Anna Sorokin on her 'Dancing With the Stars' elimination: 'They only cared about exploiting me for attention'
Socialite con artist Anna Sorokin aired her sentiments against Dancing with the Stars following her Sept. 24 elimination from the reality competition.
In an interview with NBC News, the convicted felon said the show used her for ratings and attention only.
"I feel that the show so obviously used me to drive up the ratings, that they never had any plans to give me any chance to grow and only cared about exploiting me for attention," Sorokin wrote in an email sent to the media outlet.
She added, "It was predatory of them to try [to] make me feel inadequate and stupid all while I did get progressively better, yet they chose to disregard that."
Sorokin also said that the show "never gave her a fair chance" and it "must be a dance competition, not a popularity contest."
"It felt like I was never really given a fair chance by the viewers or some of the judges' given their nonsensical scoring," Sorokin said. "It's supposed to be a dance competition and not a popularity contest."
According to NBC, representatives from Dancing With the Stars remained mum about the issue after the media outlet requested comment on Thursday.
On Tuesday, Sorokin was eliminated after performing a quickstep routine to KT Tunstall's Suddenly I See with her dance partner, Ezra Sosa.
Tori Spelling and Pasha Pashkov were also eliminated.
On Sept. 17, during the premiere night of the show's thirty-third season, Sorokin showcased her moves with her professional dance partner Ezra Sosa to Sabrina Carpenter's Espresso.
Her performance was notable as she had to wear an ankle monitor with sparkly embellishments during the dance routine. This device helps track the movements of individuals sentenced to restricted travel or activities.
To recall, Sorokin, the subject of Netflix hit series Inventing Anna, was convicted in 2019 for defrauding banks, hotels, and friends as she posed as a rich German heiress under the name of "Anna Delvey." She was arrested during a sting operation two years prior.
While she was released from prison in 2021, she committed another violation when immigration authorities brought her back into custody for overstaying her visa in New York.
She is still under house arrest and uses an ankle monitor for the show. Her release terms had to be amended to allow her to travel from New York to Los Angeles for filming.
When asked if the device hindered her performance, Sorokin told the Associated Press, "It's actually not a big issue at all. It's pretty light and I asked them to make it tight so it doesn't dangle. So it's not so bad."
"It's not like an ankle weight. It's not like 20 pounds. It's like literally less than a pound and it's not a big deal," she added.
Other celebrity participants of Dancing with the Stars Season 33 include Tori Spelling, Eric Roberts, and Chandler Kinney, among others.
