Maks Chmerkovskiy Wants To Give Viewers A Drama Free Season On Dancing With The Stars
Maks Chmerkovskiy tells People to let set someone else be dramatic on Dancing With The Stars. He wants nothing but smiles and laughter and to be drama free. I am liking this new Maks.
“Listen, I’m a sweet guy,” the 34-year-old tells PEOPLE exclusively. “I’m just intense at work. I have nothing but the end result in mind. My entire career has been like that. I have come to realize very late in my DWTS career that that doesn’t exactly translate in television format. People are tuning in to see the progress and what happens during the rehearsals and don’t want to see drama.”
But viewers love the drama!
“Well, I think I’ve given the viewers enough drama in the last nine years,” he says. “Now I want to give them a season that’s drama-free – nothing but smiles and laughter and a great time. Let somebody else be dramatic.”
Chmerkovskiy credits his new partner, Olympic ice dancing gold medalist Meryl Davis, for his change in attitude. “I’m having a blast with her,” he says.
More at People including more of his thoughts on his partner Meryl Davis and why he’s back.
Mark my words, it will be about him.
I just read that article ( and the comments) and if he didn’t just insult all, every single one of his partners from the past, he sure has a way with words.
I have a very hard time believing him… I just can’t forget how he treated Hope = unacceptable!
I retract my statement, it already is all about him. After reading sherry2’s comment I read the People article. The program is truly desperate.
For Meryl’s sake, I hope Maks can stick to his intentions, but his track record doesn’t inspire confidence. I’m crossing my fingers that being on the road touring with Meryl, Charlie and Sharna — away from Tony, Val, and all the Hollywood crappola, will help. Of course he’ll still be exposed to all the nastiness that goes on in the Twitterverse, and Val will probably be texting him constantly with every little grievance.
And pigs will fly and money will talk
Right now, Maks is seeing the positive aspects of having a massive ringer. Around week 3 he may start to see the serious downside of having a massive ringer. The judges AND the audience expect a lot more from someone like Meryl and he will have to seriously step up the choreography.
I like Maks’ new attitude, but where he always, ALWAYS gets in trouble is not knowing when to STFU. For example:
“Beyond that, he likes her because she is “a normal person. She is so funny, friendly, hard working and physically capable. She’s not dramatic. She’s not ‘too Hollywood.’ I don’t have to tolerate her every rehearsal. I like working with her. I don’t have to suck it up like, ‘Maks – this is the job. Do your job.’ I am just enjoying the time I spend with her.”
Dude, really? You may not realize it (or you don’t care cuz you say this sort of thing all the time) but you just dissed most or all of your former partners. All of them are probably sitting at home (including Erin) wondering if he’s talking about THEM.
Why would he ask her if she is single & he wants to marry her? Please tell me the show will not try to have a “showmance” between these two. He looks like he can be her father or a much older brother.
Well, in one way he never disappoints, he always brings his mother and grandmother into the conversation. To me it makes him seem so infantile, especially in that he doesn’t at all recognize that it’s embarrassing for a man his age to constantly reference how these women feel about what’s going on in his life. Likewise, there doesn’t seem to be any insight on the part of those women that he might actually be able to move on in his life if they would back off. Now, even assuming that he will be able to keep his drama-free promise, methinks that will only be because the situation isn’t presenting any challenges for him — at least not yet. As PH says, that might change as the judges, et al raise the bar on him. So as long as he doesn’t need to find it in himself to stretch in the least, he can behave himself. I think about what we would have seen from him had he been paired, for example, with Amber, she who is certainly not fit for his princeliness. He would be angry that he had been “stuck” with someone who clearly has no chance of winning, and would be whining about not getting whomever Derek was partnered with. It’s actually so simple: the common denominator among all Derek’s wins is him, and the common denominator among Maks’s losses is him. He will never get this.
I don’t see these two as this season’s showmance. I’m not sure you could get either Maks or Meryl to play that game. In Maks’s case it’s “been there, done that, it didn’t get me the MBT” in Meryl’s it would be an incredulous “you want me to do what? I don’t *think* so.” Val and Danica are much better candidates, in my opinion, and there’s always good ol’ reliable Peta and (?boyfriend?) James.
Of course he’s happy and all smiles. He got partnered with Meryl and thinks he has a great shot at the MBT. If he got a non-contender, you would see a different Maks.
@Jara if he had been offered a “non-contender”, he would not be blessing us with his presence. lol
I still can not get over his comments re DWTS, when he supposedly left for good. Especially how he would not miss it, and was moving on to bigger and better things..
I know what some of you mean. We’ve seen Maks promise as such before and then when things don’t go his way for some reason, he breaks. It’s hard to trust him.
And it’s so true how he dissed his other partners at the end.
For all the talk by Derek critics he is favored, Maks got a celeb he specifically wanted on the show (hope) and now said he would only return if he got a good one aka Meryl. They placate a man who has blown opportunities to win ( Mel) and bad mouthed the show. Why the show appeases the familia is beyond me.
