Danica McKellar says DWTS is 'not a dance competition show'

Danica McKellar had an interesting answer to being asked whether or not she thinks Dancing with the Stars is rigged. According to the actress and season 18 contestant on the show, it's a "reality show" and "not a dance competition show."

Danica McKellar was a guest on Cheryl Burke's Sex, Lies, and Spray Tans podcast and dropped some major bombshells about her time on Dancing With the Stars, including who she originally wanted to be partnered with on the show and why she felt like it "broke" her.

Danica McKellar says DWTS is a "reality show"

When asked if she thinks the show is rigged, the actress who appeared as a contestant on season 18 of the competition show had a super sly answer.

"I think it's a reality show, not a dance competition show," she told the podcast host who told her that was a "smart answer."

Along with sharing this insight into the show, Danica shared that her partner on the show and his brother, another dancer that had never won a season of DWTS before, had a "deal" and they both agreed on who they wanted to win the season.

According to Danica McKellar, who was paired up with Val Chmerkovskiy, her partner wanted his brother, Maks Chmerkovskiy, to win the season because he had never won before. She told Cheryl Burke on the podcast, "So, like, Val from day one, he was like, 'I want my brother to win this.' I'm like, 'It's fine.'"

According to Danica McKellar, who was eliminated sixth her season, she was fully on board with her partner's plan to let Maks win because she was so touched by the brothers looking out for each other and supporting each other even though they were supposed to be competing.

"I was really touched by the fact that Val wanted Maks to win, and I always thought that was really cool of him. And so that kinda made me feel like, okay. Well, I I love the love between the brothers, and I wanted to support that," she revealed on the podcast. In the end of the season, Maks and his celebrity partner, Meryl Davis, did win after all.

Why Danica McKellar says DWTS "broke" her

The Wonder Years actress went on to reveal that before she joined the cast of her season of Dancing with the Stars, she had wanted to be partnered up with Derek Hough, but she said that she thought of Val Chmerkovskiy as "mister cool" and was okay with her dance partner even though she didn't get her first choice.

But not getting paired with her dance pro of choice wasn't the hardest part of the show and on the podcast, she shared just how hard the show was for her.

According to Danica McKellar, if people knew how hard training for the show was, "wouldn't be as fun anymore" for viewers to watch, so she believes that producers definitely edit the show to look a lot more casual and lighthearted than it actually is.

"That kind of intense training, I had never had before ever, nothing even close to that," she shared about feeling totally "unprepared" to dance in front of millions of viewers at home.

The actress said that before the show, she had already loved to dance and while she appreciated her partner for pushing her outside of her comfort zone and encouraging her to improve, the fact that she previously enjoyed dancing only made the show harder for her.

She said, "I remember telling somebody it was like if you love chocolate and somebody puts you in a vat of chocolate and then holds your head under it. That's what Dancing with the Stars is like. And every now and then, you get a breath. It's unrelenting."