Dancing With the Stars pulled Val Chmerkovskiy from next week’s show after a social media post that drew Carrie Ann Inaba into a fresh round of backlash, a decision that will reshape Dedication Night before the ballroom even opens. Jenna Dewan will still dance, but she will do it with Alan Bersten instead.
Studios said Chmerkovskiy will not participate in next week’s show and added that the well-being of everyone who works on Dancing With the Stars is non-negotiable. The move lands just as viewers are searching for what happens to the lineup on Dancing With The Stars: Dedication Night, where Dewan is set to perform a Viennese waltz to Unchained Melody dedicated to her mother.
The fallout began after the Oct. 13 episode, when Inaba critiqued Jenna Johnson for a lift in her routine. Chmerkovskiy then posted on his TikTok story, “You almost saw Fresh Prince enter the ballroom last night,” a line that was quickly deleted. He later said he was trying to defend his wife, but that the meme reference was a poor decision that did not reflect the values or standards expected of anyone connected with the show.
That defense only deepened the problem. Chmerkovskiy said Inaba did not deserve to get caught in the middle of his bad judgment, and he said he did not want to become a distraction from Dedication Night or from the work Dewan was putting in. Inaba thanked the media for alerting her to the remark, while Chmerkovskiy later apologized on his Instagram Story to her and to the viewers he upset.
The immediate consequence is clear: Chmerkovskiy will be absent next week, but the show has not said whether the removal goes beyond that single episode. What is clear is that a veteran who has appeared on Dancing With the Stars since the second season is out for now, and Dewan’s performance will go on under a different partnership when Dedication Night arrives.
