Val Chmerkovskiy Coming Back For Dancing With The Stars Season 21, Rumer Willis To Tour, And More – New Interviews
Just a few new interviews with Rumer Willis and Val Chmerkovskiy. First, check out TV Guide as they talk about winning Dancing With The Stars. Though were they “pretty much the front runners” all season? I guess it depends on how you look at it. Nastia and Derek were the front runners all season in my opinion. Anyway, I was surprised to see how Val gave Riker and Nastia some props. Though not sure this would have happened during the season?
Val, you and Rumer were pretty much the frontrunners all season. Was that a double-edged sword in a sense?
Chmerkovskiy: Yes and no. Even though we were frontrunners, I didn’t feel like it was necessarily because of the fact that it was coming so easy to [Rumer]. I think, if anything, when it comes to logistics of the competition and the skill set that you need to have a successful dancer, I would say Riker [Lynch] or someone like Nastia [Liukin] had way more elements in their repertoire coming into the show that would make them a frontrunner in that sense. … I feel like she was a frontrunner in the way she was able to connect to the audience. And that, I actually felt, was a strength that kind of put me at ease a lot of times. … It did add pressure, but it added a beautiful pressure of trying to exceed those expectations, and motivation. But the fact that she was able to connect to our audience so well eased that pressure, because I knew that no matter what she would do, she would do it wholeheartedly and she would do it passionately and with her entire spirit, and people were going to love it regardless.
Also, note that Val says he will be back next season for Dancing With The Stars. Rumer will not only be in “Sway” (as we learned on Wednesday), but, she might be making a few appearances in the new Dancing With The Stars tour.
What’s next for both of you? Val, are you coming back next season?
Chmerkovskiy: Yeah, for sure. Just don’t tell Rumer I said this, but I’m very excited to be back next season and hopefully do it again. Before that, I’m going on Dancing with the Stars tour this summer.
Willis: I’ll be there for a few days too.
Chmerkovskiy: Yeah, Rumer’s going to come on for a couple of shows. It’s a 40-city tour. I believe we have close to 60 shows for the next two months. It starts June 3 in Atlantic City and goes until August 10.
Willis: I’m going to obviously keep dancing a little bit, but also I’m going to try and work on music a little bit more. I’d love to be able to possibly do some Broadway in the future.
Below is also an interview with The Chew…
And do you know what´s next for Riker and Allison? I mean, I miss them already
Val is already confirmed for season 21…
…because he has absolutely NOTHING ELSE going on.
LOL Courtney!!
Sara, Riker and Allison are doing something together this summer, but, they haven’t announced what yet. I’m wondering if she might be in one of R5’s new videos? I don’t know. She hopes to be back for the next season of DWTS too….more on that in a new post shortly.
When Val said, “I would say Riker [Lynch] or someone like Nastia [Liukin] had way more elements in their repertoire coming into the show that would make them a frontrunner in that sense” I don;t think he was giving them props. I think he was calling them ringers.
Good point, Maria. If so, he has a lot of room to talk because Rumer was not only a ringer but promoted more than anyone and the list goes on.
Val seems to live in a world only created by him. His own bubble he know nothing outside his life. I had a good chuckle reading 1 of his tweet to Tom that now he feels like he belongs to the family.Really? I wonder where he keeps his conscious locked must be a dark room with a bolt with a talent like his I can see him rise and shine and die only in Dwts nothing more.
Thanks!!! I start to believe that even when Willow was eliminated was something going on… Val was going to be the winner or nothing
How convenient that the show’s last two winners have been able to make tour appearances with their pros…
This is what I think when derek and beth were eliminated at 4rth place last time the TPTB must have thought val and Janel have a shot even with Mark being there and then Mark came up with that amazing freestyle and came 2nd most ppl who were upset with Derek and Bethany elimination threw their votes to Mark and sadie ( also might have been a help when Derek says Support Mark). So, they planned all from the start get Mark ouT get Derek out no Mark and Derek in finals then Val will have the best shot to win. Its all planned for val sad that u have to take out the best to make the worst win.
I also saw his comment as Calling out Nastia and Riker as ringers, and trying to pretend Rumer only won cause she connected. I’ve lost all respect for him for not only allowing TPTB to just hand him the win, but also because since he knew he had it in the bag, he didn’t put any effort in his choreo.
