Bobby Bones knows better than most celebrities what it feels like to become a controversial figure inside the Dancing With the Stars ballroom, and years after winning the Mirrorball Trophy, he says one recent interaction showed him that some feelings about his victory may still linger.
The Season 27 champion recently revealed that he encountered several members of the current Season 35 cast while he was in Los Angeles.
According to Bones, most of the contestants and professional dancers he met were friendly and welcoming. He said the majority of the encounters felt completely normal.
But one couple apparently behaved very differently.
Speaking about the experience on his podcast, Bones said he approached the pair and attempted to greet them, only to receive what he described as a noticeably cold response.
He suggested that the professional dancer in the partnership barely acknowledged him, leaving Bones wondering why the interaction felt so different from the warm reception he had received from others.
Despite the speculation the story immediately created, Bones did not publicly identify the celebrity or professional dancer involved.
That distinction is important because fans quickly began trying to determine which Season 35 pairing he could have been discussing, but Bones himself stopped short of attaching names to the encounter.
The radio personality’s relationship with the DWTS fanbase has always been complicated. Bones and professional partner Sharna Burgess won Season 27 in 2018 despite frequently receiving lower judges’ scores than several of the other finalists.
Their victory demonstrated just how powerful viewer voting could be, and it became one of the most debated results in the history of the competition.
Bones has repeatedly acknowledged that hardcore DWTS fans still bring up his victory, sometimes joking about the controversy rather than attempting to distance himself from it.
That history apparently crossed his mind after the awkward Season 35 encounter. Bones questioned whether some professional dancers might share the frustration that fans have expressed toward him over the years.
At the same time, he made it clear that he still has affection for Dancing With the Stars and many of the people behind the program. His story wasn’t presented as criticism of the entire cast, especially because he said his interactions with most of them were positive.
Bones has also continued following Season 35 and discussing the competition, even as he embraces his unusual position as both a former champion and someone whose victory remains one of the show’s most argued-about moments.
For now, however, the biggest mystery remains unanswered. Bones knows exactly which Season 35 couple gave him the chilly reception — but until he chooses to reveal their identities, viewers can only speculate about who made the former Mirrorball champion immediately notice the difference.