Personally, I think Maks needs the show just as much if not more than the show needs him. His absence had no discernible affect on ratings, despite what his fans like to claim.
Maks has said a lot of those same things about previous partners at the start of their seasons. I remember thinking HUH? when he said Erin was drama free and had no outside distractions considering she was just coming off the peephole incident.
@PJ… you are sooooo right, LOL. The Prince got a strong contender so we’re being blessed with his presence. When he left DWTS, I remember him saying he was moving on to bigger and better things and throwing himself into acting. What bigger and better things has he done? What major acting roles has he had? Yes, he had a stint on broadway (thanks to Karina) and appeared in a 2 music videos. I can’t think of anything else he’s done this past year.
Sorry Seattlgirl, you’ll have to behave yourself if you want to post here. Bye!
I hope he can be professional in his demeanour. Those photos of him picking her up look painful. Imo she is not enjoying being manhandled. He needs to respect her space although she is so tiny he probably can’t resist picking her up. He definitely is into her plus the opportunities his partnering her will give him. He looks like a kid in a candy store.
I completely respect that we all have our own opinions and are free to share them. However, while I’m no Maks apologist, I’d like to say I feel so far he has behaved professionally towards Meryl, and he’d be a fool if he didn’t act delighted to partner her. I also am going to give Meryl the respect she’s due as an Olympic champion and assume she’s able to stand up for herself and is not some fragile flower who needs to be protected.
From watching DWTS and SCD for years, I’ve heard both pros and celebs say that lifts are often uncomfortable. Look at some of the lifts Meryl and Charlie do in their routines. I’m sure they’re not comfortable for either Meryl or Charlie.
Finally, in the “Who’s Dancing What” post, PH says their inside sources report Meryl is responding well to Maks’s teaching style. Since those sources are closer to the scene than we are, I’m willing to believe them (for now).
Me too Cids (for now).
I was only meaning the paparazzi photos of him picking her up in the parking lot. Just seemed a bit uncomfortable for her imo. I am sure the routines will be amazing.
Judy, I haven’t seen the photos you’re referring to, but that’s not surprising because I try to avoid pap photos for the most part (although I will occasionally take a quick stroll through the Daily Mail links Vogue posts). I see how you could feel it might be uncomfortable for Meryl to be picked up like a toy or a prop. However, I’m going to trust that if Meryl didn’t like that, she asked Maks not to do it anymore when they were out of range of the cameras.
@Susan – Maks sometimes sounds to me like the Howard Wolowitz of DWTS, with the way he seems so fixated on what his mother/grandmother think. 😛 Kind of reminds me of a Jewish guy I dated in college – both his mother and grandmother seemed to exert a bizarrely strong influence over his everyday life – particularly his “bubbe” (Yiddish for “grandmother”). It was eerie how he managed to bring them up in conversation – I’d suggest we go see a certain movie, and he’d veto it, saying “my bubbe said it wasn’t very good.” I’d suggest we go try a certain restaurant – “Bubbe said that the food there made her sick.” It got to the point where I would (secretly) refer to his “bubbe” as Keyser Sooze – because nobody in his family would so much as take a breath without bubbe’s approval. And as it turns out, bubbe wasn’t fond of “shiksas” (non-Jewish girls), which probably (partially) contributed to the demise of our relationship…that, and the fact that I simply can’t deal with an overgrown manchild that won’t so much as take a dump without his grandmother saying it was ok. I’m gonna start calling Maks “Maksim Wolowitz” every time he bring up mommy or grammy, from now on…
@Courtney – Love “Maksim Wolowitz”!!!! I grew up in NY in a culturally Jewish world, so I know totally whereof you speak. With the C bros I am always reminded of a “joke” I heard long ago where a mother is watching her son march in a military formation and says, “Look, everyone is out of step except my Benny!” It’s such a shame that there’s no understanding of how that perspective handicaps these males. Personally, I cringed when Val pulled out his violin for Kelly’s freestyle, but his mom and his bubbe were probably kvelling (over the moon). Thank you, thank you for ending my time roaming in the desert feeling like I was the only one seeing these things. As for “thinking Wolowitz” just don’t make it a drinking game unless you’re interested in getting plastered.
@Susan – It’s certainly not just you – I’ve gotten the “I have a Jewish mother!” vibe from Maks & Val for the longest time. I think the worst was when Maks tweeted that his grandmother “was in tears” when Kelly & Val didn’t get a perfect 30 for their rumba. Seriously??? And then there was the hilarious (but quite telling) outtake from one of Val & Maks’ rehearsals during all-stars where they were bickering like brothers and saying things like “Mom’s gonna be upset with you when she finds out that you were late to practice!” and “Mom’s gonna kick your ass when she finds out that you smacked me!” I get the feeling that Val is more the “apple of mommy’s eye” and can do no wrong, and Maks has to work a bit harder for it. But yeah, Maksim & Valentin Wolowitz are now a “thing” here at Pure 😛