Studios said Saturday that Val Chmerkovskiy will not take part in next week’s show after a social media post about Carrie Ann Inaba, turning a deleted joke into a real on-air consequence. The decision comes just days before Season 34’s next episode and leaves Jenna Dewan to dance without her regular partner for at least one week.
The show’s parent company said the well-being of everyone who works on Dancing With the Stars is non-negotiable, and called Chmerkovskiy’s post inappropriate and inconsistent with the values and standards expected of anyone connected to the series. That mattered now because the punishment lands before next week’s broadcast, not after the dust settles, and it removes one of the show’s best-known pros from the ballroom on a night built around dedication and family.
The dispute began after the Oct. 13 episode, when Inaba critiqued Jenna Johnson for a lift in her routine. Chmerkovskiy later posted to his TikTok story, “You almost saw Fresh Prince enter the ballroom last night,” then deleted it quickly. Inaba responded on Instagram, and the exchange moved from a backstage irritation into a public flare-up that the show could not ignore.
Chmerkovskiy tried to pull it back on Thursday, writing on his Instagram Story that he had made a poor decision and had meant only to defend his wife. He said Inaba did not deserve to get caught in the middle of his bad judgment, and added that he had reached out to her directly and wanted to apologize publicly because his words affect more than his own circle. His statement made the gap in the story plain: he said the post was a mistake, but the show treated it as a breach of standards, not a misunderstanding.
That is the line Studios drew. Chmerkovskiy has been part of Dancing With the Stars since the second season, so the removal is significant even if it is limited to next week’s show. The company did not spell out a longer punishment, which means the immediate answer is narrow and exact: he is out for the next episode, and nothing in the announcement promises more or less than that.
For Dewan, the change is immediate too. She will still dance at dedication week, paired with Alan Bersten, and perform a Viennese waltz to Unchained Melody dedicated to her mother. Chmerkovskiy said he did not want to become a distraction from that work, but the show has already made its own call. For now, the consequence is simple: next week’s performance goes on without him, and his return after that remains unwritten.
