Tyra Banks Hits Back at Dancing With the Stars Viewers Who Hope She’ll Be Fired

This year, Tyra Banks became the host of ABC’s Dancing With the Stars after Tom Bergeron and Erin Andrews announced they would not be returning to the show for the 29th season. Fans have been critical of Banks’ performance on the show, but Banks has pledged to continue to grow in the role, according to US Weekly.

“Every host messes up,” Banks told the outlet. “It’s just normal. It’s live TV. If it wasn’t live, there would be no mess-ups. Even on America’s Next Top Model, I would mess up and tell my editors to leave it in. That’s what makes things human and makes things live.”

The 46-year-old host previously hosted America’s Next Top Model. She also acts as an executive producer of Dancing With the Stars. 

Fans Have Criticized Banks’ Performance As Host Of DWTS

Since Banks’ debut as the host of the long-running show, fans have taken to social media to express their anger at the casting choice and their frustration with the host’s performance.

User @CJG_TT wrote, “I’ve always liked Tyra Banks, but she is not a good host on #DWTS. I honestly don’t feel like watching the show anymore.”

Twitter user @Sheila78440278 wrote, “DWTS I’m not liking the new choice of host Tyra Banks. She’s terrible at this job… bring back Erin and Tom… #LosingFans”

Another user tweeted at the show to say they were upset with the amount of time spent talking instead of dancing on the show, writing “We need more dancing and less talking. I miss all the pros dancing in the beginning of the show. [Tyra Banks] this is not your personal talk show!! I’ve been a huge fan since the 1st season and not happy with season 29! I can’t stand to see Tyra Banks as the host.”

Tyra Banks Said She Doesn’t Want Her Performance to Be “Perfect”

Banks isn’t upset that people think her performance isn’t perfect, though. In the interview with US Weekly, she said that if she wanted her performance to be perfect, she knows how to do that.

“There’s a very clear way as a host that you just read the words and you’re perfect and you know exactly how to do that,” she said. “But when you’re relaxed and you keep it real, the mess-ups happen. And the producer in me knows that even though somebody might be like, ‘Oh, my gosh, you’re messing up!’ it’s live, and it’s real. It’s better than being like a doll.”

Before even starting on the show, Banks had to deal with people saying they believed she had only been hired as the host only because she was a Black woman, though Tom Bergeron came out to say that was not the reason right away, Goldderby reported.

In an interview with Glamour, Banks said that it was hurtful people believed she was only hired because of her gender and the color of her skin.

“It actually hurts my feelings a bit that people think that I was hired because I’m a Black woman,” she said. “[DWTS] reached out to me many, many months ago before any of the unrest happened. And it was something that I had to think about for a while because I knew that there’s a lot of responsibility come in to an institution.”

She said she knew she had huge shoes to fill when it came to stepping in after Tom Bergeron’s exit.

“Still, I’m going to have to convince a lot of people that I can do this job,” she told Glamour. “I know I can do the job, but I’ll have to convince them that they will enjoy me doing the job.”

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