Val Chmerkovskiy is navigating the consequences of a misstep.
After the Dancing With the Stars pro appeared to reference Will Smith‘s 2022 Oscars slap in response to judge Carrie Ann Inaba’s critique of wifeJenna Johnson‘s recent samba routine, the show’s production company BBC Studios has handed the dancer a one-week suspension.
“The well-being of everyone who works on Dancing with the Stars is non-negotiable,” BBC Studios shared in a statement Oct. 17 obtained by E! News. “Val’s social media post was inappropriate and does not reflect the values or standards expected of anyone connected with the show. As a result, he will not participate in next week’s show.”
Following Chmerkovskiy’s absence,wanwill dance with proAlan Berstenon the Oct. 20 Dedication Night episode, in which the Rookie star will honor her mother
Shortly after news broke, Chmerkovskiy addressed his suspension in a statement, taking accountability for his actions.
read
DWTS’ Val Chmerkovskiy Apologizes to Carrie Ann Inaba After Will Smith Oscars Slap Comment
“As you may have seen in the news, I won’t be in the ballroom this week,” he wrote on his Instagram Stories Oct. 17. “In a moment where my instinct was to defend my wife, I made a poor decision to reference a meme to ‘keep my wife’s name’ out of the conversation, without stopping to think through what else that reference could imply, which was genuinely never my intention.”
“Carrie Ann certainly didn’t deserve to get caught in the middle of my bad judgment, and I hate that she was,” Chmerkovskiy continued. “The last thing I want is to become a distraction from an important week or from the incredible work my dance partner Jenna Dewan is putting in.”
The 40-year-old—who has been married to Johnson since 2019—ended his statement by offering well wishes to Inaba, Dewan and his DWTS cast members ahead of the show’s upcoming Oct. 20 episode.
“Please send Carrie Ann, Jenna, and the whole DWTS family lots of love during Dedication Night,” Chmerkovskiy wrote. “I’ll be watching and cheering everyone on!!”
The three-time DWTS champion came under fire over his response to Inaba’s now-viral critique about Johnson and her partner Harry Shum Jr.’s samba performance from the Oct. 13 episode.
After Inaba called out the pair for featuring what she considered an illegal lift, resulting in confusion and tension in the ballroom, Chmerkovskiy changed his TikTok status on Oct. 14 to read, “You almost saw Fresh Prince enter the ballroom last night,” per screenshots shared on social media.
As he later confirmed, he referenced the 2022 moment when Smith—who starred on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air—told 2022 Oscars host Chris Rock to “keep my wife’s name out of your f–king mouth” before Smith infamously slapped him across the face.
The next day, Chmerkovskiy issued an apology, expressing his regret over using the reference.
“I want to apologize from the bottom of my heart for my recent post,” he wrote on his Instagram Stories Oct. 15. “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.”
For a closer look at the cast of Dancing With the Stars season 35, keep reading…
ABC/Paula Lobo
However, Bobby Bones said he made more than this when he won season 27 with Sharna Burgess in 2018.
“That show pays OK,” the radio personality said on a Sept. 2025 episode of Jason Tartick’s podcast Trading Secrets. “Like, first episode, no money. Second episode, $10,000. I think it’s like, $10,000, $10,000, $20,000, $20,000. It ends up being $50,000 an episode if you last.”
Also receiving a base salary of around $110,000, Bones continued, “I ended up making close to $400,000 from that show.”
ABC has not publicly confirmed any of these figures.
But even if a pro is eliminated in the first round, they’re not leaving the ballroom empty-handed.
“You’re guaranteed until a certain amount of weeks,” Jenna Johnson said on a June 2025 episode of Kelly Stafford and Hank Winchester’s podcast The Morning After. “I think there’s different contracts though. I can’t speak for everybody.”
While Johnson—who won season 26 with Olympic figure skater Adam Rippon, as well as season 33 with The Bachelor’s Joey Graziadei—says the pros don’t get a larger paycheck if they take home what is now called the Len Goodman Mirrorball Trophy, she noted there’s still an incentive to make it to the finale (besides bragging rights, of course).
“If you make it all the way to the end, you’re getting paid the whole season, which is amazing, and you get a bonus on top of that for making it to the finale,” she explained on The Morning After. “If you win, it’s not like you win a $1 million and split it with your partner. You’re just getting a cute trophy together.”
On a 2022 episode of Trading Secrets, Lindsay Arnold recalled how her salary was cut “more than in half” when she was demoted from pro to troupe member.
“You get no say,” Lindsay said on a May 2025 episode of Maggie Sellers’ Hot Smart Rich podcast. “It’s very much just, ‘Here’s your partner. Make it work.'”
In fact, Jenna said the pairing is often a secret until the last minute.
“They really want to keep it a secret until you meet them live,” Jenna said on The Morning After. “They want that genuine reaction. So I think people always think we know who we have and we’re keeping it a secret. Absolutely not. They do not tell us. They really don’t even want us to know the cast. It gets leaked a lot, but they want it very hush-hush until you walk in and meet your partner.”
As for what the Dancing With the Stars team looks for when making these matches?
“It’s based on height, build and personality and compatibility,” former showrunner Rob Wade told E! News in 2015. “We don’t pair people who aren’t going to get on. It’s too intense. It’s not like The Bachelor or something, we couldn’t do that. That would just be miserable experience for the celebrity, for us and the viewer. You don’t want to see two people who don’t like each other and, quite frankly, we have made that mistake pairing people up who didn’t get on so well.”