Totally agree with you Derekluv. That package from Nastia was the prove they don´t want Derek or Mark to win anymore.
not only the package sara, think about it who gets a 14 year old girl on the show and then give her to Mark.I am sure they would have thought of everything however good Willow was I am sure the TPTB knew a 14 year old girl will not be able to compete with the adults in terms of getting votes performance sure she did amazing Mark did brilliant with her but they though of everything. Who were the other female celebs Patti, Suzanne and charlotte they had planned everything and were prepared to handle all the bumps on the way eg Nastia’s package.
Wow Val, you’re partner won over two people with “repertoires”?
I do think that the bullying Rumer experienced was an excellent storyboard, one that people connected to, but her A list Hollywood family was mentioned by casual voters way to often for me not to believe that played a huge part. I think we saw more of Bruce and Demi off camera than we did of Riker, Nastia or Noah.
Notice how both C bros have suddenly mentioned their desire to do Broadway;)
” … and hopefully do it again.” Are you kidding me? First of all, he either doesn’t know or doesn’t want to acknowledge that this “win” was served up to him on a platter. Second, since his whole gripe was that he hadn’t won yet, shouldn’t someone else “have a turn” next season? He is such a shmuck.
He has such a high opinion of himself I cannot even imagine how the win will serve to further inflate his ego, even though it was basically given to him. I thought all along they wouldn’t want Derek competing on the finale due to the 2 competing tours this summer. It just always made sense to me especially being that DWTS is ABC’s exclusive brand to advertise that by promoting their tour they are also promoting the show. If Derek and Mark are back it will be telling to see what type of partners they get. I do think both Mark and Derek are really popular pro’s so I do think they usually want them around for awhile. The creativity level drops off substantially when they are not on the show IMO.
Yeah, definitely wasn’t a ‘compliment’ of Riker and Nastia, just saying they were the ringers, not Rumer.
Enjoyed Rumer answers though. She has way more class than him.
One of the parts at the beginning was just ridiculous to me. Where he was…..’so relieved to win to get that completion/validation with a win…..to know this season wasn’t in vain.’
SERIOUSLY???? So winning is the only thing that makes a season worth it??? Not just having steady work as a dancer, getting to know your celeb and their journey and your journey together? And why do you need to win a season to feel validated? Your own self confidence in yourself should make you feel validated in all of your work, in all of your life. I know most people think he has an ego (and he does) but he also seems to have extreme insecurities (which was shown on camera this season too). Its a weird and unfortunately unappealing combination to me. Also, should all the pros who have never won feel bad about themselves? Some will never win before this show ends its run eventually. Is that supposed to mean their work was for nothing? Of course not! He just needs to shut his mouth, he’s so much more appealing when he doesn’t speak.
One other note – if the Disney Samba was your favorite Val (his quote) please put some effort next season into choreo and coming up with fun, creative concepts like that again, ok? That was probably my favorite dance of theirs.
I fear that because he has nothing else going on, he will always be around DWTS…..leading to the producers continuing to pimp him to a degree because they want to have a star that will stay loyal and stick around to promote the show and headline their tours and other money-making agendas and not leave/do competing dance tours, etc etc…… I will say if Rob Wade and Co start pimping him again next season, I might just be done. So sad, I have watched this show since Season 1.
Rose1, I think Rumer mentioned Broadway, not Val. I think Rumer would be great on Broadway, she can act, dance and sing. I think the C bros would be terrible at Broadway, they can’t seem to act anything well but ‘dark and sexy’ themes.
Suzy- agreed, shouldn’t it be someone else’s turn now Val?
@Rose1- There is no chance in hell for the C-bros to ever make it on Broadway unless they do a straight dance show. Putting aside the fact that they both don’t seem to have any acting chops, neither one of them can sing to save their lives. One of the most hilarious DWTS moments ever is when they did the Stevie Wonder karaoke segment. Val sounded like a tone deaf dying cat. And as for Maks, I was actually present for a humorous NYC karaoke bar performance from him once and let’s just say Val’s dying cat was better.
So I can see them maybe doing something like Burn the Floor again, but a full Broadway show like what Derek does? No way would they ever get cast.
