IN a bombshell charge that has rocked the “Dancing with the Stars” set, two-time Olympic soccer gold medalist HOPE SOLO says that the hit ABC show is rigged!
It’s the first time a contestant has alleged that the reality competition is a fraud – and enraged producers fired back by calling Hope a flat-out liar.
The goalkeeper makes the sensational charges in her new memoir, “Solo: A Memoir of Hope,” which was published just weeks before the debut of the new “DWTS” season. And irate producers “believe she made up the allegations merely to sell books,” revealed a show insider.
Hope claims that her “DWTS” partner Maksim “Maks” Chmerkovskiy told her about the fix, but he’s also blasting her assertions as a “pack of lies,” according to the insider.
In the controversial book, the outspoken 31-year-old claims that Maks hatched an elaborate plan to save them after a “secret memo” circulated saying they were supposed to be eliminated one particular week.
After the panel panned their rumba performance, the hot-headed Ukrainian dancer snapped at judge Len Goodman, was chastised by another judge, Carrie Ann Inaba, and in a final act of defiance declared on camera: “This is my show!”
Hope wrote in her explosive book: “Maks later told me that he had argued with the judges because he had been told we were going to be eliminated, that there was some secret memo going around that said who would be ousted each week.
“He explained that he wanted to cause some drama on the live portion of the show so that they wouldn’t be able to resist keeping us around, hoping for more fireworks.
“It seems to have worked – we weren’t eliminated that week.”
This isn’t the first time the show has been rocked by charges it’s fixed.
As The ENQUIRER reported in 2010, sources alleged that Sarah Palin masterminded a massive viewer vote campaign to tip the scales for her clumsy daughter Bristol, who miraculously made the finals.
And as Season 12 drew to a close, contestant Kirstie Alley allegedly marshaled her more than 800,000 Twitter followers and others to vote for her.
But this is the first time a contestant has cried foul, prompting “the network to explore its legal options,” revealed the insider.
Although the source says that network execs have now backed off and want the whole thing to be forgotten, an irate Maks is still fuming. He’s said to be considering taking Hope to court over her charges in the book that he mistreated her.
Meanwhile, a network insider said: “At the moment, Maks and ABC are not making any public statements.”
