It’s finale night for season 33 of Dancing with the Stars, and it’s a three-hour-long extravaganza, packed with performances. The excitement reached a fever pitch when there was no elimination last week with their scores from that show carrying over into the finals. So, five remaining couples to compete one last time for the Len Goodman Mirrorball Trophy!

How they had planned for the night to go was: First up, the redemption dances! The judges were supposed to decide which dance routine from the past weeks the dance partners would revisit, a style of dance they didn’t exactly nail in order for them to showcase their improvements. Viewers were hooked!

Now, what viewers were treated to was DWTS finale kicking off the night with a Ray Leeper-choreographed number on Madonna’s Holiday. This season’s eliminated stars did mini dances sprinkled throughout the night. Additionally, viewers saw last season’s champions Xochitl Gomez and Val Chmerkovskiy perform a routine on Chappell Roan’s Pink Pony Club  as well as a special Argentine Tango from former DWTS pro Mark Ballas and co-judge Derek Hough set to “Libertango” by Tango Bardo. But here’s the kicker!

Now, follow all of that up with a long play-by-play recaps from the judges and interviews that ate up the run time from the get-go. It wasn’t a drag that lasted a few minutes; it was a drain-train that took up 20 minutes of air time, certainly a long haul before the stars of the show actually got on-stage! As excitement turned to annoyance, fans took to social media to voice their grievances. “There is a noticeable lack of dancing during the first 20 minutes of a 3-hour-long episode of Dancing With The Stars. We don’t need to recap the entire season. We were there. Let me see some pros dancing.”

4.97 million people tuned in to watch the season 33 debut. With stats confirming that ratings for its third week soaring 24% from last year and its 500th episode (Dedication night) registering the show’s biggest audience of the season with 5.13 million total viewers, the finale wasn’t all that many expected it to be. “Me tuning into Dancing with the Stars finale to watch the opening number only to find Carrie Ann doing a play-by-play of past performances [angry-face emoticon],” a fan commented.

For Rylee Arnold and Stephen Nedoroscik, Judge Bruno Tonioli chose the Quick Step for the Redemption round. Hopping around the dance floor in pink outfits, both danced to the tune of The Rembrandts’ I’ll Be There For You. “Running on top gear” is what Tonioli remarked with a convincing score of 29/30! Rest of the roster scores saw two couples getting a perfect 30 score: Joey Graziadei with partner Jenna Johnson and Chandler Kinney with partner Brandon Armstrong. And on they went with the actual show.

Despite the power-packed performances, fans really had it going in the comment sections for reasons more than just the long recap!

Fans get creative ranting about DWTS “shooting itself in the foot”

On November 23, DWTS revealed which songs the competitors chose for the redemption and the freestyle round. The fans of the show loved almost every song that the five pairs chose, and the anticipation had been building for the better part of a week. Hence, many thought, “these judge recap packages of each couple on Dancing with the Stars is just unnecessary.” 

“Dancing with the Stars is shooting itself in the foot by doing a recap episode at the start of the FINALE. Folks are gonna tune out and not watch the actual dances tonight… anyway, rant over. #DWTS,” wrote another.

Others resorted to sarcasm to air their frustration. “Has someone informed the producers that this show is called DANCING with the stars and not recapping with the stars?” posted another X-user.

What are your thoughts on the finale? Share in the debate section!