Can A Female Celebrity Still Win Season 27 Of ‘Dancing With The Stars?’

Another female celebrity and her male partner were forced to say goodbye after “Dancing With the Stars” aired its Halloween night episode, and with just a few weeks left in the competition, some fans are wondering if a female celebrity competitor still has a chance at claiming the Mirrorball.

For the sixth week in a row, five of which have seen eliminations, a female Season 27 star was cut from the ABC competition series when Mary Lou Retton and Sasha Farber were voted off. Going into Week 7 of the competition, just two female celebrities remain, while all of the males who started the competition are still in the running for the Mirrorball.

Fans have expressed issues with how many women have been knocked out throughout the season, especially since male counterparts who consistently score lower, like Bobby Bones and Joe Amabile, have still managed to hold on. Opposition to female competitors being voted off was most vocal after singer Tinashe was let go in Week 4, but a first-time pattern has seemingly emerged on the show this season which seems to suggest that only the male competitors are going to make it to the final.

While it wouldn’t be the first time a final round of the show saw only male competitors, it would be the first time that all of the teams knocked out earlier in the competition were the ones headed by female celebrities. Male celebrities have been eliminated in large groups as a whole before, with Seasons 8 and 16 each seeing five weeks in a row where a male celeb was voted off, but they have been spared from it happening all in the first weeks of the show.

In addition, the show’s first week, which saw a bottom five perform dances for a second time to avoid elimination, also consisted only of teams headed by female celebrities. Since that week, when the two teams at risk of being sent home were announced, they have overwhelmingly been the ones headed by a female celebrity, with only John Schneider and DeMarcus Ware hitting that spot one time each.

Higher scores are also not a guarantee that the remaining female contestants, Alexis Ren and Evanna Lynch, will make it to the finals either. A near-perfect score during Disney week didn’t keep Alexis from being at risk of elimination again during Halloween night, and there’s no guarantee a similar score will help save Evanna either.

While it could potentially be a stretch to say the show’s current season has seemed sexist based on the results, it wouldn’t be the first time there have been accusations of that behind the scenes. Back in season 24, “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” star Erika Jayne called the show out for judging her sexy routines more harshly than those by her male counterparts.

“But that’s the price you pay for owning your sexuality and not being afraid and being fearless and being yourself as a woman,” she wrote in a blog for People at the time. “You’re held to a different standard and judged differently than men.”

Find out if Evanna Lynch or Alexis Ren can seemingly beat the odds as Season 27 of “Dancing With the Stars” continues. The show airs Mondays at 8 p.m. EDT on ABC.