Val Chmerkovskiy Is Suspended From 'Dancing With the Stars' Over a Slap Joke. His Apology Got It Right.
'Dancing with the Stars' pulled Val Chmerkovskiy for a week over a TikTok post referencing Will Smith's slap after a judge critiqued his wife.
One sentence on TikTok has cost Val Chmerkovskiy a week in the ballroom.
"Dancing with the Stars" said Saturday that Chmerkovskiy, one of the show's professional dancers, will sit out the next episode after a post that appeared to reference Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at the 2022 Oscars, NBC News reported.
"You almost saw Fresh Prince enter the ballroom last night," Chmerkovskiy wrote in the since-deleted post. It came after judge Carrie Ann Inaba harshly critiqued his wife, fellow pro Jenna Johnson.
How it started
On Tuesday's episode, Inaba accused Johnson of putting a lift into a samba with her celebrity partner, actor Harry Shum Jr. Latin dances traditionally prohibit lifts. When Johnson looked confused, Inaba read the definition from a sheet of paper: "Any movement during which one of the dancers has both feet off the floor at the same time with the assistance or support of their partner. Yeah. Lift." Johnson later said, "I will take it, sure," NBC reported.
Chmerkovskiy's post followed. Inaba posted a since-deleted message on Instagram showing photos of Chmerkovskiy and Smith with the words, "So this is what we are doing now?" Deadline reported.
BBC Studios, which produces the show, said in a statement: "The well-being of everyone who works on Dancing with the Stars is non-negotiable. Val's social media post was inappropriate and does not reflect the values or standards expected of anyone connected with the show."
An apology without excuses
Chmerkovskiy did not dig in. Even before the suspension, he said he had reached out to Inaba to apologize directly. After it was announced, he wrote that "in a moment where my instinct was to defend my wife, I made a poor decision to reference a meme" 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," he wrote. He also urged fans to "send Carrie Ann, Jenna, and the whole DWTS family lots of love."
His celebrity partner, actress Jenna Dewan, will dance next week with pro Alan Bersten in a routine dedicated to her mother. Inaba has not responded publicly to the apology or the suspension, NBC reported.
A small story with an old lesson
There is something admirable in wanting to stand up for your wife. A husband who takes his wife's side is doing what husbands should. But how we defend the people we love matters as much as whether we do.
Smith's slap was a public act of violence. Joking about bringing it into a room where a woman had just criticized your wife's dancing was always going to land badly, whatever Chmerkovskiy meant by it. A televised critique of a samba is not an insult that calls for a threat, even a joking one.
Scripture saw this coming long before social media. "Let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath" (James 1:19). James also warned that "the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth!" (James 3:5). A post typed in seconds can burn for days.
Proverbs gives the better way to answer criticism: "A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger" (Proverbs 15:1). Johnson's own response on the night, "I will take it, sure," was the soft answer. It was the better example.
Chmerkovskiy deserves credit for what came next. He named his mistake, apologized to the person he hurt and accepted the consequence. That is rarer than it should be in public life, where too many people excuse cruel words by blaming the platform.
In his first apology, Chmerkovskiy wrote that he needs to be "actively pausing to think before I post." That is good advice for a television star, and for the rest of us with a phone in our pockets.
