Carole Baskin's debut marked a cynical new low for Dancing with the Stars

The Daily Beast

"We're all complete trash for watching Monday night just to sneer at Baskin," Kevin Fallon says of the Tiger King star, whom the show teased throughout Monday night as Season 29's biggest draw, having her perform last. "The casting freaking worked. It always does," says Fallon. "I’m watching and writing about this show, thus feeding the beast, or in this case, beasts: satiating the show’s craven dance for relevance, and validating Baskin’s desire to stretch out her 15 minutes as long as possible." Fallon adds: "Say what you will about the long-running reality competition and the audience it panders to, these people are savants of shamelessness. From Sean Spicer to Bristol Palin to Rick Perry, they know what casting decisions are going to score headlines, drum up interest and relevance, and ruffle feathers—and not of the samba gown variety. Consider it a devil’s embrace of this dystopian hellscape. Pandemic. Police killings. Protests. Wildfires. Voter suppression. What jester would more please the court of dipshits (that would be us) than the Tiger King lady? She, the woman who became famous because people thought a show that glamorized animal abuse, exploited addicts, and propagated poverty tourism was hilarious camp, her own cultural presence amplified because jokes theorizing that she murdered her husband and fed him to tigers became a popular meme." Fallon says Baskin's cynical casting is at odds with Dancing's earnestness, and wonders why producers are "directly inviting such nefarious viewership." "The biggest misfire of all of this, though, is diminishing returns. When is stunt TV actually worth it?" says Fallon. "Yes, Dancing With the Stars was trending Monday night, riding high on the pedals of Carole Baskin’s tacky flower crown. But the rubbernecking is over. We saw the car crash. It was ugly. But now it’s time to get traffic moving again and on with our lives—lives that, God willing, will never require hearing the phrase 'hey all you cool cats and kittens' ever again." ALSO: Would Baskin be considered a "star" without the murderous implications?