Cheryl Burke Talks On Her Worst Partner On Dancing With The Stars
Cheryl Burke talks on her worst partner on Dancing With The Stars. She even begged producers to eliminate her early. Want to take a guess who it is before you listen below? E Online also has an article about it. This interview in full will be released on iTunes in a Podcast on Tuesday for those interested.
ETA: Cheryl has issued an apology via her twitter account. Sobering words. It takes a great deal of maturity to admit a mistake and apologize in such a public manner. That puts her quite a bit ahead of others connected to this show. I’m sorry I didn’t even clue in on part that she’s apologizing for. Food for thought on that particular phrase. ~Heidi
It kind of makes me sad to see a pro dis a former partner but I suppose it’s really hard to keep your mouth shut about a very difficult one.
Some year I imagine there could be all kinds of tell all from this show, from celebs, pros, production staff…
His true colours came out during celebrity apprentice, hers came ou now. No matter what happened, there are certain things you should never talk about.
Ditto to the both of you!
I agree. Cheryl would have been better off side-stepping that question. Not only does it make her look tacky (in my opinion) but it’s not a smart move professionally. Those comments might come back to bite her down the road. You never know where your next job opportunity might come from.
Well. I’ve always run hot and cold on Cheryl. Sometimes I think she’s amazing and then other times I’m like “oh no.” I guess this doesn’t surprise me as I often think she’s said stuff that’s perhaps better left unsaid. Most of the time I appreciate candor, but in the case of Maks, Val (two others who talk way too much) and now Cheryl – people, this is just unprofessional. You worked with this guy! One of the first things you learn in MY profession is that you don’t talk shit (Publicly) about your past employers or coworkers. People won’t HIRE you in the future if they hear you do it because they don’t want to be the recipient of the trash talk in the future. It’s just a bad plan all the way around.
That said, in Hollywood if you’re AMAZING it seems they over look alot. But the question is: Is Cheryl? As anything other than a dancer? It’s early too tell that yet and who knows what position Ian will be in, in the future??
Unfortunately, I think this interview speaks more for Cheryl’s character than EYE-AN’s – even though I do have empathy for someone that has to endure an intolerable ass and smile for the cameras while it’s happening.
So while I can totally appreciate the difficulty of that awful situation, I also think Cheryl is kind of an attention-monger. Sure, she uses it smartly – drops hints or admits to affairs to promote her book – I think sometimes she just wants to make sure she stays in the spotlight – good or bad. Not that this is a unique quality in Hollywood, haha – but is she even promoting anything right now? At least in the past these kind of gossipy confessionals were timed just right. Now I’m afraid it’s happening just so she stays relevant?
Anyway, as someone that likes juicy behind-the-scenes stuff, this is interesting to know she wanted to back out. But much more than that, I appreciate and respect when someone chooses to keep their mouth shut and show smarts, tact, and goodwill.
She could probably have been a little nicer about it but I do like hearing these little tidbits. It’s like last season with Mark and Alexa, I think there was definitely something off but Mark chose not to talk about it and probably never will. It’s probably best that he didn’t and doesn’t talk about it but I’m nosey. I remember the the drama with Hope and Maks but I don’t remember Val talking bad about a past partner, I guess I missed that somewhere.
I completely agree with the comments above yet at the same time don’t have a problem (and find it actually kind of refreshing) to see someone offer a simple name and maybe citing of personality differences. For her own sake, it might have been wise to have stopped short of the wrist slit and early elim elaborations. Jess’ comments above have me wondering what kind of confidentiality/such clause the cast and production staff have on certain matters and if there would be any breach for a tellall or even answering a question such as this.
Tony is the worst about dissing his former partners. I’m surprised Cheryl did this.
Known fact she is my favorite past female pro on the show ever (peta is my fav current female pro) so it pains me to say that this just seemed classless. Yeah he is a bit of a talker and into himself and more annoying than words can express but am I really supposed to Believe that d l hughley was more enjoyable to be around than him? Or Chad ochocino? This is why I love certain pros and not others. You wouldn’t see Derek, Mark, Anna, Lindsay, peta…well basically anyone but maks (didn’t he say Kirstie alley doesn’t talk to him anymore? Like we needed to know that) and Tony say anything like this and now to add her to that list is just sad.
Sidenote: I know people who pronounce it the same way (eye-an) and I think its only certain nationalities that do it (out of the three I know two have parents that came from Israel and the other is Hungarian).
