Heavy/Getty The "Dancing With the Stars" ballroom.
Former “Dancing With the Stars” pro Cheryl Burke has some feelings about the 32nd season of the celebrity ballroom competition.
The pro dancer, who announced her retirement from the ABC celebrity ballroom competition in 2022, has been eyeing the current season of the show. Consequently, she thinks judges Carrie Ann Inaba, Derek Hough, and Bruno Tonioli underscore some couples.
In a post for Hello! magazine, Burke weighed in on the surprise elimination of Lele Pons and Brandon Armstrong — a duo she didn’t think deserved to go home – and hinted that she fears another talented couple could face a similar fate.
Here’s what you need to know:
Cheryl Burke Fears Jason Mraz & Daniella Karagach Could Face Trouble With the Judges
In her blog post, Burke reacted to Pons and Armstrong’s ouster from “Dancing With the Stars” on a night in which they performed two impressive dances.
“If this wasn’t a TV show and it was just a dance competition, Lele is obviously not the right person to go home,” she wrote. “It’s disappointing and I do believe that this couple has been underscored for some weeks. There is always that one couple every season that doesn’t get the credit they deserve. And I believe that that was Lele and Brandon.”
With Pons and Armstrong now out of the competition, Burke zeroed in on another couple that she feels is not getting as much positive attention as they should.
“I feel like they’re being a little hard on Jason Mraz and Daniela Karagach. Because what they executed tonight was pretty amazing,” Burke said of the couple’s jazz performance on Music Video Night. “I think the judges wanted to be more entertained and it wasn’t satisfying, yet they danced with such ease and grace, which took a lot of practice. ”
Burke continued, “I think they’re not getting enough credit and I hope that they are not the next couple who gets underscored.”
Burke’s comments came after Mraz received mixed reviews for his jazz. Bruno Tonioli felt it was “a strong performance.” And Derek Hough said, “I felt like this was an earlier season type of dance.”
Carrie Ann Inaba told Mraz, “I was a bit underwhelmed by the performance you’ve been giving.”
Jason Mraz Admitted He’s ‘Nervous Every Single Week’ on ‘Dancing With the Stars’
Mraz has admitted he never thought he’d get so far in the competition. In an interview with The Daily Beast, he said, “I had no idea I would do this well. I thought I would go on the show, do a couple of dances, and hopefully one of them would be to my song, ‘I Feel Like Dancing.’ I’ve seen the show. People get eliminated. That’s how it goes. I thought, ‘That’s me, I can be that guy.’”
The singer added that he’s nervous “every single week” on “Dancing With the Stars.”
In October 2023, Mraz posted to TikTok to tell fans how demanding “Dancing With the Stars” really is. “This show is the hardest thing I’ve ever done,” the singer captioned a clip of him dancing with Karagach. “There are no days off. Physically, I am pushing myself to the edge…And I’m about to go over it,” he added.
READ NEXT: DWTS Runner-Up Reveals the Only Way He’d Return to the Ballroom