Carrie Ann Inaba has been criticized on “Dancing With the Stars” for almost 20 years, since the show premiered in 2006. Now, she knows how to deal with it.
“It used to really affect me. I have been targeted with this kind of negativity since the show began, back when we had chat rooms. I remember seeing some horrible words written about me, and I was shocked,” the professional dancer turned judge tells Variety. “Sometimes the things they say are cruel, and that has affected me. It’s made me scared. It’s not so much that I get hurt as I get afraid, because it feels like they’re like attacking me verbally, so I shrink down a little during the season.”
The comments have affected her mental health, and she’s talked about the toxic feedback in therapy. But over the years, she’s found her voice and stands by her comments with one mission: Tell the truth.
“By doing that, it makes the online hate and vitriol that comes at me feel less like it can hurt me, because I’m very true to myself. When you’re true to yourself, it doesn’t matter as much what everybody else is saying about you,” she says.
On Nov. 11, “Dancing With the Stars” Season 34 will air its special 20th anniversary episode, bringing back past pros, former host Tom Bergeron and winners through the years. In an interview with Variety, Inaba opens up about the record-breaking season, the resurgence of the show and yes, the theories that she’s harsher on women than men.
Let’s start at the top. There are only a few of you who were there in the beginning — how are you feeling about Season 34 in your 20th year?
The season has been absolutely my favorite — this renewed vigor, this new audience that has come to the table and has brought so much passion and so many opinions. I love this new TikTok generation that has changed the game. It’s really exciting. From day one, it’s just been an honor, because dance is my life. I have dedicated my whole life to dance and live television.
What advice would you give Season 1 Carrie Ann?
I would tell her, the makeup game has changed, girlfriend, put on your lashes! No, I would say, get ready for a ride of a lifetime. Be ready for your life to change in so many different ways. Be ready for the whole world to fall in love with dance the same way you have, and get ready to learn how to say things very concisely in about 20 seconds. I still haven’t gotten it down.
Tom Bergeron is coming back for the 20th anniversary show. He was obviously very vocal about his disappointment when he left — were you surprised at all that he would be joining as a guest judge?
I was surprised, because when he left, he made a very strong announcement that he wasn’t coming back. But as soon as it was announced, and as soon as we found out, I was very happy. Something about it feels right. One of the main parts of “Dancing With the Stars” that I think is so special is the family environment. It feels right that we have him coming back. This year we had Kym Herjavec and Cheryl Burke. The bonds that we make on the show are real, and we’re going to be here just like a real family. Sometimes we have our ups and downs, and sometimes we go a little sideways, but we always come back together because we all love each other.
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Talking about Kym and Cheryl — they made sense as guest judges. But it was a bit surprising to see Flavor Flav. What did you think about that decision?
I love all the guests judges, and I feel for them, because it’s not easy to judge. Flavor Flav brought his own flavor, right? He brought his own style. What I loved most about Flavor Flav was that he has so much love in his heart, and all he wanted to do was encourage people. I think he represents people who love dance, that maybe don’t have a lot of dance experience, but just want to uplift other people.
Speaking of dance experience! Every season, there is a discussion about whether a celebrity with prior dance experience is an advantage. This year, that seems much louder. Why do you think that is?
I think “Dancing With the Stars” is for everyone. You can have a lot of dance experience or no dance experience. I used to be not so for people with a lot of dance experience, because personally, I’ve always loved watching people who don’t have access to dance or haven’t known firsthand the incredible gift that dance is.
But with this new generation of people, not only the fans, but the people on the show, they have a lot of dance experience. They’re all on Tiktok. They’re all dancing. Dancing is sort of a way of coping with life right now. I think people need the release, and it’s a great coping mechanism for life, and so I’m not opposed to it. I think everybody — and this is important to note in judging, for me — everyone has a 10. I always imagine that anyone who steps on our dance floor is going to have a 10, and I give them that space to show us what it looks like. It’s going to look very different. For example, Andy Richter’s 10 is going to look very different than a Whitney Leavitt or an Alix Earle or an Elaine Hendrix or Jordan Chiles’ 10.
