Val Chmerkovskiy is sitting out a week of Dancing with the Stars, and the reason is a single sentence he posted to TikTok. According to Deadline, producer BBC Studios announced on Saturday, October 17, 2026, that the longtime pro has been suspended for one week over a since-deleted TikTok Story that read “You almost saw Fresh Prince enter the ballroom last night.” The post went up after the October 13 “Super Bowl Night” episode, in which judge Carrie Ann Inaba criticized Val’s wife, fellow pro Jenna Johnson, and her partner Harry Shum Jr., Deadline reported.
If you need the decoder ring: The Wrap reported the post was widely read as a nod to Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at the 2022 Academy Awards. Smith, of course, is the Fresh Prince. Not exactly the reference you want attached to a comment about a judge.
What he actually posted
Here is the sequence, because it moved fast.
On the October 13 episode, Inaba took issue with Johnson and Shum Jr.’s routine, which included a lift. Val, who has been on the show since Season 2 and is currently partnered with Jenna Dewan in Season 35, did not love hearing his wife get dinged.
The day after the episode, he posted the “Fresh Prince” line to his TikTok Story, per The Hollywood Reporter. The Wrap also reported that he left a comment on a TikTok clip of the judging panel reading, “Put some respect on her name. She’s trippin talking to her like that.”
The Story has since been deleted, but the internet has a long memory, and so does Inaba. On Thursday, October 15, The Hollywood Reporter reported she posted a split image of Smith and Chmerkovskiy to Instagram with a pointed caption: “So this is what we are doing now?”
The apology came quickly
That same Thursday, Val went to Instagram with a mea culpa. “I want to apologize from the bottom of my heart for my recent post,” he wrote, according to Deadline, adding that he had reached out to Inaba directly.
He also tried to explain how the whole thing happened. “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,” he wrote, per Deadline.
And he was clear about who ended up on the receiving end. “Carrie Ann certainly didn’t deserve to get caught in the middle of my bad judgment, and I hate that she was,” he said, via Deadline.
For the record, the Smith-Rock slap happened after Rock made a joke about Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith. So “defending my wife” plus “Fresh Prince” was always going to land in one specific place, whatever the intent.
BBC Studios was not amused
Two days after the apology, the suspension dropped. BBC Studios’ official statement, published by Deadline, did not mince words.
“The well-being of everyone who works on Dancing with the Stars is non-negotiable,” the statement read. “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.”
The Wrap noted the same statement called the post “inappropriate” and said it “does not reflect the values or standards expected of anyone connected with the show.”
Just Jared reported that Val posted a second statement to his Instagram Story following the suspension announcement on October 17. According to Variety, he also wrote, “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.”
Yes, there are two Jennas in this story. Jenna Johnson is the wife. Jenna Dewan is the celebrity partner. Both are now central to the fallout.
What happens to Jenna Dewan on Dedication Night
The suspended episode is the October 20 “Dedication Night,” The Hollywood Reporter reported, and Dewan is not going anywhere. She will still compete, dancing instead with pro Alan Bersten.
Bersten is available because he was eliminated earlier in Season 35 after competing with Giada De Laurentiis, per The Hollywood Reporter. So he gets a surprise encore in the ballroom, and Dewan gets a new partner for a single, very emotional themed week.
For a show that thrives on drama, DWTS has mostly tried to keep its spiciest moments on the dance floor. This one spilled onto TikTok, Instagram and the production office in the span of four days. Val has apologized, Inaba has responded, and the studio has made its call. What the ballroom looks like when he returns the week after is the next thing to watch.
