DWTS Maksim Chmerkovskiy, “If I’m not back next season, it wasn’t up to me.”

Maks has written a new blog for TV Guide. He writes of Hope and his elimination and whether they had anything to do with not doing Jimmy Kimmel LIVE and Good Morning America afterwards which you can read on at the link as well as him thanking his fans. He also discusses the final three and what’s next for him including wanting to dance. He’s not planning to take a season off. If he’s not back next season, it wasn’t up to him. More from Maks below….

I think we have a great final three. I’ve become really close friends with Rob. I think he’s peaking at the perfect time. He’s a great guy, very easygoing. There’s no drama. He’s a cool kid. I wish him all the best. I also really, really like Ricki as a person. She and Val are even closer than she and I are. We’ve been to her house multiple times. I think anybody would be a fool not to root for J.R. given who he represents and how great he is. Everything about him screams Dancing winner. I’m kind of torn. This is the one of those times that I kind of don’t envy, I guess, the fans that have to choose who to root for. It’s a tough decision. I’ve been fortunate to have had that much support that I was in the semis for four seasons straight. I consider myself lucky to have such great fans. I just hope I’ve made them proud.

What’s next for me? I have no immediate plans at the moment. I’m not even sure if we’re going to be at the finale! Hope had to leave and take care of some personal things she had been putting on hold. I have no idea what’s going on. Wednesday was my first day of calmness and normality. I didn’t have to set my alarm for the first time in three months and I jumped out of bed at 8:30 going thinking I had something to do, but I didn’t! No rehearsals, no interviews, nothing! Sometimes it’s hard to let go after a season, but I’m looking forward to some time off.

I don’t think I’m planning anything. I think for once I’ll let others do the planning. I just want to enjoy my time off. There’s been controversy this season with what I say. I feel like I get in trouble because I try to explain myself in detail and it turns out people don’t want explanations. Our job as entertainers is to dance and smile and be happy. You open up yourself entirely to the world to be judged. One thing that I feel like I want to do is if I do open myself like this and allow people to judge me is to make sure my conscience is clear as far as saying my piece and making sure I was clear with my message. If after that some people disagree with my message, I have no hard feelings. I want to make sure looking back at this years from now, I was clear, expressive, smiling because I want to be and not smiling because I have to be. We’re given a platform to express ourselves, but we’re not allowed to express ourselves. What is that about that? It is a business and like any business you have to do certain things to work and I’ve done it. But I’ve been myself. Some people send me articles or some people tweet me nasty stuff. It does hurt sometimes, but it is what it is. There’s something about being politically correct that I have a problem with. For a while, I couldn’t pinpoint why I disagreed with it, but I realized people don’t like politicians because we feel like they sometimes represent an idea and not necessarily us and so why would I try to be politically correct? Why would I not try to be me? I just want to make sure whatever I do I do wholeheartedly and I have my best intentions in mind. At the end of the day, looking back, I can sleep well at night knowing that I was honest and true.

As far as next season, I’m not thinking about that at all. I just don’t know how far ahead I can plan right now. There were developments before this season that affected my decision. During the season, there were some developments that kept me thinking about what I should do. I’ll try to do what’s right for my personal future. I’m sorry if that sounds selfish. But I will absolutely take into consideration my fans and what they want. I can say that at this point, I don’t plan on taking any seasons off. If I’m not back next season, it wasn’t up to me. And if I do change my mind and want to take a break, I’ll announce it. That’s as much as I can do.

I don’t know what to think of the above words, but, right now, I think it might do him a world of good to have a season off to really think about things and how they went down this Season. I do think Maks is misunderstood a lot. However, so many things he did this season are hard to get past? As a big Maks fan, it makes me sad. 🙁 Can I get past how I feel about him right now? It’s up to him. He has some growing to do (as we all do in our lives at times). I know one thing… I’d like to see the Maks come back that we saw last season.

Adding: Below are some cool new pics of Maks! He made a visit to the Children’s Hospital in Los Angeles today to deliver toys and books to the children participating in dance therapy. He danced and interacted in the Mark Taper-Johnny Mercer Artists Program which brings a wide array of arts experiences to critically and chronically ill children, teens, and families. The donated toys were collected by Cost Plus World Market as a part of the Share the Joy program. You view even more photos at Wire Image.