Dancing With the Stars champion Joey Graziadei hasn’t voted at all this season despite watching every episode — but he has a plan to change that.
The former Bachelor star, who took home the Mirrorball trophy on DWTS season 33, recently appeared on SiriusXM’s Smith Sisters Live and dropped his surprising revelation when cohost Lauren Smith asked point-blank if he votes on the show.
“I can,” he replied. “I obviously can. I actually have not yet, and I don’t know why. I don’t really have a reason to it.”
When cohost Rachel Smith suggested that maybe it’s because he hasn’t “felt led” to do so, Graziadei corrected her. “I actually have definitely felt led,” he admitted. “I just, there’s moments I feel like it was like, I don’t know, I’m like on the inside now. I’m like, ‘Maybe I should, maybe I shouldn’t.'”
He continued, “I think my thought process, because I’ve waited this long, is I’m gonna vote once and it’s gonna be in the finale. I’m gonna vote for my winner. I think that’s what it is. I think that’s how I’m gonna do it, because there’s been moments, I’m like, ‘Damn, I really do want to vote for that,’ but I just haven’t.”
It turns out that watching season 34, which is rapidly approaching its finale, has been an entirely new experience for the former contestant. “It’s new now ’cause I’m watching up in the production area,” Graziadei said. “I’m watching the whole show. I’m really making sure I don’t miss everything, and that’s part of it, because I never want someone to be sitting in front of me and talking about something and I don’t feel like I actually understand what they’re talking about.”
So much so that the former Bachelor said he’s “more aware than I’ve ever been” about DWTS. “When you’re on the show, you’re really just focusing about your dance — you barely know what’s going on,” he explained.
“I couldn’t tell you what anyone’s scores were. If anything, Jenna was like mad at me if I was paying attention to scores,” he said, referring to his dance pro partner, Jenna Johnson. “She’s like, ‘You should be focusing on what we can control right now,’ so we would be really just getting warmed up, focusing on what we can do, and then you would dance.”
Disney/Eric McCandless
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DWTS returns Tuesday on ABC with a 20th anniversary celebration episode. The ep will mark the return of original host Tom Bergeron, who hasn’t been seen on the long-running series since his surprise departure in July 2020. Bergeron will serve as a guest judge on the episode, which will celebrate “20 years of dazzling moves, unforgettable moments and show-stopping performances.”
SiriusXM’s Smith Sisters Live airs Monday through Friday at 9 a.m. ET/PT on Radio Andy (SiriusXM Ch. 102), and anytime on the SiriusXM app.