There’s a very specific kind of secondhand embarrassment that comes with watching someone perform a dance that’s basically already “yours,” on national television, in front of judges who can and will tell you to your face that it wasn’t great. Tyler Cameron found that out the hard way on Dancing With the Stars last Tuesday. And the guy whose show basically originated the move? He’s not mad about it. Not even a little.

Wait, What Dance Are We Talking About

Okay so here’s the setup. Belmont Cameli – yes, from Peacock’s Off Campus, yes, the one with Ella – stars in a show that opened its first season back in May with a salsa scene set to “Girls” by The Kid Laroi. It was a whole moment. Memorable enough, apparently, that when Tyler Cameron needed a song for his live salsa on DWTS this season, somebody in that creative room picked the exact same track.

Coincidence? Homage? Someone on the DWTS production team binged Off Campus on a Tuesday night and thought “yeah, that’s the one”? Honestly, who knows. But the parallel was obvious enough that when Entertainment Tonight caught up with Cameli on the VMAs red carpet this past Sunday, they had to ask him about it. And his answer was… genuinely sweet, if I’m being honest.

The Actual Reaction

“I did see that. And he killed it too,” Cameli told ET, 28 years old and apparently not the least bit territorial about a dance move. He kept going too, which is the part I actually love here. “And the man looks good, and he gave full effort, and that’s what I love, that’s what it’s all about. Tyler did fantastic.”

“I did see that. And he killed it too.”

Not gonna lie, I was fully expecting some kind of half-compliment. The “oh that’s so funny, we did that first, ha ha” energy that celebrities sometimes do when they’re being polite but definitely think they got a little bit jacked. Cameli didn’t do that at all. He just… complimented the guy. Genuinely. Twice, actually, if you count “killed it” and “fantastic” separately, which I do.

So How’d Tyler Actually Do?

Here’s where things get a little less rosy for Cameron. He performed the live salsa on September 22 with his pro partner Sharna Burgess – he’s 33, she’s the seasoned DWTS vet who’s been doing this a long time – and the judges gave him a 16 out of 30. That’s, um. Not great. Middle of the pack at best, depending on the week and who else was up.

The thing is, scores on this show are always a little bit of a mess to interpret in the moment. Sixteen out of thirty sounds rough on paper, but early season scores tend to run lower across the board just because everyone’s still finding their feet (pun very much intended). So maybe it’s not the disaster number it looks like. Maybe it is. I wasn’t in the ballroom, I didn’t see the full routine start to finish, so I’ll admit I’m going off the score and the clips like everybody else.

What I do know is that Cameron’s whole thing on this show has been the effort-over-polish narrative. He’s not a trained dancer, he’s a reality TV guy (Bachelorette alum, if you need the reminder), and he’s leaning into “look how hard I’m trying” as his brand this season. Which, fine. That’s a real strategy. It worked for plenty of contestants before him.

Why This Little Moment Actually Matters

Look, in the grand scheme of things this is a small story. Nobody’s going to remember in six months that Belmont Cameli said something nice about Tyler Cameron’s salsa. But I think there’s something kind of refreshing about it anyway, and here’s why.

We live in an era where everything gets framed as beef until proven otherwise. Two shows use the same song for a dance scene and the algorithm – and honestly, sometimes the press – wants that to be a rivalry. A “who did it better” showdown. Comment sections practically write themselves: Off Campus fans defending their guy, DWTS stans hyping up Cameron, everybody picking teams over a Kid Laroi song nobody even wrote specifically for either show.

Cameli just… didn’t play that game. He watched the clip, thought the guy looked good, and said so. On camera. At the VMAs, no less, where there’s about a thousand more interesting things he could’ve talked about instead.

A Small Thing That Says Something Bigger

I’ve covered enough red carpets to know that most “reaction” quotes are filler. Reporters ask, stars give a safe non-answer, everybody moves on. This wasn’t that. Cameli actually watched the performance – he said so directly, “I did see that” – which means somebody either sent it to him or he went looking for it himself. Either way, that’s not nothing. That’s a guy who cared enough to check.

What This Actually Means

Do I think Off Campus and Dancing With the Stars are now locked in some cosmic dance-off destiny? No. Absolutely not. This is a fun little crossover moment born out of a shared song choice, nothing more sinister or calculated than that.

But I do think it says something about how these two guys are carrying themselves publicly. Cameron’s out there sweating through live ballroom performances with middling scores and a full heart, and Cameli’s out there hyping up a fellow entertainer instead of getting weird and competitive about a dance scene from his own show getting “borrowed,” intentionally or not.

Honestly? More of this, please. Less manufactured rivalry, more people just being normal and generous about each other’s work. Tyler Cameron’s salsa may not have scored well with the judges, but it scored pretty well with the one guy who arguably had a reason to side-eye it. That’s worth something, even if it’s not a perfect ten.