This may seem like an odd topic for a Dancing With the Stars blog, but I bring it up because every year during the nomination period (which the public also has input on) I see DWTS fans trying to get the show and their favorite dancers on the ballot, to little success. Sure, we may see a few familiar faces make the final cut, but I can't recall any of them have ever actually winning, and I don't even think the show itself has been on the ballot as of late. The nominations and voting among fans always seems to be a bit disjointed; while I often see fans strategizing together to help their favorite couples on the show advance, I haven't seen anything like that for the TCA's, at least among the DWTS crowd. But if we as a fandom band together, there are a few things we could do to potentially change that.
As we have seen several times now (particularly this past season) social media isn't that relevant when it comes to what happens on DWTS. The opinions and trends I see on most social media platforms-twitter in particular-are often off base from what the general public is thinking. As such, things like trending hashtags and celebrity endorsements of contestants don't generally have much impact on the competition.
The Teen Choice Awards are a different story. The demo for this skews much younger, and the nomination process (and I believe the actual voting round later on) is conducted on, wait for it...twitter. So now's the time to use those aforementioned strategies that don't work as well on the show itself. In order to nominate a dancer, tweet "My #TeenChoice nominee for #ChoiceDancer is *insert twitter handle here*". (You must use the hashtags in order for your vote to be counted.)
Since tweeting (using certain hashtags) is literally how you vote, twitter tricks are now the best bet to get your favorites on the ballot. Unfortunately, it also kinda limits who can realistically be nominated. Pretty much everyone who's ended up on the ballot in previous years has an army of dedicated social media fans behind them, so in order for someone from this show to be nominated, they need to either have that or have connections to someone who has that. I'd say the people who might have an actual shot at making it on this year are:
Allison Holker, Derek Hough, and Julianne Hough: I've lumped them all together because all three seem to be nominated often. If any of them are nominated again this year, you can use your social media strategies to band together and support them for the win!
Emma Slater: She's the current Mirrorball Champion, so she has that going for her, but her biggest shot at making it (and the reason I put her on the shortlist) is because she danced with social media star Hayes Grier a few seasons ago, and it's clear they are still friends. Hayes has a lot of what I liked to call "twitter power" meaning if he tweets something, it's likely to show up all over the platform. If DWTS fans can get Hayes to tweet out a TCA nomination for Emma, she'll have a decent shot at getting on the final ballot.
Val Chmerkovskiy: Val has been partnered with several people famous among the teenage/social media crowd, many of whom have remained friends with him and who would probably be more than happy to tweet out support if enough fans call on them to do so. Zendaya and Laurie Hernandez are prime candidates to do this, but the person who would put him in the best position to be nominated is none other than his most recent partner, Fifth Harmony's own Normani Kordei. As we all saw throughout Season 24, the Harmonizers are one of the most prominent social media fanbases, and are well known for winning a lot at anything their fanbase can vote for (well, okay, maybe not Dancing With the Stars...but this could be their big "revenge"! Lol) Anyway, Val is probably the best bet to get nominated this year because if Normani tweets out a nomination for him, the Harmonizers will certainly follow suit! (Anything for their girls!)
If you want to support another pro for potential nomination (or heck even a celeb; seems a lot of people have been nominating Heather Morris, to the point where I think she might actually have a better shot at it than any of the DWTS regulars) you can, but it will probably be much more difficult to snag them a spot. If you want to improve their chances, think of celebrity connections they may have (specifically, stars with a large social media presence and following) and try to get them to show their support. And do the same when nominating the show itself for its category! Remember, this is one time where hashtags and endorsements do make a difference!
