Dancing With the Stars judge Carrie Ann Inaba is clapping back at criticism of her scoring — with help from Taylor Swift.
Inaba, 57, shared a pointed TikTok video on Wednesday, October 22, mouthing along to one in every of Swift’s latest songs, “Actually Romantic,” taken from her record-breaking The Lifetime of a Showgirl album, while applying her makeup.
“Nevertheless it’s actually sweet, on a regular basis you’ve spent on me / It’s truthfully wild, all the trouble you’ve put in / It’s actually romantic,” the dancer and choreographer mouthed before blowing a kiss to the camera.
“My Wednesday morning anthem,” she wrote over the video, which was captioned, “It’s actually romantic #dwts #fyp.”
Inaba has faced criticism over what some viewers perceive to be harsh scoring on the thirty fourth season of Dancing With the Stars, which is currently airing on ABC.
“A few of your dances are beginning to feel like I’m watching the identical dance over and once more,” she told Boy Meets World star Danielle Fishel and her skilled dance partner, Pasha Pashkov throughout the October 14 dedication night episode. “Try to provide a little bit bit more variety so far as dynamics. This can be on you, Pasha.”
In an interview with Variety last week, Pashkov called the comments “unfair.”
“I used to be not blissful. I all the time get protective. For me, that comment felt unfair, especially being that she said that the dances looked similar,” Pashkov, 39, said. “However the thing is, we did have a quickstep, and we had a jive this week. These are two dances that very, very similar.”
“If we had dances that were drastically different, they usually felt the identical, I’d understand. But, based on the dances that we had, that didn’t feel prefer it made sense to me. In my heart, I’m overprotective because I understand how hard Danielle is working. I don’t think she deserved that comment,” he added.
On October 15, Inaba tackled criticism of her scoring and accusations of “favoritism” in her Instagram comments.
“Giving Whitney [Leavitt] a 9 but Robert [Irwin] an 8, GIRLLL please get it together,” one person wrote.
One other said, “Are you able to explain why you gave Whitney a 9 when she was off beat and likewise has prior dance experience so she shouldn’t be off beat, but Robert and even Jen [Affleck] had a lovely dance, timing was impeccable and also you scored them lower? Just confusing to look at and wondering what goes through your mind when giving those scores.”
Inaba responded within the comments, “It’s okay to disagree about what we see. That’s what makes our show great,” she wrote. “You might have a say within the matter. We wish you to vote for what you like and imagine in. I appreciate your comment and the way in which you expressed your feelings. ❤️ thanks to your passion and your opinion.”
Inaba has served as a judge on Dancing With the Stars across all 34 seasons for the reason that show began in 2005. She currently sits on the judging panel alongside Bruno Tonioli and Derek Hough.
Dancing With the Stars airs on ABC and Disney+ Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET.