Wendy Williams Didn't Love Her Time On DWTS & Accused The Show Of Being 'Totally Scripted'

"Dancing with the Stars" has been entertaining viewers for years, so it's safe to the producers have it down to a science. However, that formulaicness hasn't sat well with every celebrity contestant, and Wendy Williams was particularly vocal after her experience on the show in 2011. 

In case you forgot, Williams joined "DWTS" for its 12th season. Soon after her elimination, she told ABC News that she'd had a great time, even though balancing the competition, her other professional commitments, and her family life had been tough. "You'll be in, like, the best shape of your life, but your whole life will be upside down," she joked. Still, she gushed that overall, "It was a wonderful experience." 

Fast forward to 2014, though, and Williams started spilling the tea, even claiming that "Dancing with the Stars" was "fake." Williams first addressed it on "The Wendy Williams Show" after a tense clip of NeNe Leakes and Tony Dovolani (who'd also been Williams' partner when she was on the show) aired on "DWTS." Dovolani told "Today" that the supposed "feud" had been blown out of proportion on the show, but Williams added another layer of spice to the mix. "They also script what they want you to say. I know this as a participant," she said on "The Wendy Williams Show" (via TikTok). Williams added that while she was reading the aforementioned script, she'd often find it at odds with what she actually thought. "I'm like ... 'Wait. This is not how I'm feeling today, and I wouldn't say that. I'm not going to say that!' I would tell the camera," she recounted. Williams later reiterated that on "Today," recalling, "When they put you in the room and you have to talk to the camera about your experience ... I was letting people know that they script what you say." Bravo for the honesty!

It's pretty likely Wendy Williams would have been annoyed about having her feelings scripted for "Dancing with the Stars" in the first place (as Carson Daly quipped when she spoke about it on "Today," "You're not the right person to script, that's for sure"). However, what frustrated the outspoken TV personality even more was that she believed she was being characterized as the "angry Black woman" through that scripting. As she told "The Wendy Williams Show" audience, "If I'd gave a little bit more sassafras, 'Mhmm, oh no you didn't' ... I discovered I would have stayed, 'cause that's how they were writing my script: to be 'angry Black woman'" (via TikTok). 

Williams went on to add that her partner Tony Dovolani (whom she said she adored, even referring to him as "my Tony") had pretty much confirmed that for her. Williams said she had requested an off-mic conversation with him one day and asked him about it. "He goes to me, 'My wife told me I should have talked to you about that,'" Williams said. Yikes.

Williams ultimately left "DWTS" just two weeks in, and she's long joked that being off the show was probably for the best, quipping in the same episode of "The Wendy Williams Show" that her early elimination was a "blessing and a curse." Likewise, after the elimination of her former friend NeNe Leakes in 2014, she mused that the "Real Housewives of Atlanta" icon probably felt the same way in another episode of "The Wendy Williams Show." "You wanted to go home though anyway, right? ... I know I'm not the only one who was about to stub my toe, you know, to get out of the competition," she winked playfully. Well, leaving certainly was a highlight of the experience for Williams!