The Worst ‘Dancing With the Stars’ Feuds Through the Years
The path to the Mirrorball trophy is not always easy.
Tangoing your way to the top of ABC’s hottest celebrity dance show isn’t easy, and doing it without stepping on any toes – be it your partner or other competitors – is no easy task.
Whether it’s a judge getting mad at a contestant, or just a fight between two couples, or just Maksim Chmerkovskiy versus…well…everyone, there’s a good one in the ballroom , no stranger to old-fashioned celebrity feuds.
Carrie Ann Inaba And Hannah Brown
Season 15 contestant Hannah Brown once feuded with ballroom legend and “DWTS” judge Carrie Ann Inaba after Brown, 29, claimed the veteran judge was “too harsh.”
However, in 2020, Brown retracted her statement, saying she took Inaba’s criticism too personally.
“She’s a woman, so I think she had a very good sense of what my feelings were, and she was right a lot of times,” Brown told Kaitlyn Bristowe on her podcast “Off the Vine.”
“I thought to myself, ‘You can’t be right!’ Don’t point out what’s happening on national television right now because I’ll be in tears trying to hold it together. “That was a lot,” she added.
Kaitlyn Bristowe and Carrie Ann Inalba
Inaba also got into a falling out with Bristowe, 38, after the former “Bachelorette” began questioning Inaba’s intentions following two weeks of low scores.
“I just want to know where it came from. Does it come from a place where you believe in us and want us to do better? Is it coming from a place of, “I was hard on Hannah and you’re another ‘Bachelor’ girl?” “Bristowe said Entertainment Tonight in November 2020. “Where does it come from and how should we record it and bring it into our next rehearsal?” What should we channel and use from it? This is very difficult to understand.”
According to Bristowe’s partner at the time, Artem Chigvintsev (Inaba’s ex) also claimed that the criticism was “personal.”
Maksim Chmerkovskiy and Hope Solo
Hope Solo is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Maks Chmerkovskiy. Suffice it to say, Solo, 42, claimed Chmerkovskiy, 43, punched her in the face during rehearsal, an accusation the Ukrainian choreographer has repeatedly denied.
“People can be bad or good or whatever. You can have a great life as an adult,” Chmerkovskiy said on the podcast “Allegedly with Theo Von & Matthew Cole Weiss”. in 2015.
“You can have a tough upbringing. You can have history. You can have everything. But if you’re just a bad person, you know what I mean? There is no excuse for that.”
Kate Gosselin and Tony Dovolani
Despite coping with eight children, 48-year-old Kate Gosselin seemed so incompetent in the ballroom that her partner Tony Dovolani, 50, threatened to leave the show due to Gosselin’s whining.
“You don’t take into account how I learn,” the “Kate Plus 8” star exclaimed.
“I’m done, I’m done today. I quit,” Dovolani seethed.
Mischa Barton and Artem Chigvintsev
Mischa Barton’s feud with Artem Chigvintsev was reportedly due to costume issues during The OC star’s brief cha-cha-cha-cha-cha-cha-cha-cha-cha-cha-cha-cha change in Season 22.
“I had no idea it would be this bad. I was insulted by my dancer,” Barton, 37, recalled when speaking to The Ringer in 2016. “I was supposed to control the costumes, I was told I could do the design aspect, that’s kind of the reason for it.” I agreed to do it. That didn’t happen.”
According to Barton, the show had been courting her for some time and promised to give her full creative control, but she later broke her promise.
“It wasn’t a collaboration like a choreographer on a movie set,” Barton continued. “I was so confused by it. It was like The Hunger Games. It was all a popularity contest. It was awful. I was so happy to get started.”
Cheryl Burke And Ian Ziering
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Cheryl Burke and her partner Ian Ziering got into an argument because Burke, 39, hated the way Ziering, 59, pronounced his name.
“It’s my least favorite [partner] would be Ian Ziering,” Burke later admitted on the “Allegedly” podcast. The fact that his name isn’t EE-AN but EYE-AN makes me want to vomit.”
“That made me want to slit my wrists,” she continued. “I kind of cried to the executives. I asked myself: Is there a way to please just eliminate us? They say we can’t. We can’t do that and I swear every time I asked we just kept going. We would persevere until the end.”
Julianne Hough And Amber rose
Dancer Amber Rose claimed that judge Julianne Hough once body-shamed her while she was appearing on season 23 of “DWTS.”
Hough, 35, later apologized to Rose, saying: “My ‘unpleasant’ comment was related to the fact that I felt like I wanted to get more out of the performance.”
She continued, “When someone does such a hot, sexy dance without having the energy, it can be uncomfortable to watch.” Trust me, I’m ALL for a sexy butt dance!! We all know that!! And any kind of body shaming goes against everything I believe in.”
Rose also buried the hatchet by replying, “When you said [‘I feel a little uncomfortable’], I was very embarrassed. And I felt like you weren’t talking about my dance. But if I misunderstood, I apologize.”
Maksim Chmerkovskiy and Kirstie Alley
Chmerkovskiy’s next partner was former health guru Kirstie Alley, who made her way into the ballroom during the show’s 12th season.
Although things were friendly at first, things took a bad turn when Alley revealed to her partner that she was practicing Scientology.
“She couldn’t handle me anymore,” Chmerkovskiy claimed on “Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen” in 2014. “We had a great relationship… But now that I’m dating other people, I’ve gotten the message that it can’t be her. “If you’re in a relationship with me, you can’t talk to me anymore, and you do “I’m sorry, but it is what it is… I think the world of her.”
He added: “I don’t judge people based on their religion. I am Jewish. I don’t really believe in science fiction, but whatever,” the choreographer continued.
Alley, who died in 2022 at the age of 71, responded with the comments saying he had “raped her ass.”
Bruno ToniolMe and Charlotte McKinney
Eccentric judge Bruno Tonioli, 67, was slammed by former model Charlotte McKinney, 30, after the outspoken judge told her she would “never win the Nobel Prize for quantum physics, but you are eye candy.”
McKinney later hit out at the choreographer say: “E! News” that it was completely “inappropriate.”
“I think it was completely inappropriate,” McKinney said. “Especially after the last week of bullying and talking about just being nice and I didn’t know where that was coming from. We didn’t talk about being smart or anything like that. So it was just inappropriate.”
Brooke Burke and “DWTS“
Brooke Burke, who served as co-host alongside Tom Bergeron after winning the show in Season 7, claimed she was blindsided when the ABC show decided to fire her in favor of sportscaster Erin Andrews.
“I enjoyed being a co-host for seven seasons DWTS But understand the need for change given the state of the show at this point,” Burke, 52, said a statement to “E! News.” “I have always been someone who embraced change and looked forward to pursuing opportunities that I was previously unable to pursue due to contractual obligations to the show.”
She added: “I’ve seen a lot of shocking eliminations in the ballroom, but this one takes the cake.”
Abby Lee Miller and Maksim Chmerkovskiy
This “Dance Moms” star was willing to judge the “DWTS” contestants more harshly than the girls who took her classes, noting that Chmerkovskiy wasn’t a fan of their methods.
“I really don’t care what she has to say,” Chmerkovskiy told Andrews after Miller’s criticism.
Miller, 58, responded to Chmerkovskiy, telling E! told! that his comment was “disrespectful.”
“I don’t think it hurt me, I didn’t have sweat running off my back,” criticized Miller. “But I think it was a little disrespectful to ABC, ‘Dancing With the Stars’ and a judge.”
Season 32 of “Dancing With the Stars,” whose full cast was announced earlier this month, returns Tuesday and continues to air weekly at 8 p.m. on ABC and Disney+.
