HOME / ENTERTAINMENT / TV

'Dancing With the Stars': Nev Schulman's tango thrills but fans want him out for punching a woman in college

Nev Schulman was one of the top scored performances of the evening, however, fans dug up his past wrongdoings and asked people not to vote for him

Nev Schulman is one of the most relevant celebrities currently on the 'Dancing With the Stars' lineup. When he's not grooving on the ballroom floor, Nev can be seen tracking people who try to fool others on the Internet, on his MTV show 'Catfish'. Since the Season 29 premiere of 'DWTS', he along with his pro dancer partner Sharna Burgess has been receiving a lot of positive comments from the judges for his performances. For the recent episode too, he did the Argentine Tango and the routine had judge Derek Hough dancing in his chair. Judges Bruno Tonioli and Carrie Ann Inaba too thoroughly enjoyed his performance. There was also a special mention about Nev staying in the Jack Sparrow character entirely and how great he looked. 

A video filmed during rehearsals was played before his performance on Monday's Disney Night episode. Nev spoke about how much his daughter loves Disneyland and how much he enjoys being a father because that means being able to do more fun stuff. He and her partner Jenna Johnson performed to the song 'Angelica' from 'Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides'. Tonioli praised Nev for managing to stay in character with his inebriated mannerisms while keeping the essence of the tango intact. He also praised the MTV host for his footwork. Hough commended all the lifts, the ganchos, and how much Nev stayed in character while pulling off the dance routine and Carrie loved the fact that he didn't hide behind the lifts and performed with confidence. 

Nev's performance had the audience excited as well. However, some of them couldn't get over the fact that he is a trained dancer and that he was "tossed out" of college for punching a girl in the face, an incident that Nev himself has admitted to in his book published in 2014. According to Vulture, in his book titled 'In Real Life: Love, Lies & Identity in the Digital Age', Nev said he was thrown out from Sarah Lawrence College for punching a person who he didn't realize was a woman because she was “short, stocky, crew-cut-styled". Certain fans took it upon themselves to remind others of his past and urged them not to vote for him. Here are some of the reactions. 

"Not mentioned at all in his intros, but Nev has a dance background so he’s not this season’s magical unicorn #DWTS," wrote a fan. "Nev tried to downplay his dance experience saying he was in 'just a little dance group' or whatever he said when he, in reality, studied dance at a pretty legit dance school before he got kicked out for punching a girl in the face do with that what you will," wrote another. Another fan wrote, "Reminder to all the people out there who think Nev is just a regular joe learning to dance.. he has years and years of dance experience in many areas of dance. so.. just as big a ringer (if not bigger) than Kaitlyn, Skai, and AJ #dwts." Another tweet read, "Nev also beat up a girl? Yeah, cut the cameras I can’t support him either anyways vote for Anne instead #DWTS."

All this heat might be a result of how casually Nev had mentioned this incident from 2006, in his book. Here's the excerpt from the book: "I decided to photograph the school’s annual Sleaze Ball, a night of debauchery, drugs, and girls dressed primarily in lingerie. While I was photographing, an individual who didn’t like that I was taking pictures attempted to tackle me and smash my camera on the ground. Since the camera was attached to a strap around my neck, I found myself in a very unpleasant situation, much like a dog with a choke collar. In an effort to free myself, I punched the person and ran off; when I returned minutes later, I discovered that the short, stocky, crew-cut-styled individual that I’d fought with was a woman — a fact I hadn’t been aware of in the heat of the moment. The next thing I knew, I’d been arrested."

"The case was dismissed almost immediately, but Sarah Lawrence took the opportunity to toss me out once and for all. I never even finished my junior year. My attitude was, 'Never mind. No big deal. I had it coming.' It didn’t matter much to me. But my mom was crushed. She’d always put her neck out for me more times than I could count, and now I was hurting her legacy at the school she loved so much. I’d finally screwed up so badly that it ended her relationship with Sarah Lawrence for good."

'Dancing With the Stars' airs on Mondays at 8 pm ET on ABC. 

MEA WorldWide (MEAWW) cannot independently verify and does not support any claims being made on the Internet.