Jenna Johnson Accepted the Critique. Her Husband Did Not.

The simplest version of this story is that somebody got defended after saying she accepted the critique.

On the 13 October episode of Dancing with the Stars, judge Carrie Ann Inaba had notes for Jenna Johnson and her celebrity partner Harry Shum Jr. after their samba. She wanted more content in the choreography, and she thought they had put a lift in it, which is not allowed in competitive samba.

"I think you need to put more content in your dances," she said. "Especially because [Harry's] so good, I want to see you challenge yourself a little bit more in the vein of what we're looking for. And there was a lift."

Johnson questioned it. "A lift?"

So Inaba picked up a piece of paper and read the rule out loud: a lift is "any movement during which one of the dancers has both feet off the floor at the same time with the assistance or support of their partner". Then she added, "Yeah, lift."

The samba in question, from the show’s own channel.

Johnson took it on the chin

Johnson herself had a different reaction.

After the episode, Johnson told E! News she had no problem with any of it.

"I absolutely hear what they're saying," she said. "Again, this is a competition. There are judges for a reason. They do need to give feedback. So, yeah, we will take it."

That is about as complete a closing of a subject as a competitor can offer. The dancer who got the note accepted the note.

Then her husband posted

On 14 October, Val Chmerkovskiy, who has been married to Johnson since April 2019, changed his TikTok status.

It read: "You almost saw Fresh Prince enter the ballroom last night."

Will Smith starred in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, and a great many people read the line as pointing at what Smith did on stage at the 2022 Oscars. Screenshots went round. One commenter under one of his videos wrote, "Sounds like a threat to me!!" The status was taken down.

He had also commented on TikTok on Tuesday, the night of the episode: "Puts some respect on her name. Shes trippin talking to her like that."

It is worth being precise here, because the precision is the whole thing. Chmerkovskiy did not say he was going to do anything. He made an oblique reference and left it hanging, in public, the day after a judge had read a rule book at his wife. Many readers took it that way, but it was a reading.

Inaba saw it

She did not pretend otherwise. After a celebrity news site ran Chmerkovskiy's line next to a picture of the Oscars moment, Inaba posted it to her own Instagram Story with a single line.

"So this is what we are doing now?"

She put it on her main grid as well, thanking Page Six and Entertainment Weekly for bringing it to her attention.

The apology

On Thursday 15 October, Chmerkovskiy posted a statement to his Instagram Story. It was not a half apology.

"I want to apologize from the bottom of my heart for my recent post," he wrote. "I have reached out to Carrie Ann to apologize directly and personally, and I also want to apologize publicly as I understand my words affect so many outside of our internal DWTS family."

"I should have never made the reference that I did and I deeply regret it."

He kept going. "I recognize that I am in a fortunate position to have a platform and to be a role model to some, and I need to treat that with more care by actively pausing to think before I post to ensure what I am sharing aligns with who I am, and who I want to be for you all."

And then: "I am truly sorry to Carrie Ann, and everyone who I hurt with my careless post. I will do better moving forward."

There is no "if anyone was offended" in that. He named what he did, said it was wrong, said he had already contacted her privately, and did not explain it away. Apologies at this level of specificity are rare enough in this industry that it is worth pointing out when one happens.

Who these people are

Chmerkovskiy is 40 and has been a professional on Dancing with the Stars for more than twenty seasons. He has won the mirrorball three times, with Rumer Willis, Laurie Hernandez and Xochitl Gomez, and finished second three times. His brother Maksim is also a professional ballroom dancer and the two co-own dance studios together.

Johnson is 32 and is one of the show's established pros. Inaba is 58 and has been judging since the first season, which is to say she was reading that rule book before most of the current cast arrived.

None of which makes the post better. But it does explain why a single line on a TikTok status page turned into a news cycle rather than passing unnoticed.

Where it stands

As of the latest reporting, Inaba had not publicly responded to the apology. Johnson has not publicly commented on her husband's post or the apology. Chmerkovskiy has not posted again on the subject.

The show continues. So, presumably, does the rule about lifts.