Maks Chmerkovskiy has not been afraid to speak his mind on his feelings about Dancing With the Stars over the years.
Chmerkovskiy started on season 2 of the ABC dance competition show in 2006. He took a brief break after season 14 of the show before returning in season 18 and then again from seasons 23 through 25.
Throughout his time on DWTS, Chmerkovskiy has had some criticisms of some of the celebrities — and some of the judges.
During season 13 of DWTS in 2013, Chmerkovskiy lashed out at former judge Len Goodman after Goodman said that his former partner Hope Solo’s performance was “the worst dance of the season.”
After Chmerkovskiy disagreed with Goodman’s opinion, Goodman shared that he has “been in this business for 50 years.”
“Then maybe it’s time to go!” Chmerkovskiy said back before saying backstage, “With all due respect, this is my show. I helped make it what it is.”
Keep scrolling to see more of Chmerkovskiy’s critical remarks about DWTS:
Maks’ Quarrel With Judge Len Goodman
Chmerkovskiy’s feud with Goodman dates back to season 10 of DWTS when the judge criticized him after ripping off his shirt during a dance with partner Erin Andrews. (Goodman gave them a 7 while Bruno Tonioli and Carrie Ann Inaba gave them a 9.)
“I’m fed up, Maks, with shirts coming off! She’s too good for that!” Goodman said.
Following the incident, Chmerkovskiy shared that Goodman was “wrong one billion percent.”
“He said we didn’t have enough substance in samba. Are you out of your mind?” Chmerkovskiy told Luxury Handbag Shopping in April 2010. “I could give you a list right now, probably would take about three pages, of all the steps we did in samba. This is what I do for a living! I know that not everyone knows what goes into this, but I go back to running four very successful dance studios. I have a staff of about 50. I trained a ton of US champions and world champions, and I’ve coached [everyone] from juveniles to professionals.”
Chmerkovskiy went on to say that Goodman should not tell him what he didn’t do “right” because he’s “wrong.”
“And if that means you’re too old to be on this show and judge, then that’s what it means,” he explained. “He can’t say that stuff without expecting me to say something back. This is my job. If you’re going to call me out, expect me to defend myself.”
Three seasons later, Chmerkovskiy went off on Goodman once again after he called him and Solo’s performance the “worst dance of the season.”
After Chmerkovskiy objected and said that the remarks were “disrespectful,” Goodman argued that he had been in the business for “50 years.”
Chmerkovskiy noted that “maybe it’s time to go” to Goodman before saying backstage that DWTS is his show and he “helped make it what it is.”
He Slammed Former Pro and Judge Derek Hough
After his fight with Goodman, former dancer and now judge Hough sided with Goodman — which made Chmerkovskiy angry.
“Derek Hough has been very supportive of his personal career on the show,” he said in an interview with Robin Roberts on Good Morning America in October 2011. “When you say judges have been generous, with all due respect, if I had Nicole Scherzinger followed by Jennifer Grey followed by Ricki Lake, I probably would not be very upset with the judges either.”
His Feud With Former Partner Hope Solo
After performing on season 13 with Solo, the soccer player alleged in her 2012 book, Solo: A Memoir of Hope, that Chmerkovskiy became physically aggressive with her during a rehearsal and “slapped” her “hard” on the face while trying to correct one of her dance moves.
“He manhandled me in rehearsals from the start, pushing me, whacking my stomach, bending my arms roughly. I thought that was just how it went — how dancers worked with each other,” she wrote. “But it kept getting worse. One day, Maks was trying to put me in a certain position and hit my stomach so hard with his open palm that I had a red handprint there for the rest of the day.”
Solo claimed that ABC gave her the opportunity to continue DWTS with a different partner, but she “didn’t want to end Maks’ career” or look like a “prima donna” in the media.
After Solo’s allegations, Chmerkovskiy seemingly denied them on social media.
“Always hated hypocrites and liars, but when someone is both and an opportunist, I just feel bad for them,” he wrote via X. “Can’t win at someone’s expense.”
Nearly three years later, Chmerkovskiy said that Solo is a sh***y person.”
“You can have a sh***y life growing up, but if you’re a bad person, there’s not excuse for that,” he said on the “Allegedly” podcast in October 2015.
He Didn’t Like Anna Delvey’s Casting on the Show
While talking about celebrity casting on DWTS in September 2024, Chmerkovskiy said that they look for different contestants to fill specific archetypes — but he didn’t approve of casting Delvey.
“So those are the kind of qualities you put together. And then there’s like, ‘OK, so who’s going to draw attention?’ And now you’re talking about someone like an Anna character, right?” Chmerkovskiy said on the “TMZ Podcast” at the time. “So my struggle here … I can see both sides. I can also be on the production side and I can be on the viewer side and understand it all. But if you want an ankle [bracelet] and sort of this, ‘Damn, this is going to draw attention,’ and the scandalousness of it all — I mean, there’s so many other people you can choose from.”
Chmerkovskiy went on to say he is “absolutely not” a fan of Delvey’s.
“It doesn’t matter [who I would choose as a replacement]. To me, [Delvey’s] job was a professional liar,” he explained. “You’re gonna bring that person [on stage] and say, ‘Here’s a platform that a lot of people waited their entire actual career to be a part of,’ to also get a moment of a personal story [where they] can say, ‘This is who I actually am.’ Will I believe anything this lady says? Absolutely not.”
He continued: “She’s a sh***y dancer, and [her] personality is not really going to help her in this competition.”
He Thinks Rylee Arnold Is ‘Still Learning’ After Her Season 34 Elimination
Following Arnold and partner Scott Hoying’s elimination from season 34, Chmerkovskiy claimed that Hoying was “completely undertaught.”
“This is not a dig at Rylee,” he shared on an episode of the “Penthouse With Peta” podcast in October 2025, noting that there was one moment in their Wicked Night routine where Hoying looked “caught off guard” while lifting Arnold. “This particular moment, I’m not digging at Rylee. I believe that this is a matter of experience for Rylee to understand that, in this case, he needed her to be facing him looking at him and making him learn and making him repeat and place his hands.”
Chmerkovskiy argued that Arnold “didn’t have time to clean” the routine and spent “too much time on over choreographing.”
“The rest of the routine when he didn’t forget looked just the same,” he said. “His arms were down, he wasn’t clear with his movement. It wasn’t polished, it wasn’t finished. It wasn’t Scott that we expected because he’s better than this. This was not his best dance and it was the last dance he did.”
Chmerkovskiy went on to say that viewers could tell that the performance “wasn’t spectacular,” however Arnold’s movement was “spectacular.”
“She looked amazing from the first movement … But Rylee, sweetheart, it’s not your job to be that,” he said. “Your job is to make sure he is that. And I didn’t see it in her. … I believe that Scott was undertrained and underrehearsed. That’s what that dance looked like. Whoever it came from. Maybe Rylee is still young, she’s still learning. She’s still taking on responsibilities the way she can put her foot down and say, ‘This is what we have to do.’ I don’t know.”
Maks Thinks Jan Ravnik Has ‘No Business’ Being a Pro on the Show
During his appearance on “The Penthouse With Peta” podcast in October 2025, Chmerkovskiy shared that he doesn’t believe Ravnik should’ve been a pro on DWTS.
“Dancing With the Stars is a worldwide phenomenon. … I’m sorry, Jan has absolutely no business being a pro on Dancing With the Stars,” Chmerkovskiy claimed. “There’s zero foundation technique, quality, understanding of the partnership. Bro, I’m getting emotional. It is absurd, and this is unreal how blind we have to be and God forbid say what’s obviously there.”