Well, some feel that Andy isn’t being held to the same standard as the rest of the cast this season. Do you agree?
I think he’s held to the appropriate standards for who he is. This kind of goes back to what people always ask me: Why did I uphold the lift rule all these years? Well, because the lift rule makes it a level playing field. It was originally designed so that people who are older or maybe not in the physical shape to be able to do lift could be equal to everybody else. So even if you had more dance experience, you would be the same playing field. Andy has his own journey. It’s really more of a competition with yourself, and we just happen to be putting them next to each other while it’s happening. But it’s a competition with yourself to see how far you can push yourself, how far you can grow, how open you can be to the public, how willing you are to try and fail, which is such a vulnerable position to be in.
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With the show getting so big, there are pros and cons — with the positive and passionate fans, there also comes the negativity. I know there are mental health professionals available for the cast, but you receive a lot of hate online. Does that affect your mental health?
Thank you for asking me that. It used to really affect me. I have been targeted with this kind of negativity since the show began, back when we had chat rooms. I remember seeing some horrible words written about me, and I was shocked, because as a dancer, you’re used to just getting the fan love. Now, as a judge, I recognize I was stepping into a whole different sphere, and I think the way I have always coped with it is that if I’m going to judge and speak my opinions freely, whether they’re popular or unpopular, I do believe I have to give the same grace to everyone else. It does hurt. Sometimes the things they say are cruel, and that has affected me. It’s made me scared. It’s not so much that I get hurt as I get afraid, because it feels like they’re like attacking me verbally, so I shrink down a little during the season, especially after week five or six. That’s when it usually starts to happen.
It has definitely made me struggle with mental health. I’ve spoken to therapists about it. I remember when I first went to therapy about it, I said, “How do I approach this?” And she’s like, “Well, what do you believe in?” I said, “I believe in truth.” She helped me figure out how I was going to show up, and said I should just always step into my truth each time. And so by doing that, it makes the online hate and vitriol that comes at me feel less like it can hurt me, because I’m very true to myself. When you’re true to yourself, it doesn’t matter as much what everybody else is saying about you.
You get a lot more flak for your comments than any of the other judges, and I know you’ve said it’s because you’re the only woman on the panel.
I don’t really understand it, but I’ve come to terms with it. Now that I’ve come to terms with it, now I can speak about it. Sometimes, I’ve looked at the scores that are given, I read the comments back and think, “Well, what did I do? Let me see.” Sometimes I check! Like people blamed me about Danielle Fishel going home, and I had to look back at the scores. My scores were not the lowest scores. So, that’s fans passionate for Danelle, and I can see the positive in that. And if they come at me for scoring Whitney and Mark Ballas well, it’s because they love Alix Earle. There’s always a positive to even the most negative comments.
I spoke to Jan Ravnik about that a bit this season — about how some can’t seem to love one couple without hating on another.
You don’t have to attack! The thing about “Dancing With the Stars” is it’s a real reflection of what’s going on in the world, and we provide a place for people to feel safe. I think a lot of people in this day and age are a bit frustrated with what’s going on and feel helpless. The thing about social media is it does give people a voice, and it’s up to us to remind them how to speak, and that’s why I chose this year to start to speak up about being a woman and what’s really happening, because otherwise I’m sort of adding fuel to it by not responding. I don’t think it’s good to defend yourself in that way, but I do think it’s good to sort of speak your truth as well in a way that is not accusational or what people are doing now, which is very cruel and mean. What they did to Jan was not nice. But it was started by someone. I actually appreciate Maks (Chmerkovskiy)’s candor. And he had a point, but it’s about how you make the point. We should all have our own opinions, but how do we make the point? I, too, am a work in progress, and I’m very aware of that, and I have this great platform to learn and evolve, and I’m so grateful for that.
There’s also this narrative online that you are harsher when judging the female celebs versus the men. What do you think about that?
