she because when she was asked right after the fact, she said she was “pissed.”

Week five sent Scott Hoying from Pentatonix went home (just in time for him to go on tour but do with that information what you will). Jen Affleck from the “Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” went home week six, which made me sad because I was rooting for her, but she did not have the popular vote.

I do feel like this is a good time to point out that Andy Richter, a popular comedian and voice actor, is still in the competition, and he has been deemed the “People’s Princess” because he was only there by the popular vote. He was consistently receiving low scores, and yet, the people saved him every time. Every time his name was not called during elimination, that man was shocked. I will say that I did vote for him once or twice.

Week seven was when Danielle Fishel went home. And if you don’t know who she is, yes you do. This is Topanga from Boy Meets World. I was not surprised by her elimination, but I was sad about it. She was getting better, but it just was not where the top contestants were in their dancing abilities.

Week eight, the quarterfinals, finally saw the People’s Princess Andy Richter go home. I watched this with a group of friends and the excitement in the room with this elimination was off the charts. I thought he was a silly old man learning something new. I love that people kept voting for him, but it was his time. He was not performing at the same level as the other contestants.

Week nine was a controversial one. Whitney Leavitt, the other Secret Lives of Mormon Wives star on the show, was sent home. And this is a good time to talk about contestants with prior dance experience.

There was a lot of discussion online about Leavitt and the fact that she has a degree in modern dance from BYU. Many people said that she should not be there because of that reason, and she was too good for the show because the show was about learning to dance not already knowing.

Now, I have always shared this opinion, but if this was such a huge problem, why was it not a problem with Jordan Chiles, an Olympic gold-medal gymnast? Do we not think that her dance and gymnastic experience gives her a leg up on the competition? And anyone who says “Well, ballroom dance is different from gymnastics.” I raise the point that as someone who has done modern dances before, modern dance is very different from ballroom dancing.

There have been many people on DWTS who have had dance experience. Two recent competitors were Chali D’Amelio, who won season 31, and Jojo Siwa, who placed second on season 30.

I do not think people with dance experience should be on the show, but Leavitt is not the first and she will not be the last. She is just the one that got the most backlash for it.

Also, hate is never the answer. After their elimination, Leavitt and her partner Mark Ballas went on the CallHerDaddy podcast and they shared the amount of hate that they got. Ballas read a DM he received, and I was disgusted. We do not know these people. We have no right to send hate to people over a dancing reality TV show. Please stop using social media to share hate.

Week 10 was the final week of the competition. There were five competitors left. Dylan Efron, yes that Efron except he was on Traitors and not Disney Channel, Jordan Chiles, as I mentioned earlier, Elaine Hendrix, from the Parent Trap, Robert Irwin, Steve Irwin’s son, and Alix Earle, a TikTok influencer.

Each competitor prepared two dances (one ballroom and the freestyle) and prepared for an instant dance challenge where they did not find out the style until a few minutes before they had to perform. There have been a lot of people who have said the freestyles this season are the best ever, and I do not agree. I still watch Stephen Nedoroscik’s freestyle from the previous season and still get chills.

Ultimately, Hendrix received fifth, Efron received fourth, Chiles received third, Earle received second, and Irwin placed first on the same day his sister won the show a decade prior. I personally was voting for Earle because I do feel like she improved so much, but Irwin was great. I can not be too mad about it.

We should talk about the judging. There are three judges Carrie Ann Inaba, Derek Hough and Bruno Tonioli. Inaba was probably the toughest judge, and the amount of boos she got was insane. I felt like she was the only judge that gave feedback sometimes. She is not perfect, and she played favorites, but at least she tried to give constructive feedback. Sometimes it felt like Hough and Tonioli did not really give any feedback, but rather, just said how great everything is and then took points off.

My thoughts for this season: people need to be kinder online. It is insane to me how cruel people are when we do not actually know these people. Also, I loved Andy and I am very glad he went as far as he did. He was not the best dancer, but he was there for a good time. With this new rise of viewers, we all need to remember that this is a reality TV show. We hold no stake in the outcome of this.

I enjoyed this season very much. I have not watched a full season of DWTS since I was young, and this brought me back to the days of my youth. I can not wait to see what next season holds.