Val Chmerkovskiy Benched Next Week in Dancing With The Stars: Val Suspension

Val Chmerkovskiy will not take part in next week’s Dancing With the Stars show after his social media joke about Carrie Ann Inaba. The move turns Dancing With the Stars: Val Suspension into an immediate casting change, not a wait-and-see situation. Jenna Dewan will keep working through Dedication Night with Alan Bersten instead.

Studios Acts Fast

Studios said the well-being of everyone who works on Dancing With the Stars is non-negotiable, and it called his post inappropriate and out of step with the values and standards expected from anyone connected with the show. That is the operative business decision here: one pro dancer is out for at least one episode, and the production is protecting the room before next week’s broadcast.

Chmerkovskiy tried to blunt the fallout on Instagram, saying he made a poor decision while trying to defend his wife and did not want to become a distraction from Dedication Night or from the work Jenna Dewan is putting in. He also said Carrie Ann Inaba did not deserve to get caught in the middle of his bad judgment.

Dedication Night Shifts

Dewan will still dance during Dedication Night, but she will do it with Bersten rather than her usual partner. She is set for a Viennese waltz to Unchained Melody dedicated to her mother, which keeps her segment intact even as the lineup around her changes. A source told Variety that Dewan knows the situation and has continued to be a true professional and respectful of the process.

The friction started after the Oct. 13 episode, when Inaba critiqued Jenna Johnson for having a lift in her routine. After that broadcast, Chmerkovskiy posted to his TikTok story: “You almost saw Fresh Prince enter the ballroom last night.” The post was quickly deleted, and it was read as a reference to Will Smith and Chris Rock at the 2022 Oscars.

Inaba, Apology, Fallout

Inaba later thanked the media on her Instagram after being alerted to the remark, and Chmerkovskiy followed with a second apology on his Instagram Story on Thursday. In that statement, he said, “I want to apologize from the bottom of my heart for my recent post. I have reached out to Carrie Ann to apologize directly and personally, and I also want to apologize publicly as I understand my words affect so many outside of our internal DWTS family. I recognize that l am in a fortunate position to have a platform and to be a role model to some, and I need to treat that with more care by actively pausing to think before I post to ensure what I am sharing aligns with who l am, and who I want to be for you all. I am truly sorry to Carrie Ann, and everyone who I hurt with my careless post. I will do better moving forward.”

He also said, “In a moment where my instinct was to defend my wife, I made a poor decision to reference a meme to ‘keep my wife’s name’ out of the conversation, without stopping to think through what else that reference could imply, which was genuinely never my intention.” That reads like the right outcome for the show: one episode away from the ballroom is enough to make the point, while Dewan keeps moving through Dedication Night without a public spiral around her routine.