Over its 33 seasons, Dancing With The Stars has had its fair share of feuds, none more so than contestants with the judges. Not every contestant agrees with the judges’ criticism of their dance, and many stars take the comments to heart.
Judge | Seasons They Appeared As Judges |
Len Goodman | 1-19, 22, 24-28 |
Carrie Ann Inaba | 1 to present day |
Bruno Tonioli | 1 to present day |
Julianne Hough | 19, 20, 21, 24 |
Derek Hough | 20 to present day |
Stars from the world of sports, reality TV, fashion, music, and acting pair with professional dancers to win the Mirrorball Trophy. They are then critiqued by a panel of judges who are experienced dancers and choreographers. These judges can sometimes be harsh, causing the celeb to answer back and become personally offended.
Everyone Vs. Gene Simmons
Gene Simmons’ guest appearance on Dancing With The Stars was branded as “creepy” and “misogynistic.” The co-founder of Kiss appeared alongside Carrie Ann Inaba, Bruno Tonioli, and Derek Hough for a rock-themed night on Season 33.
The audience criticized him for focusing all his comments on the way the female dancers and contestants looked rather than on their talent.
- “Chandler, you fogged up my glasses,” he told actress and singer Chandler Kinney following her jive with partner Brandon Armstrong. He later told Us Weekly, “I said, ‘Hold up now.’ I have two little sisters. I heard it. I said, ‘Wait, wait, wait.'”
- He also referred to Family Matters actor Reginald VelJohnson’s dance partner, Emma Slater, as “a beautiful woman” who can “twist and turn it and knows how to move it and all that.”
One woman he wasn’t enamored with was The Real Housewives star Phaedra Parks. He marked her poorly compared to the other contestants, leading the reality star to call him a “din-a-ling.” After the Tuesday live show, Phaedra quipped about Simmons, “I figured he didn’t like short, Black women.”
Other guest judges have included Rosie Perez, Paula Abdul, Cher, and Ricky Martin.
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Gene Simmons refused to apologize for his comments. Speaking to Daily Mail, the rocker said “I had a great time. The contestants were great. The show was great. Watch the show. It was a lot of fun.”
Hannah Brown Vs. Carrie Ann Inaba
Season 28 contestant Hannah Brown felt like judge Carrie Ann Inaba was too harsh on her during DWTS, but she later admitted that she took her critiques too much to heart. She often fought back tears as Carrie judged her, telling her: “I was a girl on reality TV, and so every time I come out here, I’m trying my absolute best.”
“She’s a woman, so she’s very intuitive, I think, of what my emotions were, and she was right a lot of the time,” The popular Bachelorette told Kaitlyn Bristowe on her Off the Vine podcast, as reported by Us Weekly.
I was like, ‘You can’t be right! Do not point out what’s happening on national television right now, because I’m going to burst into tears, and I am trying to keep it together.’
Their tension was noticeable on the reality show when Carrie visited Hannah and her dance partner Alan in rehearsals. She snapped to Carrie that she did not want to be touched when the judge and choreographer stepped in to console her.
Luckily, the comments didn’t get her down too much, as Hannah won her season. She was the second Bachelorette to win after Season 8 contestant and All-Stars winner Melissa Rycroft.
Kaitlyn Bristowe And Carrie Ann Inaba
Another Bachelorette star to question Carrie Ann Inaba was Kaitlyn Bristowe, after she felt like she was undermarked during Season 29 of DWTS. She wondered if the attack was personal or against someone in the Bachelor Nation.
“I just want to know where it comes from. Is it from a place where you believe in us and you want us to do better? Is it coming from a place of, ‘I was hard on Hannah and you’re another Bachelor girl?’” she told ET.
“Where is it coming from and how are we supposed to take it and bring it into our next rehearsal? What do you want us to channel and use from it? It’s very hard to understand that.”
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The reality TV star concluded, “At this point right now, we just feel like we’re never going to make her happy. It feels really discouraging, in a sense, to come back next week,” Kaitlyn’s dance partner Artem Chigvintsev concluded. “I was literally wanting to have earmuffs and put it on top of [Kaitlyn’s] head.”
Michael Bolton Vs. Bruno Tonioli
Singer Michael Bolton accused judge Bruno Tonioli of being “mean-spirited” during Season 11 of DWTS.
According to US Weekly, after Bruno criticized Michael’s jive, saying it was “the worst jive in 11 seasons,” Michael retaliated.
Bruno should search his soul for what he is doing on that show.
According to ABC News, Michael was so upset that he demanded Bruno apologize for his comments. “I think he should apologize publicly and be reprimanded for it,” Bolton told Good Morning America.
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“I am a dog lover, but you make it so hard for me. You should have taken your bone and gone back to the dog house,” Bruno told the “Missing You Now” singer after he performed “Hound Dog.” He continued the insult, saying, “You did it all very, very, very badly.”
To me, [Bruno] let everybody down. My mom was there, she flew in. She’s 90 and I thought she was going to really enjoy it, and I just didn’t expect that level of disrespect from him.
Amber Rose And Julianne Hough
via: Disney/Christopher Willard
Season 23 contestant Amber Rose felt body-shamed by Julianne Hough’s critique of her Argentine tango. During an episode of Loveline with Amber Rose (via Time Magazine), she admitted to feeling ridiculed by the judge’s comments about her performance with pro partner Maksim Chmerkovskiy.
Last night was like, they did the commentary, and I, it was a point in the dance where I had to lift my leg up and Maks dipped me & [Julianne] said, ‘Oh, I’m uncomfortable,’ and instantly I felt, I did feel body-shamed.
Amber also noted that the professional dancers on DWTS “dress very sexy and they do the splits and they grind up on these guys,” and felt it hypocritical that “me, and my body, my hips, my ass, my breasts made her uncomfortable.”
Julianne later apologized and admitted that she supports the idea that dance should be a “universal platform” for people to express themselves. “As a judge, I’m here to solely judge you and the others only for the dancing,” she told Amber when she appeared on Amber’s show, according to Entertainment Weekly. “I want you to know that.”
Julianne also released a statement to PEOPLE apologizing for how her comments came across to Amber. “My comments were solely reacting to the quality of the dance I was judging. I have been a strong proponent of female empowerment and an anti-bullying advocate for years, and I take that very seriously. Any kind of body shaming is the furthest thing from who I am and what I stand for. Trust me I’m ALL for a sexy booty dance!! We all know that!! And any kind of body-shaming goes against everything I believe in.”
The former
DWTS
pro, Julianne, filled in as a guest judge during two seasons of the show before becoming the permanent fourth judge for Season 19 in 2014. She remained as a judge for Seasons 20 and 21, before returning for Seasons 23 and 24. She now co-hosts the dance competition.
Dancing with the Stars is a popular dancing competition reality TV show airing on ABC and Disney+. The series features various celebrities who pair with professional dancers to compete in front of a panel of judges. The US version of the UK TV show Strictly Come Dancing premiered in 2005 and was originally hosted by Tom Bergeron for its first 28 seasons.
- Release Date
- June 1, 2005
- Main Genre
- Reality
- Cast
- Carrie Ann Inaba , Bruno Tonioli , Len Goodman , Tom Bergeron , Cheryl Burke , Tony Dovolani , Derek Hough , Mark Ballas , Karina Smirnoff , Maksim Chmerkovskiy , Kym Johnson , Sasha Farber , Val Chmerkovskiy , Emma Slater , Sharna Burgess