Remember, hypocrite is a Chmerkovskiy middle name. 🙂
LOL #2. Of course Val has nothing else to do outside of DWTS. His Precious isn’t a guarantee he’s the “it” guy as he’s big ego might think. What is he going to do! Play violin in the Lincoln Center for Performing Arts? People in the entertainment business look beyond the mirrorball trophy. They look for true talent. He didn’t win fair and square. TPTB helped him reached that and based on his cry of “I have never won”. For now he might be interviewed here and there because of his Precious but a lot of people and entertainment outlet out there are still talking in awe of how awesome Derek and Julianne and Sia were. To me it speak more volume. Btw, wouldn’t it be nice to keep the MBT in gold color since the show passed their 10th year.
I totally agree with Derekluv on how that scenario went with Derek and Mark, they know how to choreograph incredible dances, unlike Val. The same happened in Season 18 with Maks, took Sharna and Charlie out the mix so he could win. It is not working so many of my friends quit watching the show because they saw all this early on. I totally agree it is such a plug for their summer tour, since Derek is in his own show. Funny, they had Alfonso tour all summer, it is a way to bring in the fans. This is a business and it is the money that counts not what they want or think. Val and Rumer had incredible marketing, it was a no brainer. She worked very hard and looked so elegant, but Val acted weird all season like had been coached.
It’s kinda like he felt he could coast. Derek, on the other hand, gets a ringer and he goes out of his way to create the hardest, most amazing routines imaginable.
This season, the difference between the two men couldn’t be more striking – and it’s not a good look on Val. Hell, even rewatching the coronation – Derek was right there, patting Val on the back and congratulating him (to which it certainly looked like Val responded “whatever”) and hugging Rumer. He was in the thick of the celebration (after hugging Riker and Allison of course). Just think back to Kellie and Zendaya’s season and the vitriol from DWM’s Twitter and Val skipping the post show media.
He will never go beyond DWTS. Poor thing.
I’m hoping he’s in for a real shock, Suzy, when next season there is little to no pimpage. There is no need to get him a win anymore.
Of course, if Derek isn’t there, the pimpage will certainly ramp up again and he’ll get yet another ringer – sure he will “happen” if Derek isn’t there, right?? LOL.
Yeah, Val’s a bit delusional. One MBT win – even if it had been on merit – is not going to open doors for him. It takes more than that.
As for those wanting to give Val more time to come into his choreo….he’s been at this for EIGHT seasons, not “a few seasons” that it took Derek and Mark. Seriously, If he was going to happen, he would have by now. I think the main problem is that he’s never truly had a challenging partner. The challenging partners are the ones that stimulate people like Derek to be even more creative – you don’t have a choice. Well, you do, actually – you can check out like Mark has in the past, as has Tony from time to time. But Mark, at least, then comes back with great choreo for a great partner. Val, on the other hand, has never been challenged so he’s never had to rise above and create something from little or nothing. As a result, even his choreo for his ringers is uninspired and boring. Derek got Joanna Krupa who was a typical model – stiff as a board. He figured out her strengths and figured out how to make her look good. But she was never a great dancer. She just LOOKED like one. Derek then came back the following season and absolutely killed it with Nicole. I think it’s the trials of partners like Joanna, Shannon, and Lil Kim that made Derek’s better partners look even more amazing.
Look at this http://www.mstarz.com/articles/68478/20150522/dwts-finale-demi-moore-shes-thank-rumer-willis-win-rumors.htm
I´m so sorry for Nastia, Willow and Riker. They had no chance
Sara, if what that article says is true (which I doubt…Radar online is a total tabloid. At the same time…nothing would surprise for the lengths this show will go anymore), it’s just sad.
@PHeidi
I couldn’t agree with you more.
And Val has to be challenged so his blind fans can see just how non-talented he really is; if they can get away from being foolish by drooling over the C brother masculinity. There is more to dancing and choreography than a person’s amount of masculinity. Val is going to get a rude awakening, because he can’t rely on looks forever. I am hoping for S-21 that he gets an obese woman or someone in the 50+ with no dance background. And, would like to see Derek doing the troupe choreography and participating in the dancing rather than have a celeb to teach, because of the stupid mindset of “but these pro or pros haven’t won yet.” Derek & celeb partner won’t get votes from the mediocre voters in that case. Just another season like this season. Nastia was incredible and a most unusual journey which didn’t stop her from progressing into the most radiant, versatile, beautiful and natural looking dancer on S-20. I don’t want to see anymore talented not being appreciated.
