The 2013 Dancing With the Stars Upset: Who Beat Zendaya — And Was She Robbed of the Mirrorball?
A decade on, Dancing With the Stars season 16 is still stirring outrage: 16-year-old Disney standout Zendaya and partner Val Chmerkovskiy were among the top performers, yet the finale result blindsided viewers and sparked a controversy that won’t die.
If you have ever yelled at your TV during a Dancing With the Stars finale, you are not alone. Zendaya just reopened an old wound from Season 16, and, honestly, the show keeps proving her point years later.
A quick rewind to Season 16 (2013)
Back when Zendaya was 16 and still a Disney kid, she teamed with Val Chmerkovskiy and basically ran the table all season. The finals lineup was stacked: Kellie Pickler with Derek Hough, NFL receiver Jacoby Jones, and Olympic gymnast Alexandra Raisman. Still, most people figured Zendaya would win. Then the second night of the finale happened, and Pickler and Hough took the Mirrorball.
- Zendaya and Val topped the leaderboard eight times during the season, including both finale nights.
- Pickler and Hough hit the top spot twice all season.
- Zendaya pulled perfect scores across both finale nights and still finished runner-up.
- Fans have long dinged DWTS for how viewer votes can steamroll the judges scores when it counts most.
That scoring math vs. popularity voting tension has always been part of the show, but Season 16 made it painfully obvious. And yes, that is the same Zendaya who now headlines Euphoria. At the time, she was known for Disney Channel work, especially playing Rocky Blue on Shake It Up (a teen dancer, not a background extra, in case you remember that differently).
Zendaya, now: still not over it
In a new W Magazine interview looking back 12 years, she did not sugarcoat how that run felt. The live TV, the pressure at 16, the whole thing stuck with her.
"Listen, I am still harboring a little animosity about that. I felt that loss. I was only 16 years old, and it was highly stressful. Being on live television every week? It is so scary. I took it very seriously, which, in retrospect, I wish I did not."
She added that she wishes she had enjoyed it a little more instead of spiraling: she was stressing herself out every week and really went through it. And if you are wondering whether she kept up with the show after, she did not. On The Awardist podcast, she said she never really watched DWTS before or since, did not feel like the target audience, and joked that it is more her grandma's thing.
Cut to a recent season: same headache, new names
Jump ahead to Season 34 and the pattern resurfaced. Whitney Leavitt, from The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, and pro partner Mark Ballas were the combo a lot of fans had penciled in to win based on their scores week after week. Then came the episode right before the finale: despite sitting second on the judges leaderboard in Week 10, they were the couple sent home out of the final six. Cue outrage over the format all over again.
The finale ended with Robert Irwin and Witney Carson taking the Mirrorball, edging out the other finalist pairs: Alix Earle with Val Chmerkovskiy, and Jordan Chiles with Ezra Sosa. They were strong all season, but plenty of viewers are still salty about Leavitt and Ballas getting bounced that late given the numbers they were putting up.
The through line
For a show built on dance, DWTS has always had a second scoreboard you cannot see: audience votes. When the math and the momentum collide, feelings get hurt. Zendaya lived it at 16, and the stress of that experience still lingers for her. Judging by the more recent uproar, the format still knows exactly how to pour gasoline on that fire.
Dancing With the Stars is streaming on Disney+.