Dancing With the Stars Just Suspended Val Chmerkovskiy for a Week, and the Will Smith Line That Caused It Is Turning Heads

In the thirty-four seasons of Dancing With the Stars, no professional dancer has ever been suspended. That record is officially broken. The show’s producers have benched longtime pro Val Chmerkovskiy for a full week, and it all comes down to a single social media post that invoked one of the most infamous moments in awards show history.

On Saturday, BBC Studios, which produces the ABC competition series, confirmed that Chmerkovskiy will miss this Tuesday’s Dedication Night episode. The suspension follows a since-deleted TikTok post in which the 40-year-old dancer appeared to reference Will Smith’s 2022 Oscars slap. For a show built on glitter, sequins and feel-good routines, this is uncharted territory, and fans are still processing how it all unfolded.

The Post That Started It All

The trouble began during the Tuesday, October 13 episode, dubbed Super Bowl Night. Judge Carrie Ann Inaba took issue with the samba performed by Chmerkovskiy’s wife, fellow pro Jenna Johnson, and her celebrity partner, Glee alum Harry Shum Jr. Inaba, 58, questioned whether the routine contained an illegal lift and told Johnson she needed to put more content into her dances. The critique landed hard. Johnson, 32, was visibly upset, and while she and Inaba later cleared the air, the moment clearly did not sit well at home.

The day after the episode aired, Chmerkovskiy posted a message on TikTok that read: “You almost saw Fresh Prince enter the ballroom last night.” He deleted it, but not before the internet did what the internet does. Almost everyone read it as a thinly veiled threat aimed at Inaba, invoking the moment Will Smith walked onstage at the 2022 Academy Awards and struck comedian Chris Rock after a joke about Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith.

Inaba fired back on Instagram with a since-deleted message of her own: “So this is what we are doing now?” According to Deadline, the post included images of both Chmerkovskiy and Smith. What started as a disagreement over a samba had officially turned into a full-blown controversy.

BBC Studios Steps In With a Historic Suspension

On Saturday, October 17, BBC Studios issued a statement that left no room for interpretation:

“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. As a result, he will not participate in next week’s show.”

According to People, this makes Chmerkovskiy the first professional dancer ever suspended in the show’s history. The Ukrainian-born pro has been with the series since season 13 back in 2011 and is a three-time Mirrorball Trophy champion, winning with Rumer Willis, Laurie Hernandez and Xochitl Gomez. This season he is paired with actress and dancer Jenna Dewan. Fifteen years of loyalty to the ballroom did not spare him from the penalty.

Val’s Apology: “I Made a Poor Decision”

Before the suspension was announced, Chmerkovskiy had already tried to get ahead of the backlash. Responding through his representative, he said his first instinct had simply been to defend his wife, but he acknowledged it was handled badly.

“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 said.

He went on to say that Inaba “certainly didn’t deserve to get caught in the middle of my bad judgement,” adding: “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.”

Whether the apology would have been enough on its own is now a moot point. The producers clearly felt the line had been crossed regardless of intent.

What Happens Next: Jenna Dewan Gets a New Partner

The most immediate fallout lands on Jenna Dewan, who is suddenly without her partner heading into Dedication Night on Tuesday, October 20. Pro Alan Bersten will step in as her substitute. The pair will perform a Viennese waltz set to The Righteous Brothers’ “Unchained Melody” in honor of Dewan’s mother, Nancy. It is one of the most emotional theme nights of the season, and now Dewan has to nail it with a partner she has barely had time to rehearse with.

As for Val, the suspension is for one week only, so he is expected to return for the episode after Dedication Night. Whether the ballroom atmosphere will have settled by then is another question. Inaba is known for wearing her heart on her sleeve, and this is not a feud that resolves with a single apology statement.

Why the Will Smith Reference Hit Such a Nerve

It is worth remembering just how radioactive the Smith slap remains in Hollywood. When Smith struck Rock at the 2022 Oscars, the fallout was immediate and enormous: he resigned from the Academy, was banned from Oscars events for ten years, and spent years rebuilding his public image. Even an offhand joke referencing it carries real weight, especially when it is framed as something that “almost” happened to a colleague.

That is exactly why the network reacted so swiftly. For BBC Studios, the message was about workplace standards: a social media post that can be read as threatening violence against a judge, however jokingly intended, cannot go unanswered on a show watched by millions of families.

There is also a broader lesson here about the age of the deleted post. Chmerkovskiy took the TikTok down quickly, but screenshots traveled faster. In 2026, deleting something is not the same as it never existing.

The Bigger Picture

This season of DWTS was already shaping up to be one of its most dramatic, and now it has a genuine offstage storyline to match. Val Chmerkovskiy is one of the show’s most decorated pros, and seeing him sidelined by a social media misstep is a reminder that the stakes on live television extend well beyond the dance floor.

Will the suspension change the tone of the season? Will Inaba and Chmerkovskiy find a way to coexist in the ballroom when he returns? And can Jenna Dewan and Alan Bersten pull off a Dedication Night waltz with almost no prep time? Tuesday night’s episode just became must-see TV.

For more on this week’s biggest celebrity stories, check out our pieces on Sharon Osbourne’s botched surgery revelation, Margot Robbie’s stunning Chanel fragrance film and Ellen DeGeneres’ confession about missing TV. The suspension was first reported in detail by Unilad and Woman Magazine.