The thing that irritates me is that Nastia & Derek never pretended that Nastia wasn’t talented, instead they mentioned her gymnastic skills. But, Rumer & Val acted like Val taught her everything (every single move & form), and she mentioned he taught her everything, which was a BIG FAT LIE!!! I went to her Facebooks and looked through all of them and she has pictures of her in either black or red outfits dancing, some singing, some partying with a band she sang with. She is a trained singer, actor, and dancer and now I guess she is a “professional” dancer since she is going to be on stage a few times in the DWTS Tour this summer. So, TPTB, set this whole season up for this couple to win. They knew it too, and that’s why the cockiness throughout the season, and Val dis whatever song and dance style he felt like and no judge pointed anything out to him. He was the “chosen” one.
Rob Wade pushed things too far this season and many are quite disgusted. I am going to campaign for VAl to get a celeb partner that really challenges him for once, because he has been babied long enough.
Lil’ Kim has always been one of my favorite partners of Derek’s. Their Jailhouse Rock Jive is still, to this day, one of my favorite Jives ever on DWTS – and I think this dance still holds up in 2015. I remember for their Week 1 Cha-Cha Lil’ Kim did some kind of freestyle hip-hop moves in rehearsals, Derek noticed them and put them into their routine. He then later called her his “muse.” I think it was during this season where Derek learned to adapt to his partners’ strengths/weaknesses. Something I feel Val (and Maks and other pros) doesn’t do. It’s always like (to me), “this is the way I dance, and you’re going to dance like me. Period.”
That is an interesting article, Sara. Kind of explains why the whole Willis family got so much camera time on the show, if it is true.
Er, Sara, they are a minor blog citing Radar Online as their source. Hardly credible.
So true Jane. Derek is the master of adapting to match his partners and create pieces that are best for them. I think many of the other current and former pros are also good at this: Mark, Karina, Cheryl, Kym, Sharna for example. But Val is probably the worst at this- making all of his partners the same intense, fast, hard style that he has regardless of their personality and natural movement. Even Maks and Tony, who don’t choreograph well, could be soft or goofy with their partners when the dance style/music or their partners require it. The few times Val tries to go goofy or lighthearted, it looks extremely unnatural and fake.
As much as I wouldn’t be surprised that the show might have asked for her parents to be there as much as possible, I believe they are really supportive, that always seemed very genuine and this mstarz article/site looks like tabloid trash to me.
I´m just mad I invested time voting the whole season. Rumer and Val are probabbly the worst champions ever. Rumer is not Meryl. I mean Meryl was really elegant dancing. Rumer is not even famous if it weren´t beacuse of her parents. At least Alfonso was popular. Worst champions ever.
Yo, that’s probably the worst class behavior from a pro I’ve ever seen win DWTS. I mean, Maks and Tony weren’t good either, but Val took it to a whole new level this season. I’m not blaming their partners, all their partners I think weren’t like bad, rude people or anything like that, it’s the pro. It makes it even more so annoying that he tries to make it seem as if this is the most important win in DWTS history- probably the worst pro win ever. Then he goes on to insult Riker and Nastia even more. TPQH, I think RUMER had way more edge over Nastia or Riker starting this entire season. Interesting how he pulls Nastia instead of Noah, and goes on to insult her more even AFTER the “Pros give constructive criticism to celeb semi finalists” episode. I guess his “apology” wasn’t meaningful at all. Guy really doesn’t learn doesn’t he?
I find is super interesting how Val was the one to be pushed for? Ha-ha, now that there’s a win there, he doesn’t need to win for like at least another 12 seasons (a la Mark hasn’t 🙁 ) or ever. More so, if he is still on there for another 12 seasons without any major thing, I am going to start to seriously question that guy’s future?
Next season, I’ll really like to see Emma or Sharna, or even Mark or one of those pros take it far. I’m really not interested in this manipulation business, although I know it’ll always be there, but i think there are pros who deserve it way more, and sheesh, give some respect to Derek if he returns.
Now i knw Derek does not like the judging gig but it wud sooooooo sweet 2 c Derek return as a judge 4r a whole season in place of Len tat would be a sweet spot nd the look on vals face every week would be precious. Sigh… I can only dream
Didn’t Maks do Forever Tango a couple of times with Karina?
