“Dancing” Voting System Overwhelmed: ABC

Uh-oh.

A “record amount of activity” briefly crashed ABC's telephone and online systems for tallying “Dancing with the Stars” votes Monday, The Associated Press reported.

The network said in a statement Tuesday that voting “difficulties” affected finalists Bristol Palin, Kyle Massey and Jennifer Grey equally following their performances on the show's penultimate episode.

The issue was “promptly addressed” and voting times were not extended, the network said.

News of the snafu comes days after “DWTS” executive producer Conrad Green defended the show against a conservative website’s claim to have hacked ABC’s online system and sent extra votes to perennial leaderboard laggard Bristol Palin.

"It's possible to register lots of email addresses, but the IP address identifies which computer sent it," Green told the New York Daily News. "If that does happen, we wipe out [those votes]. We have a number of security checks to identify people trying to multiple vote."

Pro Dancer Maksim Chmerkovskiy, who was booted with singer Brandy Norwood in the “Dancing” semis, later told E Online! he thought the show’s voting system was “flawed.”

Whatever the case, no one disputes that season 11 has been a hit.

Monday’s “DWTS” airing drew an average of 23.7 million viewers, easily topping the number of eyeballs glued to football on ESPN, The New York Times reported.

Selected Reading: NYT, AP, Daily News

 

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