Dancing with the stars Professional dancer Val Chmerkovskiy defended his wife, fellow pro Jenna Johnson, online after judge Carrie Ann Inaba criticized his choreography at Tuesday’s Super Bowl party. However, one social media post particularly caught fans’ attention: a TikTok Story in which Chmerkovskiy wrote, “You almost saw Fresh Prince walk into the ballroom last night,” a comment some believe to be a reference to Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at the 2022 Oscars.
After Johnson and his famous partner Harry Shum Jr. performed a samba to “Yeah!” of Usher, the judge told the disco ball champion: “I think you need to put more content into your dances. Especially because (Harry) is so good, I want to see you challenge yourself a little more in the vein of what we’re looking for. And there was a lift.” Johnson responded to Inaba’s comments by asking: “A lift?
Inaba pulled out a piece of paper with the definition of a lift, which she read during the live episode: “A lift is – I just have to say this – any movement during which one of the dancers has both feet off the ground at the same time with the help or support of their partner. Yeah, lift.”
After the critiques, Shum Jr. and Johnson returned to the skybox, where they received their scores of 33/40; every head judge (Inaba, Derek Hough and Bruno Tonioli) gave the duo an eight, while guest judge Joe Buck gave them a nine.
In a now-viral TikTok video of Chmerkovskiy in the skybox behind Shum Jr. and Johnson as they received their scores, the triple DWTS The winner can be seen shaking his head as the judges (except Buck) delivered their eight scores.
Chmerkovskiy responded to comments on that video Tuesday, writing, “Put (sic) some respect on her name. She’s tripping talking to him like that.” The professional did not name Inaba, but she is the only female judge on the panel.
Chmerkovskiy’s Fresh Prince TikTok story was posted on Wednesday and had been live for six hours at the time of this story’s publication. A Reddit thread was flooded with theories that Chmerkovskiy’s post “probably referred to when Will Smith slapped Chris Rock for making a comment about his wife,” adding that they interpreted his comment as him “wanting to slap Carrie Ann for telling Jenna to step it up.” The TikTok story has since been deleted.
Smith took to the Oscars stage while Rock was hosting in 2022 after making a joke about his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, starring in a GI Jeanne following. “Keep my wife’s name out of your fucking mouth!” » Smith shouted sadly into the crowd after returning to his seat following the slap.
A TikTok user screenshotted Chmerkovskiy’s TikTok Story and attached the photo to a comment on his most recent video shared Wednesday, a post of himself and his celebrity partner Jenna Dewan from Super Bowl Night, writing, “What do you mean by that?”
The Hollywood Reporter has contacted ABC for comment. THR also contacted Inaba and Chmerkovskiy’s respective reps, but did not hear back at the time of publication.
October 14, 6:17 p.m. Updated to reflect that Chmerkovskiy’s TikTok story was deleted after it was posted.
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