Derek has too much class, he would be very courteous to Val, unlike Maks who showed his insecurity while judging Amber
Derek is a professional in all ways. But I guess Val would be so upset if that happens… LOL
Val coming back to DWTS? DAMN!!! Wonder what his sob story is gonna be next season for winning another MBT. I saw on ET that Maks said he is open to returning to DWTS in another capacity other than dancing. Guess his movie career is not working out the way he wants it to….AGAIN. And if his sorry attempt to imitate Clint Eastwood in that ET interview is any indication of his acting skills, I can see why it’s not panning out for him. I don’t think he should be a judge. His bro is there, his GF Peta is there, and he is friends with 1/2 the pros on there. Sometimes I feel like DWTS is becoming a Chmerkovskiy show with all the pro dancer connections and such. I remember at one time during the DWTS show history, all the troupe dancers were his people. Until the producers put a stop to it and got rid of them, which I am sure went over well with Maks. Should be interesting what happens next season.
I knw Derek would be super classy and very fair I was just thinking of val and his fans he he he he they wud go mad ha ha
@Darlene: I can picture the sob story now lol. “I want more mirror balls than my big brother”. I figured he would come back but honestly I really hope he comes back with a better attitude.
Yeah, Maks is open to returning. He was open to being a judge, yet who is sitting on the panel? Julianne. There is NO WAY Maks should ever be a judge – he could never judge the way Julianne does. I also think some of the time during her first season Julianne was harder on Derek because he’s her brother, and she rarely complimented his choreo. But she improved this season and wasn’t as hard on Derek and didn’t go out of her way to show she wasn’t biased against Val like she did her first season. Maks would NEVER be able to criticize either Val or Tony…or Artem for that matter. The women he probably could, because he seems like that type. He’d be up Val’s ass every week praising the choreo that has become a derivative of his own, complete with longing stares and a lot of walking.
To begin, it is unfortunately within the realm of possibility that upon returning for season 21, Val’s argument would be that his mother insists on a matched pair of MBT’s. Just sayin’.
Now that that’s out of the way, I wanted to mention something I observed about Val last season. I think you all probably remember at Halloween when Sasha hid inside the (fake) refrigerator at the studio and scared the crap out of pretty much everyone. Except Val. He opened the frig, and without as much as a flinch, then closed the door, turned and walked away muttering to himself. Personally, I don’t think this means that Val is exceptionally brave. To me it says something about his energy, which seems flat and (by definition) unresponsive. I think that’s a lot of who he is. The most animated and engaged I saw him this season was first, when talking to Bruce Willis, and second, when hoisting the MBT. These two things fed his judgments about prestige and success. I don’t think we really ever get to see Val spontaneously responding to the moment. He doesn’t seem to be wired that way.
I really do not want to have to look at Maks on the judging panel every week, but I have to say I fast forwarded the bulk of last season’s judging so it would be pretty much the same for me one way or the other. I do agree with PH that he could not judge fairly though, simply because he sees the fam members as an extension of himself. His social media activity during the finale showed exactly why he is not cut out for the job. Maybe I missed it, but I did not see ONE positive word for any of the other contestants. Me, me, me.
I had no doubt Val would return and fully expect to see him with yet another ringer.
Yeah Rose1, Val’s win was all about Maks and DWM and what it would do for them. I was like, wow – you really think Val winning will do all that? How sad that you need it to.
Now they can say that all 3 owners of DWM Studios are also MirrorBall Champs
#46 Kelly
I actually stumbled upon a tweet from the Sway tour that basically list Peta, Tony, Rumer, Val, Maks, and Meryl with a trophy icon next to each name, and says something like “we have all won! plus 25 other great dancers on our tour!”. What I found funny is that the way it seems oh-so-special for them to win one for each while Derek alone has five. Five and an Emmy. Lol.
Now excuse me while I’m laughing at all Val’s stans that say “But who got the Golden MBT again?”, and maybe I’ll reply with “And who gets the Golden Emmy again?” lol.
#strictlydaniel – I saw that and petunalty laughed that Peta won hers first before any of those yahoos lol
Yes Megan. As much as I don’t agree with the Donald/Peta result. It only took her two seasons to win
I don’t get why Val’s stans think that the MBT from this season is somehow more special than any of the FIVE that Derek has. Are they stupid? Don’t they get that it was painted a different color because it was the 10 year anniversary and had nothing to do with Val at all??
