One night after Guillermo Rodriguez and Witney Carson miraculously made it through another week on Dancing with the Stars, late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel not only celebrated his beloved sidekick’s unexpected success, but skewered online critics who’ve been begging fellow fans to stop voting for the duo.
Rodriguez, 55, has no dance background nor the body of a dancer, so his routines with Carson routinely earn the lowest scores from the judges. But viewers have fallen in love with his positive attitude, expressions of gratitude, and willingness to compete against elite athletes, former dancers, and stars half his age. Each week, fans have cast enough votes to keep the duo in the competition.
On Wednesday, October 7, Kimmel spent nearly 10 minutes of his Jimmy Kimmel Live! monologue talking with Rodriguez about his latest performance to Mariah Carey‘s Obsessed, including purposefully falling face-down on the dance floor as part of the campy routine.
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“Your scores are going down… you got 13 (out of 30),” Kimmel marveled as his audience cheered and laughed. “Made no difference! The people once again turned out in massive numbers to vote him through to the next round!”
“You are winning even though there are haters online trying their hardest to bring you down,” Kimmel continued, and then played several social media videos of viewers “begging” fellow DWTS fans to stop voting for Rodriguez to ensure better skilled dancers wouldn’t get cut next week.
After airing a video from a young man who urged his followers to stop supporting Rodriguez, Kimmel clapped back, “Save that whining for when your mom comes down to the basement. … We don’t want to hear it.”
Kimmel also shared tweets from other naysayers, including one who said Guillermo should be “ashamed for moving on each week when he can barely walk, let alone dance.”
“I think some people might be losing sight of what this show is, and maybe their lives overall,” Kimmel said as his audience cheered. “Let me explain something. This is not the Olympics, okay? This is not SEAL Team Six. There are no responsibilities that go along with winning this. Once the winner is crowned, we glue a bunch of little mirrors to a $40 piece of styrofoam we bought at Michael’s and we send them home with it. That’s it.”
“This is also not a professional dance competition,” Kimmel quipped. “That’s why it’s called Dancing with the Stars and not Dancing with the Dancers. This is an entertainment show. The winner should be whichever team is the most entertaining.”
Producers then shared a montage of social media videos from fans of all ages cheering on Rodriguez in their homes, learning his and Carson’s fun dance routines, and vowing their loyalty to the underdog. “This is what the show is about,” Kimmel said of the clips.
After joking that asking his sidekick to go on DWTS was like “asking a pigeon to win a swim meet,” clearly impressed with how he’s turned a tough task into a cultural phenomenon, Kimmel concluded his monologue with a final blow to those campaigning against Rodriguez.
“The fact that he has been out there working so hard, rolling around on the floor, sweating, panting, shaking that adorable little ass, dancing like a star,” Kimmel said emphatically, “I’ll tell you: if that bothers you, if that upsets you so much that you feel the need to attack him online, to begrudge him even a drop of the gallons of joy he’s bringing to America right now… maybe you need to get out of your little hate caves and find some friends. Because if you want to get to this guy, you’re going to have to go through all of us!”
Dancing with the Stars airs live Tuesday nights on ABC and Disney+ at 8 p.m. ET/PT.