Actors Will Friedle and Rider Strong are sharing their support for their former “Boy Meets World” co-star, Danielle Fishel, as she continues on her “Dancing With the Stars” journey.
On their iHeart “Pod Meets World” podcast Saturday, Friedle and Strong defended Fishel’s performance on the Oct. 28 Halloween-themed episode of “DWTS,” in which she and partner Pasha Pashkov danced a Viennese waltz to Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars’ “Die With a Smile.”
Fishel and Pashkov received 33 out of 40 points for the number, just one point higher than Elaine Hendrix and Alan Bersten’s score. Hendrix, an actor whose credits include “The Parent Trap” and “Dynasty,” was sidelined by a rib injury before the broadcast, requiring judges Derek Hough, Carrie Ann Inaba and Bruno Tonioli to assess her rehearsal footage in lieu of a polished performance.
After acknowledging their views come “with the bias of having a friend on the show,” Friedle and Strong nonetheless accused Hough, Inaba and Tonioli of judging Fishel too harshly.
“Carrie Ann has her favorites,” Friedle said. “She’ll have two or three that, no matter what they do ― they could walk on the stage, trip, hit their face ― and she’d be like: ‘You tried so hard, 9!’ And then Danielle does the best thing where she’s doing triple flips, and she’s like: ‘You’ve got to hold your shoulders different, too,’ and it’s like: What the fuck?”
Strong echoed those sentiments, noting: “I held back the anger. I wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt. At this point, it’s starting to feel like a personal vendetta.”
Elsewhere in the podcast, the two actors suggested Fishel was being held to “a higher standard” because her portrayal of the teenage Topanga Lawrence on “Boy Meets World,” which aired from 1993 to 2000, remains etched on “DWTS” judges’ minds.
“This is a mother, this is somebody who is 45 years old,” Strong said. “I think that because she looks so young and they still associate her as Topanga, they think of her as, like, a young American sweetheart. And that’s not really fair.”
He went on to note: “There’s a little bit of, like, you know: ‘You’ve been a star all your life, you’ve been the center of attention for a long time,’ and I think that’s working against her.”
Fortunately for Fishel, she and Pashkov were safe after Tuesday’s episode, and the pair are set to compete on this week’s show. Friedle and Strong’s defense of their podcast co-host and former co-star, however, comes weeks after another “DWTS” Season 34 contestant, Hilaria Baldwin, suggested she’d been “bullied” off the show after being eliminated on the Oct. 9 episode.
Baldwin, who is the wife of actor Alec Baldwin, didn’t single out any of the “DWTS” judges in her complaints, but nonetheless blasted the “very coordinated, strategic bullying” she received from the show’s fans while she was a contestant.
“There’s a big problem online right now. It’s a big problem,” she said on the show’s official podcast following her elimination. “We don’t see each other. We make enemies out of each other. And I’m talking about my fellow women. Women’s inhumanity to women. We need to stop. We will never get anywhere.”
Listen to the Nov. 1 episode of “Pod Meets World” here. Friedle and Strong’s comments on Fishel’s “DWTS” score can be found around the 3:47 mark and, later, the 39:09 mark.
