The semi final round of competition on ABC’s ‘Dancing with the Stars’ kicks off Monday night and pro Karina Smirnoff is weighing in on guest judge Maksim Chmerkovskiy.
Not only does she have a previous working relationship with the renegade Maks, but she was once engaged to the highly opinionated Ukrainian ballroom dance instructor. They ended their plan to wed in September 2009.
Another pro with previous romantic ties to Chmerkovskiy is Peta Murgatroyd. She and her celebrity partner Brant Daugherty were eliminated on November 4 so it will not be a factor tonight.
Mad Maks will join the judging panel this evening to critique the performances of the final five celebrities and their pro partners — including former ‘High School Musical’ star Corbin Bleu and Karina Smirnoff.
She said today on her ‘DWTS’ Blog: “I don’t think having Maks Chmerkovskiy guest judge this week is going to be any more weird or less weird than having any other people guest judge. On the contrary, I think it will be interesting because he comes from being in our shoes. He comes from knowing what we need to do. Maks is known to have no filter, so I’m quite looking forward to what he has to say.”
“I think if he wants to be a good judge and do a great job, he has to be fair. At this point, he has no agenda. His brother isn’t in the cast anymore. I can’t imagine him being subjective. If I were to judge, I would have to be objective, simply for the fact that I know how much work we all put in every single week. It should be interesting.”
Would you be concerned if your ex-fiance was judging your performance on live television?
Photos: Instagram-Karina Smirnoff, Twitter-Maks Chmerkovskiy