Act party leader and former Dancing with the Stars contestant David Seymour weighs in on Sonia Gray's shock elimination.
Audio / The Country
Dancing with the Stars NZ returned to our screens this week, but it wasn't without its fair share of drama.
After a shock elimination in the first week and "technical errors" with voting, some viewers were left questioning the transparency of the voting system.
Monday night's episode saw Sonia Gray and Aaron Gilmore sent home despite scoring higher than several of the other couples in the competition.
With 50 per cent of their score coming from the judges, the remaining 50 per cent was left up to the public vote.
But some Kiwis claim their votes for Gray weren't going through by text - and some of them even received texts back saying she had already been eliminated.
"I voted at 8.08 for Sonia and Aaron ... and got a text back saying Sonia was no longer in the competition," one viewer wrote on Facebook.
"Couldn't vote for Sonia! Something went wrong with your system," another commented.
"Was there a glitch? A lot of people appeared to have voted for her which couldn't be counted?" someone else wrote.
Another said it was "not ok" that when voting came up, Gray appeared to have already left.
"When someone is trying to vote for a person and unable to due to the vote being blocked it shows that you have already decided who is going to win," another claimed.
So, what went wrong?
A spokesperson for Warner Bros. Discovery told the Herald that when voting closed on Monday night, a "technical error" meant some viewers received spoilers.
Sonia Gray and Aaron Gilmore were the first couple to be eliminated from Dancing with the Stars. Photo / Supplied
"We apologised for that. The technical issue did not have any impact on the final result," they continued.
"For the rest of the season, our hosts will be making it very clear when voting closes."
Asked what percentage of the vote went to each dancer, the spokesperson said that since the production is in line with the original BBC format, this could not be provided.
However, they did reveal that almost 95 per cent of the text vote money goes to the dancers' selected charities.
"All of the telcos waive their fees. The only small fee is to the text service provider," they said. They also noted that none of the money goes to Warner Bros. Discovery.
However, some voters appear to not be happy with the simple "error" explanation and have taken to social media determined to bring Gray back into the competition.
"Bring Sonia and Aaron back. Just wrong," one viewer commented, with another declaring, "The best dancer was eliminated. Such a shame."
"If it's true what they are saying about the votes for Sonia not going thru then that is terrible. She was really the best one there, they are all doing their best for their charity but that's disgraceful!" another wrote.
The Herald also asked the production company how long the voting error took place for before the results were announced. Warner Bros. Discovery chose not to answer this question and referred back to their original statement.
•Dancing with the Stars airs Sunday 7pm and Monday 7.30pm on Three and ThreeNow.
