ABC has shut down a rumor that Dancing with the Stars has been fixed to have Lori Loughlin's daughter Olivia Jade survive several eliminations since she appeared to be an easy Week 1 voting target.
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On September 1, the blind item revealed, "Once again the fix is in for this barely there celebrity offspring on this network reality show. Because she will be hated by the general public and voted off the first week, the producers guaranteed she can remain until week three. After that, they won't protect her any longer."
After ABC announced Dancing with the Stars' Season 30 cast, the post was updated a little over one week later to reveal Olivia's name as well as her mother Lori and the show title, Dancing with the Stars.
But on Monday, ABC reality chief Robert Mills took to Twitter to set the record straight.
Robert reposted a fan's tweet that read Olivia "has a deal to stay at least 3 weeks without being in danger on #DWTS."
The fan had linked to a Heavy.com article reporting on the blind item that sparked the speculation ABC is honoring a secret deal with Olivia to keep her on the show.
However, in reply, Robert tweeted, "This is the dumbest thing I've ever heard. "The show is a competition and as such is subject to legal and broadcast standard regulations."
Many fans are angry about Olivia's Dancing with the Stars participation due to the college admissions scandal her mother Lori and father, Mossimo Giannulli, had been involved in.
Lori and Mossimo each spent time in jail -- two months for Lori, while Mossimo was sentenced to five months behind bars -- after pleading guilty on charges of conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud, according to E! News.
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Lori and Mossimo had bribed the University of Southern California with $500,000 to admit their daughters, Olivia and Isabella Rose, on rowing scholarships and under false pretenses.
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Lori was released from federal prison in December 2020 and has reportedly resumed her acting career, but the scandal is still attached to the Full House alum's name as well as her family's reputation.
Olivia, a social media influencer who teaches her followers how to apply makeup, joined the Dancing with the Stars cast this fall to hopefully shed new light on her life, and fans are anticipating she might share her side of the college-admissions story and how it's affected her in a future episode.
"I feel like a lot of people don't know me that well and obviously that's something I want to, you know, be vulnerable with and have people see a different side of me," Olivia recently told ET Canada.
"But also, naturally, I think I am a closed-off person and so hopefully people just see more behind the scenes. I feel like once I get in front of the camera, and it's a straight-up interview, I'm still robotic."
Olivia apparently hopes people will see that she has a strong work ethic and is "really excited and grateful" to be on the reality dancing competition.
Olivia's professional partner Val Chmerkovskiy added that they're going to earn people's attention by working hard and dancing well week to week.
Olivia and Val finished the two-week Dancing with the Stars leaderboard in sixth place with 52 out of 80 total points.
On Monday night, Olivia and Val took the stage with a 27-point worthy Viennese waltz, and the judges seemed impressed by her grace and natural skill.
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Olivia and Val were not one of the bottom-two couples based on the combination of judges' scores and home viewer votes from the last two weeks of performance shows.
Instead, Netflix star Martin Kove and pro dancer Britt Stewart were ousted from Dancing with the Stars' 30th season, and the other bottom-two couple -- actress Christine Chiu and pro partner Pasha Pashkov -- survived to see another week of dancing.
About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski
