Should ‘Dancing with the Stars’ hire Ryan Lochte after scandal?

Even before his Olympic legacy was mostly identified by scandal, we were suggesting that Ryan Lochte could be considered a contender on “Dancing with the Stars.” After all, the guy’s got a big personality, and for a brief period of time, even had a reality show. Granted, it was a terrible reality show, but it still existed nonetheless.

Now that there has been an avalanche regarding his actions in Rio, and the truthfulness of both his claims and other members of the U.S. swim team, you now have to wonder this: Does it help or hurt his odds of being cast on the show, or potentially his interest?

Let’s start with the former: “Dancing with the Stars” would be a fool to not throw the question out there. Maybe there is a moral issue in asking someone to be on the show whose claim to fame, other than winning gold medals, is now an incident of vandalism at a Brazilian gas station. Yet, at the same time ABC’s not in the “moral” business; they’re in the money-making business. If they are going to put someone like Tom DeLay on the show or a Paula Deen with a history of controversy, how is Lochte all that different? People would watch. It’s a money-making business.

As for Lochte, it’d be extremely smart for him to join and try to turn the narrative around. This is a positive environment, and nobody on the show’s going to question him over his supposed “robbery” on a weekly basis. He can focus on something new and try to get the public back on his side.

We’ve got a poll below, just in case you want to chime in with your own thoughts!

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