Val Chmerkovskiy was out of the ballroom on Tuesday night, and Jenna Dewan danced with Alan Bersten instead. On the live Dancing with the Stars episode, Alfonso Ribeiro told viewers at the top of the show that Bersten was with Dewan because Val was not with the show that week.
That swap is why searches for who is Jenna Dewan married to spiked again around the Oct. 20 broadcast. Dewan had been set for a Viennese waltz to Unchained Melody by the Righteous Brothers, and the routine was dedicated to her mom, Nancy. Bersten wrote that he was honored to step in and that it was beautiful to see Dewan and her mother share the floor.
The absence was not a routine casting change. Chmerkovskiy confirmed on Oct. 17 that he had been suspended after a social media post directed at Carrie Ann Inaba referenced Will Smith's Oscars slap. His post had already drawn a public apology on Oct. 15, when he said he had reached out to Inaba directly and personally and was sorry for the harm he caused.
Even after that apology, the show treated the matter as serious enough to keep him off the live episode. Studios called the post inappropriate and said it did not reflect the values or standards expected of anyone connected with the show, adding that the well-being of everyone who works on Dancing with the Stars is non-negotiable. Inaba was still present on Oct. 20, which made the substitution impossible to miss.
Chmerkovskiy said he had made a poor decision and that Inaba did not deserve to be caught in the middle of it. He also said the last thing he wanted was to become a distraction from an important week or from the work Dewan was putting in, and asked fans to send love to Inaba, Dewan and the whole DTWS family during Dedication Night. He said he would still be watching and cheering everyone on.
What remains unclear is how long the suspension will last. For now, the answer to the question around Dewan is simple: she is performing on DWTS with Chmerkovskiy as her partner off the floor and Bersten in his place on it, at least for this week.
