On Monday’s episode of Dancing With the Stars, Tyra Banks channeled her inner Britney Spears as the supermodel paid homage to the “Gimme More” hitmaker during Britney Night.
The show’s producers confirmed last week that for Week 3, contestants would be dancing to some of Spears’ biggest hits following the news the latter’s father Jamie Spears had officially been suspended as his daughter’s conservator after 13 years.
And while fans were ecstatic by the news that DWTS would dedicate its entire show to the mother of two, some people weren’t all that impressed by Banks’ outfit choices, which were inspired by several iconic ensembles worn by Spears, including her “Baby One More Time” school attire.
On her Instagram Story, the former America’s Next Top Model judge — while getting ready for the live taping — shared, “I am sending love and paying homage to one of the most powerful recording artists to ever live. She's a living legend. She's Britney Spears.”
And while Banks appeared to have good intentions by sporting costumes similar to Spears over her two-decade-long career, viewers were less than impressed with the “lack of effort” for each outfit that was supposed to pay homage to the “Break the Ice” singer.
In fact, some viewers, as mentioned on Twitter, said Banks resembled talk show host Wendy Williams more than Spears while another person said they felt the choice of attire was “tacky” and “silly.”
Banks hasn’t had the easiest time hosting DWTS since joining the show for Season 29, having previously told Glamour that it had hurt her feelings to think she may have only been hired for the job “because I’m a black woman.”
“Still, I’m going to have to convince a lot of people that I can do this job,” she told the publication in 2020. “I know I can do the job, but I’ll have to convince them that they will enjoy me doing the job.”
“It actually hurts my feelings a bit that people think that I was hired because I’m a Black woman.
“[The show] reached out to me many, many months ago before any of the [racial] unrest happened. And it was something that I had to think about for a while because I knew that there’s a lot of responsibility coming into an institution.”