Season 17 of Dancing with the Stars has had more guest judges than all 16 previous seasons combined. ABC marketed the glitter out of them, making each guest judge a big deal. Unfortunately, they were hit or miss, with the quality seeming to decline over time. So who was the worst guest judge – Julianne Hough, Cher, or Maksim Chmerkovskiy?

Julianne was the first, coming in on Week 4. She is doubtlessly the most qualified, being a professional dancer and a two-time winner of the show. She actually gave critiques that were constructive, helpful, and funny. She also called people out on a lot of things, like Mark Ballas hogging the spotlight and Carrie Ann Inaba being a glorified cheerleader. Sure, Julianne got a little hot and bothered by Brant Daugherty taking off his shirt… but so did the other judges! The biggest point against Julianne as a judge was the potential for nepotism, but she rejected Derek Hough’s $10 bribe on air, so that’s that.

Cher had all of Week 8 themed around her, with all the couples dancing to her songs. She is the least qualified to judge a ballroom dance competition, since she is not a ballroom dancer. Consequently, her critiques consisted entirely of comments on how fabulous a couple was. On the plus side, she gave two striking live performances on the show, even if she was wearing a headpiece made of a hundred dead crows for the second song. Cher also first voiced the idea of Jack Osbourne being a pimp and Cheryl Burke being his hooker – that theme persisted throughout the remainder of Season 17.

Maks was called in to judge on Week 10 despite a full judging panel being present. Why? We may never know. His qualifications fall in the middle of the two ladies – he is a ballroom dancer, but he’s never won the show, and he doesn’t really behave professionally. This was in evidence when all he talked about, when asked any question, was how the pro dancers should be lauded for all their hard work. His critiques were useless – he declared that he didn’t care about silly things like technique and dancing in favor of how much he liked the couple. On the plus side, he got people talking about Corbin Bleu’s butt, but that was his only significant contribution to the show.

Which guest judge do you think was the worst? And do you like having guest judges on the show, or should DwtS stick with only Carrie Ann, Len, and Bruno?

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