Yeah, probably not the classiest move by Cheryl, but I can’t say it’s entirely unexpected – she threw some mild shade Drew Carey’s way last summer, and I just tend to get the impression that she has entirely washed her hands of DWTS and has no intention of returning…which is probably why she’s got no issues with spilling the tea on her former partners. But seriously – Ian was her worst partner? I find that hard to believe, with D.L. being just godawful and having a sh*t attitude. Even if Ian was an egomaniac, at least he was a decent dancer and gave her something to work with. Then again, maybe he was on-par with all-stars Gilles, in which case – then ok, I believe that he may have been her worst partner. But I didn’t ever get the impression from Ian’s packages that he was THAT bad…
You know I think she could have said it all differently and still got the point across if she just HAD to. Saying something to the effect of….my most challenging season was….and then say DWTS does work hard to match compatible personalities but some times they miss the mark…I had personal things going on, he had personal things going on. Adding the just general strain of the season made it rough and I’m sure he would tell you the same thing. But we survived and made it through. That answers the question and doesn’t completely throw her partner under the bus. She needed to show some tact and class. She was the pro being paid good money to teach a non dancer celebrity how to dance. It’s not life or death, be grateful and get a grip!!!
Well, Mandi, there’s the whole Janell thing on twitter, but I was thinking about him talking too much in general.
I don’t think DWTS would take her back, with her NBC contract – but I’m afraid she didn’t think clearly before talking. This sort of thing is okay for an A-lister (barely), but she could be limiting her job opportunities in the future with ANYONE.
All I know as someone who has been in the position of hiring, nowadays, when someone applies, we look at social media before even interviewing and if you have dissed (particularly by name or with a good description) former employers and co-workers, you won’t get that interview. One of the big downs sides on social media is that it’s out there forever and it’s pretty easy to find things. If you bad mouth people, we’re not interested. I’ve learned to be careful what you say and who you say it to, the world is a lot smaller than you think and things from the past can definitely come back and bite you in the butt! cheryl may regret being so candid at some point in the future.
Yup, this is one of the reasons that I appreciate the positive pros like Derek, Emma, Lindsay and Sasha. And I tend to like the “stars” who are having fun, not meltdowns. I totally expect EVERYONE to explode under the stresses of this reality show at least once a season, if not more. But I love partnerships like Kim/Sasha, Kellie/Derek and Paula Deen/Mark where the pair are really working well together and enhancing the experience for one another and the audience.
Actually, Marla/Tony, Paige/Mark, Nyle/Peta and Wanya/Lindsay seem to be bringing the best out of one another while enjoying DWTS together too making this a fascinating season.
In reality, its a tacky move…. But the other side of me thats way too interested in the tea people spill on this show…. I find this highly interesting. I often wonder what the pros think about their partners. Especially when you see that they obviously don’t like them.
Ick, no. In so many ways. Cheap, tacky sellout move. There are times and places it might be appropriate to express a personality clash, but a press interview is not one of them. After having done 18 seasons of the show, there’s no way she doesn’t know this is kinda gross, so I’m putting it down as she doesn’t care. On another topic, it’s been what, 9, 10 years since she was forced to dance with him, and now she chooses to get this out there. Why? I would never work with Cheryl now, which is unfortunate because I think she’s one of the most talented female pros the show has had
If you google DWTS right now, every outlet is reporting this story. Maybe it’s what she wanted
That doesn’t actually make it a smart move, Shim. How many people are reconsidering working with her now?
@Shim I think you’re right that this was what she wanted, in fact I’m almost sure it was, but she’s carrying on morphing into a Kardashian. It’s very much their approach to press. If you can’t do something good, do something memorable. I hate when talented people sell their souls.
Interesting…I did read this online yesterday and was wondering why she’d do that. I agree with Princess Heidi to some extent. Its really unprofessional, and I do love Cheryl,but honestly I don’t think she would do something like that all of a sudden for no reason at all. She’s very smart and knows the repercussions of saying something like that in the media…she’s dealt with the media for YEARS on the show, at least in my opinion.
I don’t think she has any malintent towards DWTS…I mean a few weeks ago she was on the red carpet talking about how they will always be her Family and you never know how she might come back in some way. This season more than ever she has REALLY been talking about DWTS a lot.
