Dancing With the Stars pro Gleb Savchenko has shared his thoughts on the controversy involving fellow dancer Val Chmerkovskiy and judge Carrie Ann Inaba. Savchenko defended Chmerkovskiy after the show suspended him over a social media comment. He also disagreed with Inaba’s ruling on a dance move performed by Jenna Johnson and Harry Shum Jr., adding another voice to the discussion surrounding the show.
Gleb Savchenko backs Val Chmerkovskiy and disputes Carrie Ann Inaba’s lift ruling on DWTS
In an Oct. 18 TikTok video, Savchenko said he supported Chmerkovskiy in the dispute. “She was just doing her job, creating a good TV moment. But, yeah, I’d say Team Val on this one,” he said about Inaba. Savchenko also claimed that “there’s some bulls–t going on.” The discussion followed Inaba’s criticism of a move during Johnson and Shum’s Oct. 13 samba performance.
Inaba called attention to what she considered an illegal lift and showed the dancers a card explaining the move. Savchenko disagreed with her ruling and said the move did not count as a lift. “Jenna didn’t lift him, he didn’t lift Jenna,” he explained, arguing that other dancers helped Shum perform the trick. He also called Inaba the “lift police” because she regularly flags lifts on the show.
However, Savchenko acknowledged that the samba routine did not fully match the traditional style. “It was a bit flat-footed,” he said, describing it as “a hip-hop samba.” Still, he argued that he would not have marked the move as an illegal lift if he had been judging the performance instead of Inaba.
His comments came as Chmerkovskiy remained suspended from the show following his own social media controversy.
On Oct. 17, BBC Studios announced that Chmerkovskiy would miss the following week’s show. The company called his post inappropriate and said it did not meet the show’s expected standards. Alan Bersten will step in to dance with Chmerkovskiy’s partner, Jenna Dewan.