I’m going to go with stupid. The only MBT that could be called special is the All Star Seasons – but even that can’t be called special because a previous winner didn’t win it. You can’t be the Champion of Champions if you were never a champion to begin with. DWTS ruined that one by allowing non winners to participate.
I feel like Peta’s win was a valid one, too. They had some great dances and Donald was well invested. Before she dance with Tommy I would have given more credit to Donald than Peta – but she did great with Tommy.
Donald and Peta were a great team and they did what they did without any assistance from the producers and the judges. And I agree Heidi, I always liked Peta but seeing her with Tommy shows what she truly was capable of. I’m also glad this season showed what Sharna was capable of too. What a novel concept… Lol
PH, what are your thoughts about the final ratings. I read the Monday night finals was down 15% from last season and Tuesday night finale was 23% down. It had around 13.3 million viewers. I don’t think any finale ever dipped below 15 million. Isn’t that bad?
Not only did they have “no assistance” from TPTB, I seem to recall that they were underscored a good bit of the time. That was the season of the massive pimping of Willy Levy. And the judges also loved Katherine. They didn’t care for Donald at all.
To bring it back around to Val, that was also the season that his partner, Sherri Shepherd, was totally busted by Vogue who found photos of her at DWM taking lessons before the season started. Said photos mysteriously disappeared from the web site not long after. 🙂
I think that it’s wrong to compare this season to last season. You have to compare to last Spring to see how it’s really doing. Fall and Spring seasons have very different things to deal with in terms of competition. I seem to recall from my previous research that the spring season is always lower in terms of ratings. It’s spring – people go outside.
I haven’t looked at the ratings in depth, so I don’t know what the answer is, but as long as it’s still a top 10 show it’s not going anywhere.
To quote Val directly – he is returning because he is “contractually obligated” to do so. Don’t know what Derek & Mark have in their contracts, but it is obvious that they have been moving out in new directions. As a fan of the show & Val, I’m happy that Rumer & he won, but I don’t think that it supersedes the accomplishments of the previous 19 seasons; it just is what it is. Just because this highly produced show portrays individuals a certain way for dramatic effect does not mean that is who they really are. Hands down, I think that the standout in this season was Noah & Sharna’s beautiful choreography to show case them.
@PH You remember correctly about season 14. It was the first season I properly watched, and I just recently looked over this site’s archives for the season. The narrative seemed to be that Katherine was the most naturally talented dancer by miles (which was true,) William was ridiculously hot (not really my call to make) and therefore could do no wrong (false either way) and Donald was also there but just couldn’t excite the judges. Maria was one of the toughest people ever to do the show, fighting through huge pain to make ridiculous amounts of improvement to the point where she could hold her own against Katherine. Personally from about halfway I was hoping for Katherine and Maria as top 2 but the fact that Donald won, he absolutely earned it. The public chose him as their winner, the best you could say about TPTB is that they didn’t handicap him too much in the final. And Peta did a pretty great job with him, in fact it’s hard to pinpoint a time she’s done a particularly bad job on the show. She’s not the most likeable pro there by a long shot but she’s talented and well-suited for the show. Can’t complain.
Season 14 feels like so long ago, but some of the games are still the same. The pimping of William Levy was terrible. They were also so harsh on Donald, but it was obvious that he had a lot of fan support so I can only guess they were trying to make it a “contest”. Although Katherine was great, Donald definitely deserved that win. I did really enjoy his freestyle, too.
Wasn’t a fan of the showmance angle they tried to thrust on Maria and Derek, but otherwise I enjoyed their partnership quite a bit. Glad they never tried to do that with Derek again because it made me squirm.
Obviously, you can still do the show and move in other directions. I’m sure that Derek and Mark’s contracts are easier to get out of due to longevity and the ability to negotiate better terms, but being contractually obligated is an excuse for nothing.
They weren’t very successful the first time, Fig, because Derek and Maria made such a joke out of it. They sure had a good time making fun of it. It helped (or hurt) that they had so much natural chemistry together. But they winked (metaphorically) at the camera so much that only the most die hard shipper types really believed anything was going on.