The only thing I could think of is maybe she wants to promote her show “Love on the Floor” or maybe she’s getting back at DWTS for something they may have prevented her from doing. Not 100% sure.
Interesting it came out just two days before DWTS switch up. Maybe she still has ties with them on the down low and needed some buzz/scandal around DWTS to get viewers to tune in, and maybe she’ll be the 3rd guest judge next week?! …. Wishful thinking? The conspiracy theorist in me had too much coffee today.
It was very interesting to hear Cheryl say that she asked the producers to eliminate them. It seems like she just got an outright “no” then. But I wonder what would happen these days is a favored pro just couldn’t take a certain celeb? I get that the official answer would still be “no” but they have their ways……….
I wonder if something happened between her and the TPTB recently. Just a month ago she expressed a wish to serve in any capacity to the show and now it seems like she is burning her bridges with them. I was a little shocked that she would say this about a celeb. All I could think of is that he might have done something really ugly to her because correct me if I am wrong, I think this is the first time I have heard her say something very negative about her partners in all these years?
@Cheryl L your strategy sounds like a good one. Giving a canned PR response/dodge doesn’t always work well if you don’t sell it. But saying “I would say my most challenging season was season 4 with Ian. He’s a very (fill in with some trait that isn’t too mean) kind of person while I’m a very (fill in with a not trait about her that isn’t 100% positive) kind of person, and we just didn’t mesh. It’s bound to happen sometimes with the pairings on the show,” sounds so much more diplomatic and doesn’t leave sound as bitter or trashy. It answers the question and doesn’t throw Ian under the bus and makes Cheryl look better than she did.
This just strikes me as the completely wrong kind of attention for Cheryl to want to get and I hope she course corrects.
I was thinking the same thing as Courtney re: being surprised at Ian being Cheryl’s pick. When Vogue posed the question in this post, Ialn wasn’t even in my top three guesses (keep in mind I haven’t seen him on Apprentice/outside of DWTS). I don’t remember much of their packages or dances but seem to remember them getting on okay and having passible dances. Just goes to show the power of editing I guess – and TPTB weren’t trying to screw with things back then – imagine the juryrig they’d do with this today.
There is definitely a professionalism chip missing. I mean, she could have dropped a name and left it at that but she kind of continued to go on.
It reminds me kind of the whole Maks vs. Karina thing, where Maks ran his mouth for years about her but she kept it classy and just didn’t say anything about it. There just has to be a level of professionalism in public but behind doors with close friends/family, is totally different.
@Ria, I wonder the same thing. Maybe she wanted to be a guest judge and promote her show “Love on the Floor” just like Julianne and Derek using the DWTS platform to promote “MOVE: Live on Tour.” Maks will be the guest judge this week and I am assuming he’ll def. promote his tour with Val before a commercial break or something. I could even see them playing the promo vid or have Val and Maks bicker a bit on air to promote the “rivalry” betw/ them for the tour
Maybe Cheryl just wanted to a 10 second spot live and sit in the audience and have Tom say hi on cam and ask her about her tour. I remember they did that with Julianne when she was in a movie or maybe the tour, can’t remember, but it was before she was a judge.
EYE-an was a real jerk on The Apprentice so the fact that she blurted his name out without any hesitation doesn’t surprise me in the least.
It seems so long ago that Cheryl was on the show. Time goes by so quickly.
See Cheryl’s twitter for a very sincere sounding apology. She apologized for an aspect of her comment that, I’m ashamed to say, went right past me: the reference to wanting to slit her wrists and how it makes light of suicide. I hadn’t thought of that aspect – and that is indeed the worst part of the comment.
Oh wow. Thanks for the update! It did sound sincere. I’m just baffled as to what prompted her to talk about him like that.
Still love Cheryl, I just hope it doesn’t hurt her. Her Twitter did go down from 420k followers to 419.8k …not definite if a direct result of this. ?
I’m embarrassed to say the suicide comment went by me. Even more embarrassed to say I’ve said on occasion “I’d put a bullet in my brain” when dealing with a bad situation. So I certainly got a rude awakening myself to not use expressions that can be so thoughtless and hurtful. That said, I really don’t think she should have named Ian. We’ve all worked with difficult people. A better way to answer it would’ve been “I’ve had lots of different partners with so many personalities, some were easier than others but overall it was a good run on the show.” I was taught to never trash talk your colleagues or burn your bridges. What goes around, comes around. Then again, over the years people have intimated she’s not that easy to get along with and some pros call her Meryl for Mean Cheryl. I also thought her comment on going to producers to get them off show was interesting. I remember that season, I’m sure Ian still had a decent 90210 fan base, in fact I think he was why Jennie Garyh then did show. But makes me wonder if in past producers have manipulated people out. Sean Avery immediately comes to mind….
