NEED TO KNOW
Cheryl Burke is here to support Carrie Ann Inaba.
Burke, who was a pro on Dancing with the Stars for 20 seasons, will return to the ballroom as a guest judge for the Oct. 28 episode, and ahead of her judging debut, she weighed in on fan discourse about this season.
Burke, 41, said that she thinks fans “go hard on” Inaba, 57, compared to her counterparts, Bruno Tonioli, 69, and Derek Hough, 40.
“I think that’s always been the case,” Burke told Variety. “And she has openly talked about it, how it’s harder for her.”
“At the end of the day, this is her job, and she’s doing her job, and she’s doing it well,” Burke said.
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The feeling is one that the dancer said she knows well from her own life.
“I’ve experienced it, but in a different way,” she told the outlet. “I’m outspoken about something vs. somebody who is a man, I do see the difference. But you don’t do it for the outside reaction.”
Burke’s return to the DWTS ballroom is notable given how open she’s been about her mixed feelings about the show since her exit in 2022.
When she was not invited back to be part of the tribute dance following judge Len Goodman’s death, she claimed she felt it was a result of her podcast, Sex, Lies and Spray Tans, and that it was “so personal” to exclude her.
She also said “definitely not” when asked whether she felt like she was still part of the DWTS family.
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Burke has also been open about how devastated she was to leave the show after season 31.
“Did I really want to leave it for good and be done? No,” she said on her podcast last year, and she later admitted that leaving the show was “hands down” harder than her divorce from Matthew Lawrence.
“You can’t compare,” she said of the two experiences. “[DWTS] was my identity… I credit them for giving me a voice in general.”
Burke has said that she doesn’t “feel closure” about her time on the show and her exit, but said in an April 2024 episode of her podcast, “I have no ill will towards anyone, really.”
“But I could still be really hurt and disappointed that I’ve lost friendships along the way, and that is called grieving,” she said. “And everyone grieves differently, and for me, because a lot of these people I’ve known for almost two decades, it’s going to take time to really put that to rest.”
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Dancing with the Stars airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.
