Anna Delvey Raises Eyebrows After Accusing 'Dancing With The Stars' Of 'Exploiting' Her

While convicted con artist Anna Delvey said she took "Nothing!" from her time on Dancing with the Stars, she insisted the show gained a great deal from her appearance.

More specifically, Delvey claimed that the production team "exploited" her and her past for views, and that her elimination was an act of discrimination.

For their introductory performance, Anna Delvey and pro partner Ezra Sosa danced a cha cha to Sabrina Carpenter's "Espresso" and scored 18 out of 30 possible points. The next week, they performed a quickstep to KT Tunstall's "Suddenly I See," and were eliminated at the end of the night, which was the first official week of the competition.

Due to Delvey's multiple convictions of grand larceny and theft of services in 2017 and 2019, fans of the show were furious to discover that she had been cast for the 33rd season.

But it wasn't just the public's negative reception that gave Delvey pause.

"It felt like I was never really given a fair chance by the viewers or some of the judges' given their nonsensical scoring."

"It's supposed to be a dance competition and not a popularity contest."

You can watch Delvey and Sosa's closing routine here:

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

Delvey later revealed that, despite taking "nothing" from the competition herself, she felt the production team had "exploited" her for views.

"I feel that the show so obviously used me to drive up the ratings, that they never had any plans to give me any chance to grow and only cared about exploiting me for attention."

"It was predatory of them to try [to] make me feel inadequate and stupid all while I did get progressively better, yet they chose to disregard that."

Delvey ultimately found the whole experience to be disappointing and limiting.

"You guys told me what I'm supposed to do. I tried to do it, and then I still was rejected. And, I'm taking away nothing. This is what I'm taking away from it, because your advice was worthless."

"I felt like, well, they were building me up. It felt like they put so much effort, trying to get me on the show, to make me feel comfortable, just to... eliminate me this early."

"I'm trying to start a new chapter, moving past mistakes I made and regret when I was much younger. I'm not sure when people will finally afford me that second chance and stop persecuting me so I have the opportunity to move on with my life."

Her dance partner, Sosa, stood up for her.

"What she did was not right, but nobody deserves the amount of hate she's getting."

"Everyone deserves a second chance."

Fans of DWTS mocked Delvey for accusing someone of exploitation.

After her high-profile convictions, DWTS fans felt—understandably—that Delvey had spent enough time in the spotlight. And when there are so many qualified and worthy contestants waiting in the wings for their turn, giving her space on the beloved show was, perhaps, too much to ask.