I think that it is partly true. I am the woman on the panel, and I understand what it is to be a woman, so I can get into more detail about what I’m seeing. Because I support women so much, I let them know what I see, because they are working so hard, I always feel it’s my responsibility if I sense somebody hasn’t given it their all, because I don’t want them to walk away with regret. I’m not saying I always know right, because none of us are ever 100% right. But I’m willing to risk that, and speak to them so that they have the opportunity to grow. And when I speak woman to woman, I’m maybe a bit more frank. Maybe because I feel like women are tougher than men in some ways. This is how I speak with my girlfriends — very blunt and to the point, because I know they want the information. I think there is some truth to what they’re saying, but it’s not exactly what they’re saying.
But I have read the comments, and I have always taken them into consideration. I go back and I review, and I try to understand why it feels that way. But in general, I think people are tougher on women. And what’s funny is they’re accusing me of being tougher on women while they’re being tougher on a woman.
It’s very ironic.
Very ironic! Every time I speak, it’s an opportunity to educate people. So even when I apologized to Danielle, I did that with intention, to show people how we can apologize if something hurts somebody’s feelings. I always want to try to lead by example, and I don’t always do it great, but I do my best, and that is all I can do, and I keep showing up.
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In the past, it seemed like an advantage for a pro to get a great athlete or someone with prior experience as their partner. Now, it seems it may be more beneficial to get someone like Andy. Is that now what getting a ringer will mean?
That is so interesting. “Dancing With the Stars” has peaks and valleys, and what is going to win might look different than what’s going to win the next year. Something to note is that people are hungry, and I feel like they were so hungry for what “Dancing With the Stars” is offering them. They get bored easily as well. Great dancing is exciting for a while, then a heartfelt story is really exciting for a while. It taps into all of these aspects of life. It’s about vulnerability. It’s about the regular guy’s guy — Andy just getting out there and not knowing anything about dance, but people loving him and seeing themselves in him, and learning what the feeling is, because he’s expressing it, and you can see it on his face. And then you watch the physical change in his body, and the confidence and the way he’s opened up. That is really fascinating, more than necessarily watching somebody going from a non-pointed toe to a pointed toe. And that’s why I always focus less on the technique and more on the journey, because the journey is what taps into people’s hearts.
I think I have a bit of understanding about the judging and the weight the judges’ scores hold against the audience vote. But people have so many questions this season about how the voting works. What do you say to those confused by the scoring?
Tell them they’re not alone, because I am also confused by the scoring sometimes. I like it that way. I don’t want to know how it all works. However, I can tell you the bare bones of it is that the judges’ scores are about half of the equation, and then the audience scores are about half of the equation. And that’s all I have ever really wanted to know!
There have been questions for a long time about this — I mean, I still have questions about Bobby Bones!
I like seeing people rooting for the underdog. I think It says something about society, and I think that’s a nice thing. What’s great is we have some incredible dancers. This year is, by far, the most talented cast ever. The level of dancing is beyond anything we’ve experienced. Also, what’s interesting is that this whole season was strong women. I think there’s not enough attention given to Jordan Chiles. I respect that she’s real in the game. She’s treating it like the Olympics; she’s very focused.
I always worry about people getting lost in the mix, so while I’m judging, I also try to explain people’s story, to remind people about what’s going on. Sometimes, I don’t get to the exact technique, but we’re all different, and my role is always to help explain the story, to educate the newer audience and also to challenge people. I think the challenge is important. You want to challenge them to have the best experience. Because if you don’t get challenged, when you walk away from “Dancing With the Stars,” you just have blisters. If you actually do the whole challenge and push yourself past your boundaries, I think you walk away with the real essence, which is you come to the ballroom, you shed your skin and you’re renewed. I hope we get to do this forever.
“Dancing With the Stars” airs on Tuesdays on ABC and Disney+ at 8 p.m. ET. It is available to stream the next day on Hulu. This interview has been edited and condensed.