In regards to talking bad about the show, I’m less worried about Cheryl’s career & more concerned about how it affects people considering doing DWTS in the future. It would make me weary to do the show if I thought my partner was going to bad talk me at some point. I know it’s good “stories” but not good DWTS promo…
I’m glad she apologized. I like Cheryl, but as someone who has suffered from depression/anxiety in the past, the comment about slitting her wrists over something as simple as a partner on a reality tv show made me a tad bit uncomfortable. I’m sure she wasn’t lying about Ian being her least favorite partner/hard to work with though. I would imagine there have been a handful of celebrities that have been hard to work with on the show in the past. However, it’s sort of their job to do the best they can with whomever they are given.
I would imagine it’s quite easy to let inappropriate stuff slip out when talking in a format like a podcast, radio, etc..
You want to be entertaining and breezy and sometimes you can be prompted to let things fly. In Cheryl’s case, her mouth got ahead of her brain.
It’s very good to read her apology. She seems genuinely contrite and mature about it.
It takes a big person to apologize. I think we’ve all been there in regretting something we might have said. Anyway, I forgive her.
I’m a suicide survivor, but it’s been 10 years for me. Because it’s been so long, it’s strange to say, but comments like that don’t always register with me and Cheryl’s didn’t actually. Back when my suicide attempts were more recent, comments like hers really did hit me hard though and made me feel shame and many other bad feelings, so just because it didn’t really hit me doesn’t mean her comment wasn’t damaging to other survivors or those who have suicidal thoughts. I commend Cheryl, though, for unequivocally owning her mistake. She didn’t talk around it or say “I’m sorry but….” she was very direct.
I still don’t think what she said (excluding the slit wrists comment since she apologized) was a really good idea for Cheryl to say. It just doesn’t seem very professional or like it would help her career in the long run. It has garnered some attention for her, but when that fades in the next day or so is she really in a better position career-wise than before she said it? I don’t necessarily think so.
This is one of those times that “Heidi the nitpicker” has to address one of her pet peeves. I’m sorry in advance Summer…but it’s “wary”, not “weary”. Wary is cautious and weary is tired.
It is interesting that she went out of her way to apologize for the suicide reference but in NO WAY apologized for her comments about Ian. 🙂
I appreciate your perspective, Laura. Glad it’s very much in the past for you.
You are right – I also don’t think it was a good idea. And I don’t think it will do her any good in the long run.
Good for her for apologizing for that part of her interview. She should have. But she shoul have apologized for what she said about Ian. So unprofessional. She wouldn’t even have to walk back her statements. Apologize to him, say while the season was challenging, I should have kept those comments to myself. My mouth got ahead of my brain and I apologize to Ian for making those comments public. Her apology should have included that. Doesn’t matter what kind of a jerk or worse he was, she was the pro and her celebrity deserved better than this. So good for her for saying this but she needed to go farther in my opinion.
You’ve got a point there PH! It seems like he can’t help himself sometimes.
I’ve never been a huge fan of Cheryl but when she did that special about her abuse I started following her on twitter. It seems so weird that she would say something about Ian now. I did find it funny that she never apologized for her comments about him.
now that’s the Cheryl we know and love. I’ll chalk it up to a momentary lapse of judgment.
Hit submit too early: I still feel like she should apologize to Ian too though.
I always enjoyed Cheryl’s dances and choreograph style, but she has definitely left herself wide upon to negativity affect to any future prospect that might have benefited. It’s like a betrayal toward the celebs that come on the show. Cheryl made a remark back in the last DWTS season she was on when she said, “Derek doesn’t need 6 balls.” When a pro speaks negativity about another pro on the cast, it’s bad sportsmanship to me and not cool.
Cheryl has apologized in an open memo on Twitter.
However, I miss Cheryl on DWTS. I was hoping one day she would return as a fill-in judge
Did you not READ THE POST Justine?? It’s been updated to reflect that. Now go away until you’ve read.
If you can read, Justine, then why didn’t you? Get real.