dpKey Points
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Maksim Chmerkovskiy defended his sister-in-law Jenna Johnson amid Carrie Ann Inaba’s DWTS lift critique.
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Inaba called out pro Johnson and her partner Harry Shum Jr. for completing a lift during their samba in week 5.
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Chmerkovskiy said Johnson didn’t get lifted or lift Shum, but the troupe assisted the actor in a backflip, which is a different ball[room] game.
Maksim Chmerkovskiy thinks Dancing With the Stars‘ Carrie Ann Inaba needs to be more consistent with her judging.
The former pro dancer, who appeared on the show from 2002 to 2017, called out Inaba on The Viall Files podcast in Thursday’s episode for critiquing his sister-in-law Jenna Johnson’s week 5 routine with her celebrity partner, Harry Shum Jr. (Johnson is married to Chmerkovskiy’s brother and fellow pro Val Chmerkovskiy.)
On Tuesday, Inaba claimed Johnson included a lift in Shum’s Super Bowl Night samba to “Yeah!” by Usher featuring Lil Jon and Ludacris, which was against the rules as lifts are not allowed in sambas.
“If that was a halftime show, amazing, I loved every minute of it. But it’s a samba … I think you need to put more content into your dances,” Inaba told the pair, before stating that there was also “a lift” in the routine.
“A lift?” Johnson questioned, which led Inaba to grab a sheet of paper and read the definition of a lift as “any movement during which one of the dancers has both feet off the floor at the same time with the assistance or support of their partner.”
During the routine, Shum was clearly lifted in an assisted backflip by two members of the troupe. But, when considering Inaba’s argument, it seems Johnson’s feet also might’ve accidentally left the ground during a turn movement with Shum shortly after the backflip — although it’s not viewable in the video. (After the routine, Johnson seemed confused as she told cohost Julianne Hough that she thought a lift meant “when you lifted your partner, but totally hear Carrie Ann. I will take it, sure.”)
For his part, Chmerkovskiy was not impressed by Inaba’s ruling. “She goes and starts reading off the rulebook, but then that same rulebook that’s applicable in ballroom with lifts is only applicable to a couple dancing. You’re not talking about extra background dancers running out,” he said on The Viall Files, referencing the troupe members’ assist.
“There’s no ‘three other people’ in the rulebook. The point is: Carrie Ann, get some consistency,” he quipped. “A lift is a lift if a partner lifted his partner. … If you’re going to have [the] troupe run out and throw someone in the air, that’s not a lift. That’s Dancing With the Stars creative direction, and you should complain to the creative director.”
Jenna Johnson and Harry Shum Jr. on week 5 of ‘Dancing With the Stars’
Credit: Disney/Christopher Willard
Chmerkovskiy’s wife and fellow former pro Peta Murgatroyd agreed with his assessment. “When I heard what she said about no one could lift the person, I agreed with Jenna in the fact, like, ‘Oh, so even if it’s not me, he can’t be lifted either.’ I think maybe that would have been confusing for me too,” Murgatroyd shared on The Viall Files.
Chmerkovskiy, however, didn’t think Inaba was wrong in stating that the routine lacked samba content, and insisted Johnson and Shum played into Usher’s type of “movement quality.”
“But samba didn’t play out,” he said, “and I think that’s where Carrie Ann should have ended. To give it a lift situation, come on? Then, give him a seven, take the points [or] something. Why did you bring this up if you’re not going to do anything about it? That’s my problem.”
Inaba scored the couple eight out of 10 points, and they received a total of 33 out of 40 from all the judges, which included Bruno Tonioli, Derek Hough, and guest judges Joe Buck.
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Despite the scores, Johnson was still a bit confused by the lift debate after the live show.
“It’s hard because usually when someone’s called out for a lift, it’s when your partner lifts you,” Johnson explained to Extra on Tuesday after the show. “I was definitely unaware of two guys, that weren’t myself, rolling back Harry and lifting him.”
“But I absolutely hear Carrie Ann. She’s a judge for a reason,” Johnson concluded. “She’s doing her job, I’m going to do mine. I’m going to take the feedback … I would never do something intentionally to break the rules. I like to take risks, but I also love rules so I hear and respect the judges, absolutely.”
Johnson’s husband Val Chmerkovskiy defended his wife on Wednesday, commenting under a fan video, “Puts [sic] some respect on her name. Shes [sic] trippin talking to her like that,” the three-time DWTS champ wrote.
This was not the first time Inaba has called out Johnson over illegal lifts. In 2019, she read the exact same definition of a lift to Johnson while critiquing her tango with Karamo Brown.
New episodes of Dancing With the Stars season 35 air on Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on ABC and Disney+.
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