Oops. America’s favorite dancing sweetheart has perhaps tarnished her good name just a bit.
Julianne Hough has ticked some people off with her critiques on Monday’s episode of Dancing With the Stars.
Hough warned before the episode that she “wasn’t going to hold back.” Apparently, she is a woman of her word.
In Monday’s “Switch Up” episode, contestants and professional dancers were made to switch partners — a new twist to this season. The new rules stipulate next week’s elimination will be based on the contestants’ week three performances with their regular partner and their performance on week four with their new one.
Hough angered fans with her critique of professional dancer Maksim Chmerkovskiy and his new “switch up” partner — actress Danica McKeller — after their performance of a jive routine.
Some of it can be blamed on an issue with their music being off, but their routine was marked with flaws.
Even if a proper critique was warranted, Hough shocked the dancers with her unflattering comments.
“I felt like it was a little bit like this week could get past so that you could be back with Meryl [Davis], and you just had to phone it in [with Kellar] so you could get back with Meryl,” Hough told Chmerkovsky.
Chmerkovskiy had a few choice words to share after the show.
“The [expletive] that Julianne made up was nothing but exactly that,” Chmerkovskiy said. “It was an invalid comment that had nothing to do with Danica’s performance, which was brilliant.”
Valentin Chmerkovskiy — brother to Maksim and McKellar’s usual parner — echoed his brother’s sentiments.
“Personally, I thought it was very irresponsible of her to make those comments,” Valentin said. “There’s nothing [Maksim] would ever do to jeopardize my success of the show — and Danica’s an extension of me — my partnership and my success, and so…I took it kind of personally.”
“I felt like it was a little bit inappropriate,” dancer Cheryl Burke echoed. “I felt like [Maksim] was trying his best.”
Chmerkovskiy will be back with his usual partner, Olympic gold-medal ice dancer Meryl Davis, next week.
Image via Wikimedia Commons