Brandon Armstrong wants to clarify his strong reaction to Dancing With the Stars judge Carrie Ann Inaba‘s feedback about his and Chandler Kinney‘s performance at the semifinals.
During the Tuesday, November 19, episode of Dancing With the Stars, Brandon, 30, and Chandler, 24, first performed a salsa routine that earned them a 29. But it was their second dance, a foxtrot, that had Carrie Ann, 56, calling out the pro for not following the rules of ballroom style dances.
“I was not disagreeing with the fact that her foot came off the ground,” Brandon exclusively told Us Weekly after their performance. “She can take the point, knock the point. No issue.”
Brandon was more confused — as was the audience — about Carrie Ann saying she has already warned the duo about the mistake.
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“This man, he speaks before he thinks. He was just trying to rack his brain about what the other time was so we know how to improve and move forward,” Chandler told Us, to which Brandon added, “All I was saying is that I don’t think she had said it to us — that she had warned us about doing tricks in the past that you shouldn’t. She has mentioned that to other couples.”
Chandler speculated that perhaps Carrie Ann had “conflated” it “with someone else” from the cast. After the slightly awkward moment on the show , Brandon immediately explained his perspective before they received their score — another 29.
“I want to clarify I’m not upset with Carrie Ann,” he told cohost Julianne Hough during the broadcast. “I just didn’t remember her mentioning the lifts with us before. I love you, Carrie Ann!”
Brandon elaborated while speaking to Us, saying, “All I was saying was, ‘Oh I don’t think you’ve said that.’ That’s why I said, ‘Who me?’ Like, you haven’t warned us about that. That being said, she’s a gangster. All the respect. There’s no other intentions.”
The Dancing With the Stars pro also weighed in on judge Derek Hough saying there wasn’t enough salsa in their first dance.
“I’m not going to sit here and disagree with somebody who’s won [the Mirrorball] a million times and is a judge on the show. Am I happy with the salsa? 100 percent. Would I do it again? 1,000 percent,” he explained. “Is he pulling that out of nowhere? Definitely not. He’s a professional dancer so he knows the show.”
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Brandon is happy to accept the feedback and “keep it moving” ahead of the finale.
“I appreciate it, honestly. I appreciate any feedback,” he shared. Chandler added, “I will say, we had an incredible time. Even when we were running up to the skybox, we were laughing about how much fun we had. So that was a great time. But also we are always here for the judges’ critiques.”
The season 33 finale will mark the first time Brandon has advanced to a final. He called the milestone “amazing” after the semifinals ended with no elimination, seeing all five couples move on to compete next week.
“It feels amazing. I know that is cliche but it really does. I just feel like any word that I would assign to the emotional aspect of making it for your first time would fall short,” he shared. “That being said, what I’m focusing on is using an opportunity that we’ve been very blessed with to make sure that we are reiterating something that we are both passionate about, especially for people that come after us and have the opportunity to grow and develop. That’s what we’re going to focus on.”
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While reflecting on their DWTS journey so far, Brandon and Chandler shared their biggest highlights.
“For me, it was our contemporary. Because everybody was talking about how we came out, and we’re the frontrunners,” Brandon recalled. “Then we had a few weeks where we didn’t even slip, but it wasn’t quite to where we wanted it to. You have to have mental fortitude. So that taught us more than it hurt us.”
Chandler agreed with Brandon before telling Us, “I think you can learn from anything and everything. Especially from the times when you would go back and do something differently. I think that is a week where we might have shifted some things. It definitely is a standout moment for that reason.”
Dancing With the Stars airs simultaneously on ABC and Disney+ Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET and streams on Disney+ the next day.
