Dancing With the Stars pro Jenna Johnson is weighing in on judge Carrie Anna Inaba’s controversial feedback about her freestyle with Joey Graziadei.
“I was a little defeated because I thought he did absolutely exquisite in it,” Johnson, 30, said after the DWTS finale on Tuesday, November 26. “But I was actually brought back to my season with Adam Rippon and on our freestyle, I think we got eight.”
Johnson and Rippon, 35, were crowned the winners of season 26 in 2018. “I was so, so defeated then, but we ended up winning,” she noted. “I held onto that glimmer of hope that we could still pull through and do it, and we did it.”
Before Graziadei, 29, and Johnson received the Len Goodman Mirrorball Trophy on Tuesday, the pair performed a cha-cha redemption dance to “Can’t Stop the Feeling!” and a tennis-themed freestyle to “Canned Heat” by District 78 and Jake Simpson. Following the completion of their second routine, Inaba, 56, admitted she found the dance to be “a tad underwhelming.”
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“I just found some of the angles, because of the racket, had to be super tight and it just didn’t nail it,” she explained, while the audience booed. Graziadei’s fiancée, Kelsey Anderson, gave the critique a thumbs down while sitting in the ballroom.
Inaba claimed that “the energy just kind of dipped in the middle” but called the former Bachelor “amazing” and said she had seen talent in him “from the first time” he hit the ballroom floor.
Judge Derek Hough had a different perspective while watching the dance. “Joey, my man, come on!” he said. “How dare you, Carrie Ann? Joey, that was phenomenal. And Jenna, your body of work all three seasons, what you produce year after year is incredible. Joey, that was a fantastic freestyle.”
Cohost Julianne Hough told the pair that they “absolutely nailed it,” and they received a nine from Carrie Ann, a 10 from Derek and a 10 from Bruno Tonioli. Following the exchange, Johnson’s husband and fellow DWTS pro, Val Chmerkovskiy, took to his Instagram Story to share his frustrations with Inaba’s critique.
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“Whaaaat did you say his racket swing needed to be tighter? What!?” the 38-year-old wrote over an image of him giving a puzzled expression. “10 weeks of busting your ass for that?! Unbelievable.”
Ultimately, Chmerkovskiy passed the torch — or Len Goodman Mirrorball Trophy — to his wife and her partner. (Chmerkovskiy and actress Xochitl Gomez took home the award during season 32 of DWTS last year.)
“[I felt] just so much sheer love and joy. That was a really special moment that I don’t think has ever, ever, ever happened before,” Johnson told Us of her husband, with whom she shares 22-month-old son Rome. “So many people told me that they have videos of him freaking out and I can’t wait to see them. He’s been my No. 1 supporter through this. He’s been mommy and daddy for us right now while I’ve been getting ready for this finale. So I’m just so grateful for him.”
While Johnson said her trophy will “probably [go] right next to Val’s” from last season, Graziadei had an idea of where to put his new award — in his new Los Angeles home with Anderson, 26. He added, “We just got a new apartment, so it’s our first little centerpiece that we have, so it’ll be somewhere.”
