So I’ve been waiting for DWTS with baited breath because they are notorious for inspiration porn and I was hoping this wouldn’t happen to Nyle. I still feel that ANTM treated him horribly, so I was a little nervous for this.
First, I want to state that I am not part of the Deaf community, so there may have been things that happened that I totally didn’t notice as audist.
I think Nyle killed it! He’s an amazing dancer and, so far, I was fairly pleased with how they constructed his segment in the premiere.
Things I DID notice that were iffy at best:
they didn’t tell Peta that Nyle is Deaf, so she had no way of being able to introduce herself without creating an uncomfortable situation. They both handled it well, but the show definitely did that for shock value and it sucked.
they kept asking questions like “so you really can’t hear?” Part of this was from the fact that they have had HoH dancers on the show before who were able to hear partially with hearing aids, but the questions still came off as crass.
Things that I noticed that were pretty cool:
they showed that Peta was learning sign language and was ready to completely change her teaching methods in order to be more accessible
Nyle made sure to explain the alternative ways they used to stay on beat
they showed his translator
they showed the other cast members applauding in sign language
Overall, I felt there was minimal inspiration porn, but that may come later as each cast member gets more screen time. Because Nyle is DEFINITELY staying for a while. I’m both excited and nervous for the rest of this season, I can only hope that the show will treat him with the respect he deserves.
